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Secret
Tunnels of the Gihon Spring
Jerusalem’s Source of Life-Giving Water
“I have
chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, and I have chosen David to rule my
people Israel.” (2 Chronicles 6:6)
As God’s
chosen Holy City, Jerusalem has been the heart of the Jewish People for
thousands of years.
As one of
the world’s oldest continuing cities, Jerusalem has also been
irresistible to archaeologists.
“Since the middle of the 19th century, archaeological
digs have been undertaken in and around the Old City, ever increasing in
scope and improving in scientific methods. Layer upon layer of past eras has
been uncovered, bearing out history, and also revealing secrets,” says Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Toward
the turn of the twentieth century, their focus morphed into a desire to uncover
the culture and customs of those living before us.
Perhaps
some of the most exciting archaeological discoveries in the area of Jerusalem
in recent times involve the Gihon Spring. Its waters are referred to in
several Bible stories.
In 1
Kings 1, for instance, Gihon is mentioned in relation to Solomon being anointed
as king.
“Take your lord’s servants with you and set Solomon my son on my own
mule and take him down to Gihon. There have Zadok the priest and Nathan
the prophet anoint him king over Israel.” (1 Kings 1:33)
David
Captures His Capital
“The Jebusites said to David, ‘You will not get in here; even the
blind and the lame can ward you off.’ They thought, ‘David cannot get in here.’
Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David.” (2 Samuel 5:6–7)
In
ancient times, King David chose Jerusalem as the capital.
When
David approached Jerusalem with his battalion, intent on conquering it, the
Jebusite king thought his mountaintop fortress was impenetrable.
He saw swift defeat for David’s army, and smugly told him, “Even
the blind and the lame can ward you off.” (2 Samuel 5:6)
Perhaps this inspired David’s son Solomon to write the proverb, “Pride
goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverb 16:18), since the Jebusites’ pride was indeed
their downfall.
We read
that the soldier Joab first entered the city by accessing the hidden,
pitch-dark, narrow corridors of the underground water channels where the Gihon
Spring flowed. (2 Samuel 5:8)
After
scaling a vertical shaft into the city, Joab likely led the procession to open
the city gates where David’s troops entered en masse.
For his
victorious entry, David awarded Joab the title of Commander-in-Chief:
“David had said, ‘Whoever leads the attack on the Jebusites will
become commander-in-chief.’ Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, and so he
received the command.” (1 Chronicles 11:6)
Underground
Secrets Revealed
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy
place where the Most High dwells.” (Psalm 46:4)
The Gihon
Spring was Jerusalem’s main water source, located outside the city walls on the
west bank of the Kidron Valley.
Three
main covered water systems brought water from this spring to the city:
· A Bronze-Age (2100–1550 BC) aqueduct cut
20 feet into the ground, perhaps existing during the time of Melchizedek.
· Hezekiah’s Tunnel, also called Siloam
Tunnel, replaced the Bronze Age aqueduct. It was carved through the
rock under the City of David.
· Warren’s Shaft, which runs from within
the old city to the upper part of Hezekiah’s tunnel.
The water
from this channel outside the walls of Jerusalem may have been important for
agriculture. Openings cut over a wide span in the eastern fortifications are
thought to have irrigated the fields of the Kidron Valley.
Perhaps,
they also eventually watered the very gardens that were the inspiration for
Solomon’s poem, the Song of Songs.
“My lover has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to
browse in the gardens and to gather lilies.” (Song of Songs 6:2)
Gihon
Spring Meets the Pool of Siloam
“The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallun son of Col-Hozeh…. He also
repaired the wall of the Pool of Siloam, by the King’s Garden, as far as the
steps going down from the City of David.” (Nehemiah 3:15)
The
name Gihon is derived from the verb gayach, which
means to gush or burst forth.
The name
reflects the flow of the spring, which continues to this day as an unsteady
flow, surging at times, depending on the season and amount of rain fall.
Groundwater
accumulates in the spring via a subterranean cave. Whenever that cave fills, it
empties through cracks in the rock and is siphoned to the surface.
This
necessitated that the water be accumulated in a rock-hewn pool — the Pool of
Siloam — so that the water was accessible when the spring was not gushing
forth.
This Pool
of Siloam, located on the southern slope of the City of David, is
mentioned several times in Scripture.
In fact,
in the Gospel of John, Yeshua (Jesus) healed a man blind from birth by
anointing his eyes with clay and telling him to wash in the Pool of
Siloam (John 9:6–7).
“‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means
Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” (John 9:7)
In 2004,
workers for the Ir David Foundation, an organization that funds many of the
archaeological excavations in the City of David (Ir David),
discovered steps leading down to a lower trapezoidal-shaped pool called the
Pool of Siloam, which is fed with water by a channel from the Gihon Spring.
The pool
is large compared to others found in the Holy Land.
It
accommodated thousands of pilgrims journeying to Jerusalem for the celebrations
of the Shalosh Regalim—the Three Pilgrimage Festivals of Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Feast
of Weeks), and Sukkot (Feast of Booths). (Exodus 23:14–17)
The pool
was more than just a place for refreshing and re-hydrating.
It was
a mikvah, a public bath for cleansing that rendered the
pilgrims ritually pure before they ascended a quarter mile (600 m) on the
Jerusalem pilgrim road to the Temple Mount to worship God.
Moreover,
water from of the Pool of Siloam was carried up the pilgrim road to
the Temple for the Water Libation Ceremony during the intermediate days of the
seven-day festival of Sukkot.
At the ceremony,
amidst jubilant dancing, singing, trumpet playing, and palm branch waving, a
priest poured water over the southern altar.
Water from the pool expressed hope for rain to produce an abundant
harvest and had Messianic implications, perhaps pointing to the time
when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 9:11)
In fact,
Bible prophecy says that the nations will come to Jerusalem during Sukkot when
Messiah reigns on earth. Rain will be withheld from the countries who do not
come to worship the King (Zechariah 14:17).
Yeshua
well understood the Messianic expectations and the significance of the water
associated with Sukkot. On the last day of the festival, He declared to
pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem:
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes
in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within
him. By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to
receive.” (John
7:37–38)
Upon
hearing Yeshua make this statement, some realized that He was the
Messiah (John 7:41).
Hezekiah’s
Amazing Tunnel
“It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and
channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David. He succeeded
in everything he undertook.” (2 Chronicles 32:30)
Because
of archaeological digs, we now know of two channels underneath the City of
David, one from the time of Melchizedek (2,100 BC, during Abraham’s time) and
another from the reign of King Hezekiah (700 BC).
Hezekiah realized
that the city would need a secure water supply in the event of a siege by the
Assyrians.
He
decided to block the part of Gihon outside the City of David and to tunnel a
1750-foot (530 m) aqueduct under the city (2
Chronicles 32:1–5).
This
would keep the water inside the city and prevent the enemy from having access.
According
to a written inscription discovered in the tunnel, two teams worked on the
tunnel, each team beginning at opposite ends, cutting out the bedrock and
meeting in the middle.
This was
an amazing feat when you realize that the tunnel was not cut on a straight line
but curves back and forth.
Today,
due to archaeological excavations, Hezekiah’s Tunnel, which replaced the
tunnel from Melchizedek’s time, can be walked through from end to end.
“As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and
how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city,
are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?” (2 Kings 20:20)
The Roman
Siege of the Tunnel
“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Yeshua (Jesus). “Not
one stone here will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down.” (Mark 13:2)
Archaeological
finds inside Hezekiah’s water channel between the Pool of Siloam and the Temple
Mount highlight the period of the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 70 AD.
It seems
that the Romans deliberately smashed sections of it in order to access the
underground tunnel where many Jews were hiding, hoping to survive
the onslaught.
Finds of
unbroken ceramic cooking pots and coins dating back to this period confirm the
account of Josephus regarding this tragic time:
“. . . the Romans slew some of them, some they carried captives, and
others they made a search for underground, and when they found where they
were, they broke up the ground and slew all they met with. There
were also found slain there above two thousand persons.” (Wars 6.429–6.430)
After the
siege, the waters stopped flowing through the channel as debris from the
destruction held back the flow.
Today’s
Water Supply in the City of David
In
ancient times, the Gihon Spring was sufficient to supply the City of David.
Back then, the city only spanned 11 acres. In contrast, Jerusalem today covers
30,720 acres.
Obviously,
the Gihon is no longer sufficient to meet today’s needs.
Today,
Israel obtains 30% of its water from the Sea of Galilee, which originates from
the Jordan River.
The arid
climate in Israel and the drought conditions that have largely persisted since
the mid-1990s forced the Israeli government to initiate a long-term solution to
providing sufficient clean drinking water to the entire state of Israel.
In 2013,
the largest desalination plant in the world opened 10 miles north of
Tel Aviv in Sorek, which transforms 160 million cubic meters of sea water a
year into drinking water.
Along
with two other plants in Ashkelon (127 million cubic meters) and Hadera (140
million cubic meters) and desal plants that provide 600 million cubic meters of
water, Israel now has a surplus of fresh water supply. (Scientific American)
With this
new technology, less water will be needed from the Galilee, allowing more of it
to continue down the Jordan River and ultimately help to replenish
the Dead Sea.
Though
Israel is now transferring our technology to other nations, helping them meet
their own clean water needs through desalination, all of our technological
know-how will never quench our spiritual thirst.
Only
Yeshua, the source of Living Water can do that.
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A view of the Kidron Valley, with the Mount of
Olives across the valley to the left and the slope of the City of David on the
right. The Gihon Spring emerges from the foot of this slope.
Jerusalem
In 2004, the Ir David Foundation uncovered
stone steps that were part of the Second Temple period Pool of Siloam
The Triumph of David, by Matteo Rosselli
Part of the tunnel and pool system uncovered in
the City of David.
1841 oil painting of the cave entrance to the
Gihon Spring, by David Roberts
These impressive steps are part of the
Jerusalem pilgrim road, which led from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple Mount
This Ir Foundation mockup of ancient Jerusalem
depicts Hezekiah’s tunnel, represented by a curved green line, which runs under
the City of David, down its southern slope, and into the Pool of Siloam
This passage, called the Siloam Inscription,
was inscribed into the rock in Hezekiah’s Tunnel. It tells how the
workers chiseled out the tunnel, starting at opposite ends and meeting in the
middle.
Today, the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) is a major
source of water in Israel.
https://youtu.be/jE9zzi_gZ04
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