Hezekiah Tunnel

According to the Bible, after the Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria, the Assyrian king was poised to attack the Kingdom of Judah. Hezekiah personally witnessed the devastating destruction wrought upon the northern kingdom by the Assyrian Empire. Foreseeing a potential Assyrian invasion, he began to fortify Jerusalem’s walls and build towers after his ascension to the throne. To prevent the water supply from being cut off during a siege, Hezekiah first blocked the water sources outside the city that would be accessible to the Assyrian army. Then, he diverted the Gihon Spring outside the city, channeling its water through a secret tunnel carved into the rock beneath the city. This diversion not only secured the water supply for the entire city but also cut off the original spring access, preventing the Assyrian enemy from lingering during a siege due to lack of water.

Hezekiah’s Tunnel is 2,700 years old and still channels water from the Gihon Spring outside Jerusalem into the ancient City of David, standing as a marvel of ancient engineering. The tunnel is about a person’s width and 533 meters long, allowing only one person to pass through at a time. This tunnel, built during Hezekiah’s reign, was carved from both ends simultaneously, meeting precisely in the middle underground. The water depth varies seasonally, reaching knee or thigh level. The elevation difference between the two ends of the tunnel is only 30 centimeters. The tunnel ends at the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus once instructed a blind man to wash his eyes, enabling him to see again. Thus, biblical archaeology refers to it as “Hezekiah’s Tunnel,” also known as the “Siloam Tunnel.”