Day 10 - Breakfast at Hotel -> City of David -> Hezekiah's Tunnel Tour -> Silom Pool

After an uneventful breakfast & opening prayer, we visited City of David
Rev Quek's Notes:

The City of David is the oldest Israelite-settled part of Jerusalem captured by David from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5:6-7). The earliest City of David was located on the southeast ridge of the Jerusalem plateau, with the Tyropoeon Valley to the west and the Kidron Valley to the east. Only a few acres in total, it actually covered a much smaller area than what later came to be known as the City of David section of Jerusalem.



Ruins


Enroute to City of David



City of David

Rev Quek's Notes:

Hezekiah's Tunnel (Siloam Tunnel) is a tunnel that was dug underneath the City of David in Jerusalem in ancient times by two teams from opposite ends. The curving tunnel is 533 m long conveyed water along its length from the spring to the pool.

The difficult feat of making two teams digging from opposite ends meet far underground is now understood to have been accomplished by directing the two teams from above using sounds generated by hammering on the solid karst (irregular limestone rock) through which the tunnelers were digging.

It dates from the reign of Hezekiah of Judah and corresponds to the waterworks mentioned in 2 Kings 20:20. King Hezekiah prepared Jerusalem for an impending siege by the Assyrians, by "blocking the source of the waters of the upper Gihon, and leading them straight down on the west to the City of David" (2 Chronicles 32).

To prepare Jerusalem to withstand a siege, Hezekiah dug the Siloam tunnel to assure the city’s water supply during Sargon’s reign (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:30). Hezekiah closed the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them down to the west side of the city of David. Water still flows through this ancient tunnel which connects the spring of Gihon with the Pool of Siloam.

At the entrance of Hezekiah's Tunnel



Down and deep to Hezekiah's Tunnel. This was better than Ahad's tunnel since it was drier but it was deeper.


Reservoir

Then we stopped for a show and continued on to the tunnel

This tunnel is the dry one. There is another one which is a wet one.


Pool of Siloam. Jesus healed a blind man by spitting on the ground and applying the clay to the man’s eyes and telling him to wash them in the Pool of Siloam (‘sent out’) (John 9:611).


Olive Tree

Houses



Rev Quek's Notes:

The Pool of Siloam is a rock-cut pool on the southern slope of the City of David, the original site of Jerusalem, located outside the walls of the Old City to the southeast. The pool was fed by the waters of the Gihon Spring, carried there by two aqueducts.

The Pool of Siloam is mentioned several times in the Bible. Isaiah 8:6 mentions the pool's waters, while Isaiah 22:9ff. refer to the construction of Hezekiah's tunnel. In John 9 Jesus sent "a man blind from birth" in order to complete the healing of the man.

The Gospel of John suggests that it was probably used as a mikvah (ritual bath), although mikvahs are usually much smaller in size; if the pool were a mikvah, it would be the largest ever found by a substantial margin.

Flooded Silom Pool

Map of Mt Zion, Jewish Quarter. Silom Pool