Biblical Archaeology & Beyond Presents Hezekiah's Tunnel

Hezekiah's tunnel also known as the Siloam tunnel is a man made tunnel underneath the Ophel in Jerusalem.

It was intended to divert water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam. This enabled them to have water while being attacked by the Assyrians.

Hezekiah's Tunnel is mentioned in the Bible and is believed to have been dug around 701 BC during Hezekiah's reign as king.

The tunnel is S shaped and about 533m long. Basically where the water enters the tunnel is slightly higher then where it exits so the water flows through the tunnel successfully diverting it.

There is an inscription (the Siloam inscription) that was found within the tunnel that states two teams started on each end and eventually, miraculously met in the middle. Parts of it are unreadable and more information may have been given.

In 1997 another tunnel was discovered now called Warren's Shaft. It was not an aqueduct and if you wanted water you had to go back and forth to get it. I imagine that this did not appeal to Hezekiah as it seems quite inadequate.

Discovered in 1838 by American biblical scholar Edward Robinson Hezekiah's Tunnel can be walked all the way through today.

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Even though Hezekiah's Tunnel was examined by many archaeologist during the 19th century no one found the inscription. This is thought to be because of the build up of mineral deposits making it very hard to spot.

The Eastons Bible Dictionary records that a young boy was swimming up the tunnel from the Siloam Pool end and about 19 feet into the tunnel discovered the inscription.

Because of the deposits it was impossible to read. Eventually it was cleaned with an acid solution which made the translation by A.H Sayce more sure.

There are six readable lines although the first is damaged. Each word is separated by dots and only the word zada which is in the third line is a questionable translation.

The passage reads:

... the tunnel ... and this is the story of the tunnel while ...
the axes were against each other and while three cubits were left to cut? ... the voice of a man ...
called to his counterpart, (for) there was ZADA in the rock, on the right ... and on the day of the
tunnel (being finished) the stonecutters struck each man towards his counterpart, ax against ax and flowed
water from the source to the pool for 1200 cubits. and 100?
cubits was the height over the head of the stonecutters ...

This inscription appears to record the construction of the tunnel. Stating that each team of stonecutters worked towards each other until they met in the middle.

In reality it was not so simple as there is a sharp right angle at the join point and the centers do not exactly line up.

21st century archaeologist say that the engineers may have used acoustic sounds to guide them. The last sentence states that the height above them was 100 cubits, this implies that they were aware of the distance to the surface and could have used sounds to guide them.

Siloam Inscription as it appears
in the tunnel today.

2 Kings 20:20

20.) Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he made the pool and the 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: 2-4

2.) Now when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to make war on Jerusalem,
3.) he decided with his officers and his warriors to cut off the supply of water from the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him.
4.) So many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream which flowed through the region, saying, "Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?"

2 Chronicles 32: 30

30.) It was Hezekiah who stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all that he did.

"Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."