Hezekiah’s Tunnel is also referred to as the Siloam Tunnel, a conduit for water supply that is a part of Jerusalem’s water system, it is said to be about 1750 feet long and runs under the City of David connecting Gihon’s Spring with the Siloam Pool. It is believed the tunnel was dug during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah in preparation for the attack from Sennacherib according to 2 Chronicles 32:2-4 and 2 Kings 20:20. According to Avraham Faust, A Note on Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the Siloam Inscription, an inscription was found in 1880 inside the tunnel about six to seven meters before the Siloam Pool. The inscription thought to indicate the dig occurred simultaneously, one team digging from the south and the other from the north. A few questions have been raised regarding the construction of the tunnel; the worker’s ability to maintain a slight angle, the location of the inscription is supposedly placed indicating where the two teams meet. The title of the inscription which reads “This is the story of the boring-through” and its placement in the tunnel refers to the last phase of the tunneling where contact is made between the two crews. Explaining the location of the inscription would be impossible had it not been where the event it describes took place. In Hezekiah’s Tunnel revisited by Allan Rabinowitz, Hezekiah’s purpose for taking on such a feat with his officers was to stop the water supply outside the city closing the outlets of the Gihon and redirecting the water down the west side of the City of David.
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According to Rabinowitz, Hezekiah wanted to redirect the Gihon Spring waters from the Kidron Valley to run under the hillside of the City of David into the pool with Jerusalem’s wall preventing the Assyrians from having access. “The tunnel which was discovered by Edward Robinson in 1838 can be walked through today from end to end.” According to Faust the “wall of the tunnel has a fine finish, straight ceilings and walls, containing markings that are believed to have been created after the pathway was cleared and the water began to flow through the city.” The height of the tunnel gets increasingly larger in the last section, although the bottom has a reasonable slope the ceiling remains consistently higher. Hezekiah’s Tunnel is considered “Jerusalem’s most impressive ancient water system.” The content of the inscription is important as it suggests for researchers that its location is the meeting place for the two tunneling groups. The article by William H. Shea, Jerusalem Under Siege: Did Sennacherib Attack Twice, “Riech-Shukron excavations have uncovered a massive tower over the Gihon Spring and another, possibly one of a pair, over an adjacent pool.” According to Shea “Hezekiah’s tunnel was dug around 701-688 B.C. to protect Jerusalem and its water supply from future Assyrian attacks.” The construction of a tunnel involves more than the use of ancient tools, it also involves understanding advanced fields, including engineering and architecture. The geological survey by D. Gill (1991; 1996) focuses on “the cutter’s ability to make their way inside the rock, he suggested an extremely long and sinuous natural dissolution channel or karstic crevice existed in the rock between the two ends of the tunnel.” The path of the tunnel is precisely constructed in an
According to Rabinowitz, Hezekiah wanted to redirect the Gihon Spring waters from the Kidron Valley to run under the hillside of the City of David into the pool with Jerusalem’s wall preventing the Assyrians from having access. “The tunnel which was discovered by Edward Robinson in 1838 can be walked through today from end to end.” According to Faust the “wall of the tunnel has a fine finish, straight ceilings and walls, containing markings that are believed to have been created after the pathway was cleared and the water began to flow through the city.” The height of the tunnel gets increasingly larger in the last section, although the bottom has a reasonable slope the ceiling remains consistently higher. Hezekiah’s Tunnel is considered “Jerusalem’s most impressive ancient water system.” The content of the inscription is important as it suggests for researchers that its location is the meeting place for the two tunneling groups. The article by William H. Shea, Jerusalem Under Siege: Did Sennacherib Attack Twice, “Riech-Shukron excavations have uncovered a massive tower over the Gihon Spring and another, possibly one of a pair, over an adjacent pool.” According to Shea “Hezekiah’s tunnel was dug around 701-688 B.C. to protect Jerusalem and its water supply from future Assyrian attacks.” The construction of a tunnel involves more than the use of ancient tools, it also involves understanding advanced fields, including engineering and architecture. The geological survey by D. Gill (1991; 1996) focuses on “the cutter’s ability to make their way inside the rock, he suggested an extremely long and sinuous natural dissolution channel or karstic crevice existed in the rock between the two ends of the tunnel.” The path of the tunnel is precisely constructed in an