Pool of Siloam

The first archaeologically confirmed Pool of Siloam from the New Testament period, providing a physical location for Jesus's miracle of healing the blind man in John 9.

The Pool of Siloam sits at the southern end of the City of David, the oldest settled part of Jerusalem. Water reached the pool through Hezekiah's Tunnel, a remarkable rock-cut channel roughly 533 meters long that brought water from the Gihon Spring under the ridge of the Ophel hill. The tunnel was carved in the late 8th century BCE, likely in preparation for the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem under Sennacherib around 701 BCE. The water channel meant that Jerusalem's water supply was protected inside the city walls even during a siege.

For generations, visitors and scholars identified a small Byzantine-era pool near the base of the tunnel as the Pool of Siloam. That pool, built in the 5th century CE, was indeed labeled as Siloam in ancient tradition, and a church dedicated to the miracle of John 9 stood near it. However, it was clearly a later structure, built centuries after the events described in the New Testament.

The discovery of the actual 1st-century pool came by accident. In 2004, workers from the Jerusalem municipality were repairing a sewage pipe in the City of David when they struck an ancient stone pavement. Archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron were called in. What they initially found was just part of a stepped plastered surface, but as they excavated further, the full scope of the structure became clear. They had found a large, open, trapezoidal pool with three sets of broad steps descending to the water on three sides. The pool measured roughly 50 to 70 meters in width, making it one of the larger ritual installations known from Second Temple-period Jerusalem.

Dating the pool was done through numismatic evidence and pottery analysis. Coins found in the plaster of the pool steps included coins from the Hasmonean period and from the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, a Hasmonean king who ruled from 103 to 76 BCE. This gave the lower date for the pool's construction. Coins of the Jewish revolt dated to 66 to 70 CE were found in a later layer, providing the upper boundary. The pool was thus in use during the entire 1st century CE, the period when Jesus would have walked through Jerusalem and when the events of John 9 took place.

The stepped design of the pool is significant. Jewish law required ritual immersion in naturally flowing or collected rainwater for purification. Large public pools with broad descending steps are common in 1st-century Judean archaeology and were used for ritual bathing by pilgrims visiting the Temple. The Siloam Pool, fed by Hezekiah's Tunnel from the Gihon Spring, would have been a major gathering point for pilgrims entering the city from the south, near the Dung Gate and the main pilgrim road leading to the Temple Mount.

The pool was connected to the street system of Herodian Jerusalem by a paved street running northward toward the Temple Mount. Archaeologists working in the City of David have traced portions of this street, which was lined with drainage channels beneath the pavement. Pilgrims would have walked this route from the Siloam Pool up to the Temple courts.

Excavation of the pool has been ongoing since 2004, but work has been complicated because the site is partly under privately owned land. Much of the pool has been exposed and documented, but full excavation of the entire structure awaits resolution of access and legal issues. The portion that has been excavated is open to visitors as part of the City of David archaeological park in Jerusalem.

A small section of the earlier Byzantine pool remains visible near the tunnel exit, and both pools are now part of guided tours of the site. The discovery of the 1st-century pool has clarified which structure would have been known as the Pool of Siloam during Jesus's time, resolving a long-standing question in New Testament historical geography.

• The pool was discovered accidentally in 2004 during sewage pipe repair work and excavated by Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron
• Coins of Alexander Jannaeus and Hasmonean pottery date the pool's construction to the late 2nd or early 1st century BCE
• Coins from the Jewish revolt (66 to 70 CE) confirm the pool was in active use throughout the 1st century CE
• The pool features three sets of broad descending steps on at least three sides, consistent with a large public ritual immersion installation
• The structure measures approximately 50 to 70 meters across, making it one of the largest ritual pools known from Second Temple-period Jerusalem
• A paved Herodian street connects the pool northward to the Temple Mount, documenting the pilgrim route between the two sites
• The previously identified 'Pool of Siloam' is a Byzantine structure built in the 5th century CE, centuries later than the New Testament period
• The pool is fed by Hezekiah's Tunnel, which carries water from the Gihon Spring beneath the ridge of the City of David

John 9:7 records that Jesus told the blind man to go wash in the Pool of Siloam, and when the man obeyed, he received his sight. John adds the note that the name Siloam means 'sent,' a word that connects in the Gospel's theology to Jesus as the one sent by the Father. John 9:11 has the healed man recounting the miracle and naming the pool specifically. The discovery of the actual 1st-century pool gives this account a precise physical setting. Pilgrims using the pool for ritual purification before ascending to the Temple would have been familiar with it as a major landmark of the holy city. Jesus's direction to wash there would have been immediately understandable to any Jerusalem resident or festival pilgrim. The pool also appears in the Old Testament. Nehemiah 3:15 mentions the Pool of Shelah or Siloah near the King's Garden during the post-exilic rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls. Isaiah 8:6 refers to the waters of Shiloah that flow softly, a poetic reference to the gentle stream feeding the same southern pool system. The continuity of the water source, the Gihon Spring feeding through the tunnel, means the same general location was in use from the Judean monarchy period through the Roman period.