The Siloam Inscription and Hezekiah's tunnel
The tunnel described in one line of Kings exists, was cut in Hezekiah's era, and its diggers left a note inside it.
Confirmed by the groundInscriptionc. 700 BC
Cut into the tunnel wall, the workmen's own account of the moment two teams digging from opposite ends met in the rock. The tunnel is still there and can still be walked, carrying water from the Gihon spring to the Pool of Siloam — the waterworks 2 Kings credits to Hezekiah on the eve of the Assyrian siege.
…while there were still three cubits to be cut through, the voice of a man was heard calling to his fellow… and the water flowed from the spring to the pool, 1,200 cubits.
- Found
- Inside the water tunnel under the City of David, Jerusalem, 1880 — Discovered by a boy wading in the tunnel; published by Conder and others
- Now held at
- Istanbul Archaeological Museums
- Language
- Hebrew (palaeo-Hebrew script)
How far it goes
The inscription names no king, so the attribution to Hezekiah rests on the date of the script and the tunnel's context. Dating in the late eighth century is the mainstream position; a minority has argued for a later date.
How historians use it
One of the longest monumental Hebrew inscriptions known, standard in every treatment of Iron Age Jerusalem and of ancient engineering.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Siloam inscription — overview and bibliography
- Frumkin, Shimron & Rosenbaum, "Radiometric dating of the Siloam Tunnel", Nature 425 (2003)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.