Summary: The famous, biblical Pool of Siloam will finally be revealed for the first time in a full excavation and visitors are welcome to watch the process.
“Go,” he [Jesus] told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam.” So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. – John 9:7 (NIV)
Famous Pool of Siloam Undergoing Full Excavation
One of Jerusalem’s most famous archeological sites, the biblical Pool of Siloam, will undergo a full excavation for the first time and be opened to the public, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced last month. Currently, only the northern side and a small part of the eastern side are exposed.
The Pool of Siloam is significant in the Bible in both Old and New Testaments. 2 Kings 20:20 describes how it was first built about 2,700 years ago by King Hezekiah as part of the city’s water system and the Gospel of John gives the incredible account of Jesus healing a blind man at the pool.
“For the first time in modern history, the excavation by the IAA will enable the complete exposure of the Pool of Siloam, within the context of an official archaeological excavation. In the first stage, visitors will be able to observe the archaeological excavations, and in the coming months the Pool of Siloam will be opened for tourist access, as a part of a route that will begin at the southernmost point in the City of David and culminate at the steps of the Western Wall,” according to the IAA’s announcement.
The Pool of Siloam excavation project is located within the Jerusalem Walls National Park and will be sponsored by the City of David Foundation, an organization supporting education, tourism, archeological excursions and land purchases in East Jerusalem in an effort to establish a Jewish presence in an area mainly occupied by Palestinians today.
The Discovery of Pilgrim’s Road in Jerusalem
The excavation site will be added to “Pilgrim’s Road” or “Pilgrimage Road” which was first uncovered in 2019 in the City of David, the earliest Jewish settlement in Jerusalem. The ancient walkway ascends from the Pool of Siloam, near the southern edge of the City of David, up to the Western Wall near the top of the Temple Mount. Political challenges are involved because much of this territory is within the current borders of the Palestinian village of Silwan, a hilltop enclave with a population of 40,000 people.
The Pilgrim’s Road was taken by millions of Jewish people and other visitors on their way up to the Temple in the first century AD. Most of these pilgrims came in obedience to the command to gather for the worship of Israel’s God at this central religious center during the three high holidays of the Jewish year – Passover in the spring, Shavuot (the “Feast of Weeks” or “First Fruits” or “Pentecost”) 50 days later, and Sukkot (the “Festival of Booths” or “Feast of Tabernacles”) in the fall. During the three pilgrimage festivals, every able Jewish male was required to make the trek to the Temple where sacrifices were offered.
The impressive broad roadway, with large 25-feet-wide stone paving slabs, was the main route leading from the Pool of Siloam where worshipers would ritually wash before going up the 700-yard climb to the Temple. The first excavations of the road began at the pool and, as the dig continued uphill, workers were forced to burrow underground beneath the busy Silwan neighborhood above, to reveal the buried stairway.
Archaeologists had to be creative in this difficult situation which required steel support beams to be installed every few feet to reinforce the ceiling above as workers dug horizontally in a tunnel-like fashion beneath the modern streets and houses.
“The discovery of the Pilgrimage Road was an unprecedented scientific feat of biblical proportions” “…Unlike most archaeological digs which begin from the ground down, this excavation was done subterraneously, beneath the hustle and bustle of modern Jerusalem,” wrote Doron Spielman, vice president of the City of David Foundation, in an op-ed in the Times of Israel.
“Dozens of fiber optic cable cameras were used to decipher where to excavate, while maps and diagrams made by archaeologists over the last century-and-a-half paved the way forward,” Spielman added.
The Long History of Siloam’s Pool
For more than 150 years, the Pool of Siloam has been “an archaeological and historical site of national and worldwide importance,” said the IAA. In 1880, the famous Siloam Inscription was discovered carved on the wall inside the water tunnel which led to the Pool of Siloam near the place where the Pilgrim’s Road began. The ancient Hebrew inscription, now on display in the Istanbul Archeological Museum in Turkey, records how the tunnel was constructed by digging from opposite ends and meeting in the middle.
In the 8th century BC, King Hezekiah built the 1,750-foot-long tunnel connecting the Gihon Spring with the Siloam Pool in an effort to block the water source from the invading Assyrians and direct it into Jerusalem.
As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? – 2 Kings 20:20a (NIV)
Excavations continued in the 1890s by F.J. Bliss and A.C. Dickey who led a group of British-American archeologists in uncovering some of the steps of the Pool of Siloam. Later in the 1960s, British archeologist Kathleen Kenyon also excavated the site, finding more steps.
In 2004, while repairing a sewage line, the Jerusalem Gihon Water Company exposed additional steps. Subsequently, the IAA began a systematic excavation uncovering the northern and some of the eastern side of the pool under the direction of Prof. Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron.
Shukron was also involved in another archaeological discovery related to the pool involving a tablet found in 2007 with an inscription containing King Hezekiah’s name. Shukron deciphered the tablet alongside Prof. Gershon Galil, head of the Institute for Biblical Studies and Ancient History at Haifa University in Israel. The inscription summarizes the first 17 years of Hezekiah’s reign and his accomplishments including the tunnel leading to the Siloam Pool.
These thrilling finds “support the claim that scriptures in the Book of Kings are based on texts originating from chronicles and royal inscriptions and that the Bible reflects historical reality and not imagination,” said Prof. Galil.
Excavations of the Pool of Siloam so far have revealed it to be 225 feet wide and that steps existed on at least three sides of it, allowing visitors to sit and immerse themselves in the water.
Due to the importance of the pool, it went through several building phases, being renovated and expanded in the late Second Temple period. The monumental aspects of Pilgrim’s Road leading to the pool were built over a period of about 10 years and were completed around AD 30 under the oversight of Roman governor Pontius Pilate, who is known for sentencing Jesus to crucifixion.
During this time, the Pool of Siloam reached its largest size, approximately 1.25 acres and was the city’s main water source. There is still much more excavation to be done to expose the entire area of the historic pool.
Jesus’ Miracle at the Pool of Siloam
At the time of Jesus, the Siloam Pool was a beautiful place covered in fine paving stones and was used as a ritual bath or mikveh for thousands of pilgrims who stopped there before continuing on Pilgrim’s Road through the City of David to the Temple.
It was here that Jesus performed a famous miracle. John the Apostle tells the spectacular account of Jesus healing a blind man at the Pool of Siloam in John 9.
As he [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. – John 9:1-7 (ESV)
Politics Involving the Pool of Siloam and Pilgrim’s Road
When it comes to Israel, every reality inevitably becomes entangled in politics and religion, with the question of who controls the land as a fundamental issue. Both sides have a list of grievances.
Israelis have long tied their claim to control of the Holy Land to their ancient historical connections there. At the focal point of Jerusalem, the pressure of these issues is amplified even more.
Some Palestinians have a history of trying to erase any Jewish connection to ancient Jerusalem. In some circles, they have even denied that there ever was a Jewish Temple atop the Temple Mount; an idea that would seem to be ridiculous in the face of all the historical and archaeological evidence, but an idea that has gained traction within the United Nations recently.
With continued strife, all sides of the debate have seemed to grow farther apart. Many see the endeavor to unearth the Siloam Pool and Pilgrim’s Road as part of the continuing effort to “Judaize” Jerusalem at the expense of the Palestinians. Archaeologists are also caught up on the different sides of this debate.
Part of the dispute involves claims that the tunneling has endangered lives and homes in the Muslim neighborhood above, and that the tunneling has strayed into the Temple Mount itself, which is off limits. It was determined in court that there was no evidence to substantiate either of these charges. The archaeologists have been working under the constant supervision of engineers to ensure the safety of all involved.
Conclusion
Regardless of one’s political views, the more substantial news here is archaeological in nature. Amazing treasures and knowledge are continually being unearthed in Jerusalem for all to see.
“The Pool of Siloam in the City of David National Park in Jerusalem, is a site of historic, national and international significance. After many years of anticipation, we will soon begin uncovering this important site and make it accessible to the millions of visitors and tourists who visit Jerusalem each year,” said Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion at the initiation of the Pool of Siloam archeological project.
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TOP PHOTO: The northern perimeter of the Pool of Siloam. (credit: Kidy Harati, City of David Archives)
