Hezekiah’s Famous Jerusalem Tunnel

Hezekiah’s Famous Jerusalem Tunnel

From our visit to Israel, I shared this experience at our meeting as we prayed over our city.  

Preparing for our visit to Israel, my daughter Becky told me to go the Big 5 sports store and purchase some shoes to walk on the water.  (Not like Jesus did but so to not ruin my good shoes as we entered Hezekiah’s water shaft.)  My son-in-law Dennis gave me a head band flashlight to wear as we knew it would be dark inside.  Some of our group stayed behind but I and most of our members wanted to walk this tunnel of water.

Rolling up our pants legs as high as we could, we were ready to enter like Joab did. 

At first the water was ankle deep, and almost immediately we were almost up to our hips in water.  I was reminded of the Prophets vision in Ezekiel 4 of Spiritual water and how we must continue on from water around our ankles to hip deep, then to waist deep and finally to swim in the living water. 

However we did not swim in the tunnel because soon the water was again ankle deep.  There were low places we had to watch our head, and the walls were close and of course it was pitch black dark, but on we went. 

Laurel my granddaughter’s mother-in-law was ahead of me and I kept tabs on her and she on me.  Michael her husband was behind me and we watched for low spots for our feet and warned the others. 

The hike was the distance of 1748.68766 Feet and was a gradual descent to the pool of Siloam.

The tunnel was a highlight of the tour, and I would not have missed it for anything.

The Dotted Line is the path of the tunnel
Begin the decent at the far right and end at the Pool of Siloam.

 About The Tunnel

According to 2 Chronicles 32:2–4 and 2 Kings 20:20, this tunnel was dug during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah to prepare Jerusalem for the imminent attack of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib.

A 1750-foot (530m) tunnel carved during the reign of Hezekiah to bring water from one side of the city to the other, Hezekiah’s Tunnel together with the 6th centrury tunnel of Euphalios in Greece are considered the greatest works of water engineering

It connects the Gihon Spring—Jerusalem’s fresh water supply—with the Pool of Siloam.

This tunnel may be the Jebusite Water Shaft used by Joab when David defeated the Jebusites and Conquered Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 5:6-8  The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. 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—which is the City of David. And David said on that day, Whosoever gets up the water shaft, and strikes the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Therefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.