The Pool of Siloah/Siloam (Ne.3:15; Jn.9:7), or Upper Pool (2Kgs.18:17; Is.7:3;36:2), or the King's Pool (Nehemiah.2:14), was built by Ezechias "between the two walls" (Isaiah.22:11), to bring into the city through an underground conduit, the Siloah tunnel, the water of Gihon.
The Siloah tunnel, or Hezekiah's tunnel, is a tunnel that was dug underneath the City of David in Jerusalem. It dates from the reign of Hezekiah of Judah (late 8th & early 7th century BCE) & corresponds to the waterworks mentioned in 2Kings.20:20 in the Bible. According to the Bible, King Hezekiah prepared Jerusalem for an impending siege by the Assyrians, by "blocking the source of the waters of the upper Gihon, & leading them straight down on the west to the City of David" (2Chronicles.32).
The pool in the Tyropoean Valley, was just outside the south wall of Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ gave sight to the man born blind (John.9:1-7). Thanks to the excavations of Mr. Bliss and others, the identification of the present pool with the Siloah of Isaiah.8:6 and John.9:7 is now beyond any doubt.
Near the traditional pool (birket Silwan), Mr. Bliss found in 1896 the ruins of an ancient basin, 75 ft. north and south by 78 ft. east and west and 18 ft. deep, on the north side of which was a church with a nave. The pool connects with "the upper source of the waters of Gihon" (2Chronicles.32:30) by a subterranean conduit (2Kings.18:17), called "the king's aqueduct" (Ezra.2:14), 600 yards long, the fall of which is so slight that the water runs very gently; hence Isaiah.8:6 compares the House of David to "the waters of Siloah, that go with silence".
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Jesus healing the born blind |
Inner side of Hezekiah's Tunnel |
In 1880 the excavations of the German Palestinian Society uncovered in the Siloah pool near the outflow of the canal an inscription, which is, excepting the Mesa stone, the oldest specimen of Hebrew writing, probably in the 700B.C. The tower "in Siloah", (Luke.13:4) Was probably a part of the near-by city wall, as Mr. Bliss's excavations show that the pool had given its name to the whole vicinity; hence "the gate of the fountain" (Nehemiah.2:14).
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The Pool of Siloah, entrance of the Hezekiah's Tunnel |