The Siloam Spring

223 views

From OHR: A recent news item about Jerusalem’s Mayor Uri Lupolianski’s asking the Turkish government to return to Israel the ancient Siloam inscription called attention to the history of the tablet. In Divrei Hayamim II (32:2-3) it is recorded that King Chizkiyahu ordered the stopping up of the springs around Jerusalem, which were the source of water for the city, in order to deprive the invading Assyrian army of Sancherib from making use of them. To make those waters still available for his people “he brought them straight down to the west side of the City of David” (ibid. 32:30).

Read More +

Pilgrims’ Road to Temple Unearthed in City of David Dig

166 views

From Haaretz: Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron have found the main road by which many pilgrims of Second Temple times made their way up to the Temple Mount after immersing themselves in the Siloam Spring. The road is much grander, wider, more central, and is parallel to one discovered at the end of the 19th century by the archaeologists Bliss and Dickey, which was previously thought to be the road to the Temple Mount. Reich believes that at a certain point the two roads converged.

Read More +