Hezekiah's Tunnel

Well, as Michelle told you, Caleb and I went to "City of David" today to go ahead and try Hezekiah's Tunnel. If you're curious as to what that is, it's a 2700 year old engineering masterpiece that Hezekiah's men undertook to get the water from the Gihon spring (Jerusalem's primary water source, but outside the main city walls and vulnerable) to a pool lower in elevation, but inside the city wall. For more information, check out 2 Chronicles 32 (especially v. 30) and this web page.

Taking Caleb into the tunnel was something I had wanted to do since we've been here, but I was never quite sure how he'd feel about a 1/3 mile walk through a narrow, dark (except for flashlights) tunnel with (cold) water running ankle to knee deep. I was also nervous because (as those who have been there can attest) it is a 1-way deal. Once you've started, you're in it for the long haul. When the time came, however, he just got right down in there like nobody's business, and we had a great time. Nobody was behind us (as far as we could hear, which, if you've been there, is actually quite far), and only a small group of noisy boys was ahead of us, so we could move at our own pace. We noticed the cavities for lamps in the tunnel as well as the chisel marks in the walls. Also, in my previous treks through the tunnel, I had never paused long enough to consider the exact place where the two sets of tunnel diggers met, but together, we noticed a definite place where the direction of hewing quite abruptly and obviously changes, so I learned a new thing, too. At one point, Caleb even wanted to turn off his light (and mine!) for a few seconds to see how dark it would get (answer: completely dark!). It was pretty cool! For all you archaeology buffs, the third picture is of a structure that Eilat Mazar (the excavator here) believes to be the remains of David's Palace. The picture doesn't do it justice, but if she is correct, this is a find of enormous importance.

Caleb in Hezekiah's Tunnel. It's tricky because he's smiling in the dark until the camera flashes! Still...not bad.

Today, the tunnel empties into a pool dating to the time of the Crusaders, but in the 2nd Temple Period, the water system emptied into this, known as the Pool of Siloam (John 9).

If E. Mazar is correct, this is part of what remains of David's Palace (2 Sam 5:11, or "House of Cedar" in 2 Sam 7:2).