Hezekiah's Tunnel: Walking through the waters of ancient biblical history in Jerusalem

“As an atheist, I thought the Bible was just mythology – fairy tales,” admits the person behind the popular social media 𝕏 account, Darwin to Jesus. “But when I earnestly examined the archaeological evidence, I found the exact opposite was true.”

In 10 compelling examples, he presents discoveries that support the Bible, with Hezekiah’s Tunnel in Jerusalem – an ancient underground water channel mentioned multiple times in scripture – listed as No. 8.

Discovered in 1867 by Charles Warren, the tunnel matches its description in ancient Hebrew texts. In Israel, one doesn’t have to dig deep to uncover a wealth of ancient treasures that support the biblical narrative.

King Hezekiah, who ruled Judah in the 8th century B.C., commissioned this remarkable building project to fortify Jerusalem and protect it from enemy attacks.

This strategy is mentioned in 2 Chronicles, which describes how Hezekiah enlisted “a great many people” to help construct the tunnel, ensuring that water was available for those in the city of Jerusalem while denying access to the attacking Assyrians.

“And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem, he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him. A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?” (2 Chronicles 32:2–4)

Without water, there is no life. This was no simple matter for a city next to the Judean Desert, where water was scarce. Jerusalem initially developed as a city due to the existence of the Gihon spring. The water’s source can be found in the north of the present-day Old City. The water is transported underground to the pool of Siloam via Hezekiah’s Tunnel, also known as the Siloam Tunnel. The abundance of water from the spring is mentioned in Flavius Josephus' Wars V, chapter 4, sections 1 and 2.

According to the City of David website, water gushes out of the ground at a rate of around 75,000 liters per hour – about 50,000 1.5 liter bottles, which is 650,000 cubic meters a year. Despite the Gihon Spring's abundance, it can only meet the daily needs of approximately 500,000 people. 

Hezekiah’s extraordinary building project ensured that the water source was protected and hidden by walls to allow the city access to water in times of siege.

To outwit King Sennacherib and his Assyrian army, two teams of workers carved the tunnel through solid bedrock with nothing but ancient tools and determination, starting from opposite ends. In a feat of engineering, perhaps using sound signals from above, these two teams managed to meet in the middle.

The famous Siloam inscription, marking the moment, was discovered here in 1880 by two Jewish children exploring the tunnel. Their teacher was a German researcher, architect and resident of Jerusalem, Conrad Schick, who followed them back to find it and investigate. 

The inscription was written by the stonemasons over 2,700 years ago, capturing their joy as they heard one another just before breaking through and joining the two tunnels to complete the project, according to the City of David website.

Although it was common for such building projects to be commemorated around the Middle East, this is the first such inscription found in Hebrew, in the Paleo-Hebrew script. The inscription dates back to the 8th century B.C., which corresponds to the time of the biblical King Hezekiah.

According to Gabriel Barkay, senior archaeology lecturer at the Bar-Ilan University, the inscription reads as follows:

“Behold the tunnel. Now this is the matter of the tunnel. While the stone-cutters were lifting the axe, one man towards his neighbor, and while there remained three cubits to be cut, the voice of a man could be heard calling out to his neighbor, for there had been [only] its side deviation (Heb. zadah) in the rock-face [where they were supposed to meet up], on the right and on the left, and on the day when the tunnel was being cut out, the stone-cutters struck each man in front of his neighbor, axe against axe and the waters from the source flowed into the pool for [a distance of] 1,200 cubits. Now one-hundred cubits was the height over the head of the stone-cutters.”

The tunnel is 533 meters in length (1,750 feet), with a gradual gradient that carries water down from one side of the city to the other. Along with a tunnel built by Euphalios in Greece in the 6th century, Hezekiah's Tunnel has been called one of the greatest works of water engineering technology in the pre-Classical period.

The Bible also commends Hezekiah for the project in the Book of 2 Kings: “The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?” (2 Kings 20:20)

The Siloam Pool appears once more in scripture – in the New Testament. In John 9, Jesus heals a blind man by placing mud on his eyes and instructing him to wash in the Pool of Siloam.

The text explains that "Siloam" means "sent" in Hebrew, presumably referring to how the water was channeled through the tunnel from one part of the city to another. In Jesus’ story, the word takes on a deeper significance, as the healed man is "sent" as a witness to the religious leaders. They struggled to believe that the very One prophesied to heal the blind – the Messiah – was standing in front of their eyes. 

Today, the tunnel and the pool serve as powerful evidence of the Bible's accuracy, silencing skeptics and affirming the reliability of scripture.