Hezekiah's Tunnel:
The Gihon Springs to the Pool of Siloam
Galyn and Toni walk through Hezekiah's Tunnel.
They are walking in the water that flows from the Gihon Springs through Hezekiah's Tunnel into the Pool of Siloam.
The City of Jerusalem was originally settled because of the natural water source at the Gihon Springs. Jerusalem was settled before the time of David dating back into the 14th chapter of Genesis where Melchizedek is the king of the city called Salem.
David conquered the city of Jebus, the Jebusite city and made it the capital of Israel.
Here are the guard towers that would have been built to protect the water source called the Gihon Springs.
This tower protectected the pool that formed by the Gihon Springs.
The pool was below and to the left of the tower in this photo.
Notice the illustration of the tower with the City of David in the back ground hanging above the remains of the tower. This gives us an idea what the tower would have looked like.
This is the remains of the front tower.
David took the city by telling his army that the only way to enter the fortified city was through the water shaft the Jebusites had cut.
The Jebusites had made an underground passage way for the public to descend in. This public tunnel led to a shaft that served as a well to lower buckets in to draw water up from the Gihon Springs. (Seen here as the Brown channel.
1 Chronicles 11:6 says that Joab led David's men into the Gihon Springs, shimmied up the shaft to reach the underground public tunnel. From there they stormed the city.
Concerning David Taking Jerusalem from the Jebusites, the Bible Says:
"The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there.
The Jebusites said to David, 'You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.'
They thought, 'David cannot get in here.'
Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David.
On that day, David said,
'Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water
shaft to reach those 'lame and blind' who are David's enemies.'
David then took up residence in the fortress and c alled it the City of David."
Second Samuel 5:6-8
As we walk into the Gihon springs towards Hezekiah's tunnel we see this shaft which would have given the city direct access to the water.
Hezekiah's Tunnel (the blue stream running underground) was a tunnel chipped out by Hezekiah's men around the year 701 BC. Large groups of Israelites had fled the northern kingdom because of the Assyrians. They moved to Jerusalem. The tunnel was cut by Hezekiah to provide water to these people on the other side of the ridge of the city and to ensure the city had water when the Assyrians invaded Judah and Jerusalem.
Hezekiah's tunnel is 1,750 feet long (or, about a third of a mile, or 583 yards)
The Bible records in Second Chronicles 32:30: "It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled
the water down to the west side of teh City of David."
Second Chronicles 32:2-4 says that Hezekiah had blocked off the Gihon's springs flow to pools
and streams outside the city so that when the Assyrians came they would not find any water
around the outside of the city. This water was then diverted into Hezekiah's tunnel that ran
under the city into the new pool called the Pool of Siloam. The Bible reads:
"When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to
make war on Jerusalem, he consulted with his officials and military staff
about blocking off the water from the springs
outside the city, and they helped him. A large force of men assembled,
and they blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land.
'Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?' they asked."
Here is the inside of Hezekiah's tunnel that we walked through from the Gihon Springs to the Pool of Siloam.
An inscription was found on these walls that was carved in by those men of Hezekiah's that had dug through the rocks. It says:
An inscriptions was found in this tunnel that read as seen below:
"The tunneling was completed. . .
While the hewers wielded the ax, each man toward his fellow. . .
there was heard a man's voice calling to his fellow. . .
the hewers hacked each toward the other, ax against ax,
and the water flowed from the spring to the pool, a distance of 1,200 cubits."
Galyn Wiemers walking under the City of David through the bedrock of the city in the tunnel dug by the men in Hezekiah's day around 701 BC. (2 Chr. 32:30)
Notice the water flowing along the floor of Hezekiah's tunnel
Water flowing in the Tunnel
Pick marks remain in the wall from 701 BC
Pick marks from the construction of Hezekiah's tunnel
The water level drops about 2 feet from the Gihon Springs to the Pool of Siloam. Here you can see the ceiling of the tunnel is much higher than it was earlier.
Galyn in the water at the end of Hezekiah's tunnel. This channel of water was formerly thought to be the Pool of Siloam.
In 2004 large stone steps further down the water flow were found. By 2005 the new site for the original Pool of Siloam had clearly been discovered
The traditional site of the Pool of Siloam which in 2004-05 was discovered to be a channel to continue the flow of water to a much larger pool.
This is a drawing of what the newly discovered pool would have looked like.
When you see the pictures below you will be able to see a couple more levels of steps that go down into the water.
