A pool that is mentioned in John 9. In this story, Jesus healed a blind man by putting clay on his eyes and telling him to wash in the pool. When the man washed in the pool, he could see.
The pool was at the end of a long underground tunnel called Hezekiah's Tunnel. King Hezekiah had this tunnel built around 700 BC when the Assyrian army threatened Jerusalem. The tunnel is S-shaped and is described in 2 Kings 20:20 and 2 Chronicles 32:2–4.
Archaeologists found writing on the tunnel wall. It was in ancient Hebrew and told how two groups of workers dug the tunnel. They started at opposite ends and met in the middle. This writing, called an inscription, is now in a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. It says:
"When the tunnel was driven through… each man toward his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through—the voice of a man calling to his fellow… And when the tunnel was driven through, the quarrymen hewed, each toward his fellow, axe against axe; and the water flowed from the spring toward the reservoir for 1200 cubits, and the height of the rock above the heads of the quarrymen was 100 cubits." A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters.
The pool had an important purpose. It brought water inside the city walls so people in Jerusalem could get water even if enemies attacked the city. The water came from a spring called Gihon Spring (also called the King's Pool in Nehemiah 2:14 and the pool of Shelah in 3:15). This spring was the only natural source of water in Jerusalem. The water flowed through the tunnel to the pool, then through part of the city where people could use it. After that, it flowed down a valley and eventually to the Dead Sea. The pool of Siloam and its rugged terrain explains why Jerusalem has always been a strong city.
Today, the pool of Siloam is outside the old city of Jerusalem. It is about 50 feet (15.2 meters) long and 5 feet (1.5 meters) wide. You have to go down 16 steps from the street to get to it.
Long ago, there was a church built over the pool. It was called a Byzantine church because it was built during the Byzantine period of history. This church was destroyed in AD 614 when the Persians attacked Jerusalem.