Pool of Siloam

Pool of Siloam. Photo courtesy of BiblePlaces.com.

The small Shiloach Pool, to which the waters of the Gihon flow today, is part of a pool from the Byzantine Era. Fragments of pillars which can be seen today in the pool, appear to be remains of the Shiloach Church that was built in this location. Archeologists believe that during the Second Temple Era the waters continued to flow south and were collected in an additional, larger pool. This pool was discovered during the summer of 2004 and is continuing to be uncovered today. During the time of the Second Temple this pool was about three dunum in size and had wide, central roads leading to it. Archeologists believe that this pool was built upon an older pool dating back to the First Temple Period. It is to this pool that King Hezekiah diverted the waters of the Gihon.

Excerpted from City of David- Shiloach Pool

The Pool of Siloam is mentioned in John 9:

1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3″Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7″Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Pool of Siloam

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