Summer 91 - In 'Hezekiah's tunnel' (Hezekiah: r. 716/715-687/686 BC), City of David, Jerusalem
Atmospheric, no-one else was around, the gate was unlocked, I rolled up my pantlegs and walked through to the pool of Siloam.
- Update: I understand that this tunnel has become VERY popular with tourists in recent years (of course!), with tickets sold and scheduled visits in groups, so I feel lucky that I had it all to myself and that I could take my time and walk the length of it slowly and for free in '91. There was an iron gate with bars down some steps at the entrance which was open, there was no-one @ there nor in the tunnel, but there were some Palestinians, some kids and 2 or 3 adults, at the pool at the other end.
- Kings 20:20: "And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?"
- 2 Chronicles 32:30: "This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works."
- Most believe it was ordered dug at high speed from both ends by King Hezekiah to prepare for a siege and save Jerusalem from the Assyrians under Sennacherib in 701 BC who were en route south, diverting the city's water supply from the Gihon spring to the pool of Siloam within the walled city. It gets twisty in the middle at the 'meeting point' where the diggers were listening and digging toward the sound of hammers from the other end. But there's good evidence that Hezekiah had built a complex including a stepped passage, a shaft ('Warren's Shaft'), and the part of the tunnel (including the interesting 'twisty' section) which brought water from the spring to a point directly beneath the shaft, and that the rest (the part beyond the 'meeting point' and the shaft that leads to the pool of Siloam) was a Hasmonean project dug @ 400 yrs. later to protect the city from the Seleucids.
- Update: The pivotal period of the Assyrian campaign and the reign of Hezekiah is discussed from the 1:23:10 sec. pt. by Israel Finkelstein, Ronny Reich et al. and the tunnel is discussed and viewed from the 1:24:30 pt. in this fascinating video.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW-LV84c_O8
- Archaeologist Ronny Reich contradicts the theory that the western 1/2 of the tunnel was a more recent Hasmonean project on the basis of the similarity /b/ a plaque (or "the place that had been smoothed for a plaque") at the entrance to Tunnel IV from the Round Chamber of the rock-cut pool and the 'Siloam inscription' found at the pool of Siloam at the other western end of the tunnel. (Tunnel IV leads to the main tunnel where it joins Tunnel VI in something of a 'fork in the road' facing east. I don't recall this other tunnel which leads to a round chamber and rock-cut pool, as seen in the labyrinthine map in the link below.) This similarity /b/ the plaques supports a finding that "Tunnel IV marked the beginning of Hezekiah’s Tunnel, just as the Siloam Inscription marked its end" and which is evidence that the entire tunnel was dug continuously. However, "a house built on top of rubble fill, which blocked the entrance to Tunnel IV, was found in the Round Chamber. Some of the pottery in the fill under the house dates to the late 9th - early 8th cent. B.C. (Iron Age IIa) - which predates the time of Hezekiah by @ 100 years. Based on this pottery, Reich and Shukron date the house to the late 9th or early 8th cent. B.C. as well. Tunnel IV and Hezekiah’s Tunnel had to predate this house as debris underneath the house was used to block Tunnel IV. (See the map in the link below.) Additionally, if the 2 channels had not been dug, water would have continued to flow into the Rock-cut Pool, and the house would have been under water. On this basis, Reich and Shukron argue that Tunnel IV and Hezekiah’s Tunnel must have been constructed by one of Hezekiah’s predecessors, dating as early as the time of King Jehoash (835–801 B.C.) - a century before Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. Is Jehoash actually responsible for “Hezekiah’s” Tunnel?" [Update: The link below works and seems to be fine now, but when opening it a few years ago in @ 2022, Kaspersky warned me twice of a trojan virus download attempt. It's one thing to disagree with this analysis, but another to try to punish people who open the link.]: www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/j... This seems to contradict what Reich and Finkelstein have to say about the period of Hezekiah's reign in the documentary from 2016 in the link above, which postdates the article quoted directly above by 3 yr.s. - ??
- Some of the comments to the article in the link above could be instructive.: e.g. "Did King Hezekiah really build a tunnel into Jerusalem?
Hezekiah was a king of Judah in the late 8th cent. B.C.E., a time of conflict with the mighty Assyrian power. The Bible tells us that he did a great deal to protect Jerusalem and to secure its water supply. Among the works he undertook was the construction of a 533 m. long tunnel, or conduit, to bring springwater into the city. - 2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:1-7, 30.
In the 19th century, just such a tunnel was discovered. ... Inside the tunnel, an inscription was found that described the final phases of the tunnel’s excavation. The shape and form of the letters of this inscription lead most scholars to date it to the time of Hezekiah. A decade ago, however, some suggested that the tunnel was built @ 500 yr.s later. In 2003, a team of Israeli scientists published the results of their research aimed at fixing a reliable date for the tunnel. What conclusion did they reach?
Dr. Amos Frumkin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says: “The carbon-14 tests we carried out on organic material within the plaster of the Siloam Tunnel, and uranium-thorium dating of stalactites found in the tunnel, date it conclusively to Hezekiah’s era.” An article in the scientific journal Nature adds: “The 3 independent lines of evidence - radiometric dating, palaeography and the historical record - all converge on @ 700 BC, rendering the Siloam Tunnel the best-dated Iron-Age biblical structure thus far known.” wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200272697
- A good point: "... Do you ... think ancient scribes would write of a certain king (Hezekiah) building a tunnel in their most beloved book (to be read by other ancient people of the time), if it were not so? Anyone of ancient times would have known better, and would have also known who had it built."
- Another: "It’s quite common in building practice today to use excavated material from one site as fill in another; it’s cost-effective and efficient. If, as the article seems to suggest, the fill was used as foundational material for the structure (not derived from the structure), it’s not unreasonable to suppose the fill could include material that pre-dates the tunnel."
Summer 91 - In 'Hezekiah's tunnel' (Hezekiah: r. 716/715-687/686 BC), City of David, Jerusalem
Atmospheric, no-one else was around, the gate was unlocked, I rolled up my pantlegs and walked through to the pool of Siloam.
- Update: I understand that this tunnel has become VERY popular with tourists in recent years (of course!), with tickets sold and scheduled visits in groups, so I feel lucky that I had it all to myself and that I could take my time and walk the length of it slowly and for free in '91. There was an iron gate with bars down some steps at the entrance which was open, there was no-one @ there nor in the tunnel, but there were some Palestinians, some kids and 2 or 3 adults, at the pool at the other end.
- Kings 20:20: "And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?"
- 2 Chronicles 32:30: "This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works."
- Most believe it was ordered dug at high speed from both ends by King Hezekiah to prepare for a siege and save Jerusalem from the Assyrians under Sennacherib in 701 BC who were en route south, diverting the city's water supply from the Gihon spring to the pool of Siloam within the walled city. It gets twisty in the middle at the 'meeting point' where the diggers were listening and digging toward the sound of hammers from the other end. But there's good evidence that Hezekiah had built a complex including a stepped passage, a shaft ('Warren's Shaft'), and the part of the tunnel (including the interesting 'twisty' section) which brought water from the spring to a point directly beneath the shaft, and that the rest (the part beyond the 'meeting point' and the shaft that leads to the pool of Siloam) was a Hasmonean project dug @ 400 yrs. later to protect the city from the Seleucids.
- Update: The pivotal period of the Assyrian campaign and the reign of Hezekiah is discussed from the 1:23:10 sec. pt. by Israel Finkelstein, Ronny Reich et al. and the tunnel is discussed and viewed from the 1:24:30 pt. in this fascinating video.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW-LV84c_O8
- Archaeologist Ronny Reich contradicts the theory that the western 1/2 of the tunnel was a more recent Hasmonean project on the basis of the similarity /b/ a plaque (or "the place that had been smoothed for a plaque") at the entrance to Tunnel IV from the Round Chamber of the rock-cut pool and the 'Siloam inscription' found at the pool of Siloam at the other western end of the tunnel. (Tunnel IV leads to the main tunnel where it joins Tunnel VI in something of a 'fork in the road' facing east. I don't recall this other tunnel which leads to a round chamber and rock-cut pool, as seen in the labyrinthine map in the link below.) This similarity /b/ the plaques supports a finding that "Tunnel IV marked the beginning of Hezekiah’s Tunnel, just as the Siloam Inscription marked its end" and which is evidence that the entire tunnel was dug continuously. However, "a house built on top of rubble fill, which blocked the entrance to Tunnel IV, was found in the Round Chamber. Some of the pottery in the fill under the house dates to the late 9th - early 8th cent. B.C. (Iron Age IIa) - which predates the time of Hezekiah by @ 100 years. Based on this pottery, Reich and Shukron date the house to the late 9th or early 8th cent. B.C. as well. Tunnel IV and Hezekiah’s Tunnel had to predate this house as debris underneath the house was used to block Tunnel IV. (See the map in the link below.) Additionally, if the 2 channels had not been dug, water would have continued to flow into the Rock-cut Pool, and the house would have been under water. On this basis, Reich and Shukron argue that Tunnel IV and Hezekiah’s Tunnel must have been constructed by one of Hezekiah’s predecessors, dating as early as the time of King Jehoash (835–801 B.C.) - a century before Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. Is Jehoash actually responsible for “Hezekiah’s” Tunnel?" [Update: The link below works and seems to be fine now, but when opening it a few years ago in @ 2022, Kaspersky warned me twice of a trojan virus download attempt. It's one thing to disagree with this analysis, but another to try to punish people who open the link.]: www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/j... This seems to contradict what Reich and Finkelstein have to say about the period of Hezekiah's reign in the documentary from 2016 in the link above, which postdates the article quoted directly above by 3 yr.s. - ??
- Some of the comments to the article in the link above could be instructive.: e.g. "Did King Hezekiah really build a tunnel into Jerusalem?
Hezekiah was a king of Judah in the late 8th cent. B.C.E., a time of conflict with the mighty Assyrian power. The Bible tells us that he did a great deal to protect Jerusalem and to secure its water supply. Among the works he undertook was the construction of a 533 m. long tunnel, or conduit, to bring springwater into the city. - 2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:1-7, 30.
In the 19th century, just such a tunnel was discovered. ... Inside the tunnel, an inscription was found that described the final phases of the tunnel’s excavation. The shape and form of the letters of this inscription lead most scholars to date it to the time of Hezekiah. A decade ago, however, some suggested that the tunnel was built @ 500 yr.s later. In 2003, a team of Israeli scientists published the results of their research aimed at fixing a reliable date for the tunnel. What conclusion did they reach?
Dr. Amos Frumkin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says: “The carbon-14 tests we carried out on organic material within the plaster of the Siloam Tunnel, and uranium-thorium dating of stalactites found in the tunnel, date it conclusively to Hezekiah’s era.” An article in the scientific journal Nature adds: “The 3 independent lines of evidence - radiometric dating, palaeography and the historical record - all converge on @ 700 BC, rendering the Siloam Tunnel the best-dated Iron-Age biblical structure thus far known.” wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200272697
- A good point: "... Do you ... think ancient scribes would write of a certain king (Hezekiah) building a tunnel in their most beloved book (to be read by other ancient people of the time), if it were not so? Anyone of ancient times would have known better, and would have also known who had it built."
- Another: "It’s quite common in building practice today to use excavated material from one site as fill in another; it’s cost-effective and efficient. If, as the article seems to suggest, the fill was used as foundational material for the structure (not derived from the structure), it’s not unreasonable to suppose the fill could include material that pre-dates the tunnel."