Page 18 - Holyland Magazine - 2009 Edition

Some 350 years later, during the Assyrian
siege of Jerusalem, the reigning King
Hezekiah (727-698 BCE) excavated a tunnel
to bring water from the Gihon spring to
within the walls of the city. The famous
Siloam inscription bears witness to this
extraordinary feat (II Kgs 20:20; II Chr
32:30). Discovered in 1880 by a boy who
was bathing in the spring, the inscription
is an engraving in the rock, describing the
meeting of the two groups of hewers who
had begun digging from opposite ends of
the tunnel. “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...”
With a flashlight in hand and the
appropriate footwear, this is one of the
most exciting tours of Jerusalem, following
the ancient waterway from its source to
the reservoir where Jesus healed a blind
man. (John 9:1-11).
THE AQUEDUCTS
As cities grew and new lifestyles were
introduced during the Hellenistic (332-67
18
Courtesy of Elad The Ir David Foundation
Max Richardsonconquests, new technologies allowed water
Above: The Shiloah spring flows from its source
under the stairs through Hezekiah's tunnel into
Jerusalem. Left: The secret passage of
Warren’s Shaft allowed the besieged population
to safely reach Jerusalem’s water reservoir.
BCE) and Roman (67 BCE-324 CE)
to be brought to the cities from distant
sources instead of requiring direct access
to a water source. The flowing water was
used for fountains, pools, public baths and
bathhouses, which required much more
water than local springs could supply.
The Romans mobilized military engineers
for the immense task of supplying enough
water to meet the ever-growing needs of
cities like Caesarea or Jerusalem. For
Jerusalem, several springs were diverted
into the large reservoirs of Solomon's Pools,
some 16 miles south of the city. Part of
the distance was covered by using open
channels, while other sections ran through
tunnels that traverse mountain ridges. The
Roman engineers used pipes to siphon the
water across valleys.
Jerusalem needed this supplementary water
supply primarily during pilgrimages to the
Temple when ritual baths and sacrifices
demanded large quantities of water. It was
during such a pilgrimage that Jesus was
brought to trial by the Roman Governor
Pontius Pilate, who showed his complete
insensitivity to Jewish customs by stealing
funds from the Temple in Jerusalem to
fund the building of an aqueduct
according to historians of the time, Philo
of Alexandria and Josephus Flavius.
Understanding the importance of wells,
cisterns, pools and aqueducts in their
geographical and biblical context can
teach us much about the landscape,
culture and environment from which
the immortal stories of the Bible
emerged.