The following is the results of your search for Siloam, Pool of.
Siloam, Pool of: Sent or sending. Here a notable miracle was wrought by our Lord in
giving sight to the blind
(John 9:7-11) It has been identified with
the Birket Silwan in the lower Tyropoeon valley, to the south-east of
the hill of Zion. The water which flows into this pool intermittingly
by a subterranean channel springs from the "Fountain of the Virgin"
(q.v.). The length of this channel, which has several windings, is
1,750 feet, though the direct distance is only 1,100 feet. The pool is
53 feet in length from north to south, 18 feet wide, and 19 deep. The
water passes from it by a channel cut in the rock into the gardens
below.
(See EN-ROGEL)
Many years ago (1880) a youth, while wading up the conduit by which
the water enters the pool, accidentally discovered an inscription cut
in the rock, on the eastern side, about 19 feet from the pool. This is
the oldest extant Hebrew record of the kind. It has with great care
been deciphered by scholars, and has been found to be an account of
the manner in which the tunnel was constructed. Its whole length is
said to be "twelve hundred cubits;" and the inscription further notes
that the workmen, like the excavators of the Mont Cenis Tunnel,
excavated from both ends, meeting in the middle. Some have argued that
the inscription was cut in the time of Solomon; others, with more
probability, refer it to the reign of Hezekiah.
A more ancient tunnel
was discovered in 1889 some 20 feet below the ground. It is of smaller
dimensions, but more direct in its course. It is to this tunnel that
Isaiah
(Isaiah 8:6) probably refers. The Siloam inscription above
referred to was surreptitiously cut from the wall of the tunnel in
1891 and broken into fragments. These were, however, recovered by the
efforts of the British Consul at Jerusalem, and have been restored to
their original place.
