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The Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem has a significant Christian archeological meaning. It is the Pool of Siloam in which, according to the Gospel of John, is the place where Jesus healed a blind man by putting a mud on his eyes and sending him to wash them with the water of the pool. The name Siloam is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Shiloah, which means “send” or “let go.” Isn’t that interesting?

Now why is this site of the Pool of Siloam so unique?

Because if we can find archeological evidence of the location of the Pool of Siloam, we can be sure that Jesus has actually been at this site.

So where is the Pool of Siloam?

The Pool of Siloam is mentioned several times in the Bible. Isaiah 8:6 mentions the pool’s waters, while Isaiah 22:9 refers to the construction of Hezekiah’s Tunnel.
The Pool of Siloam is a rock-cut pool on the southern slope of the City of David, the original site of Jerusalem, located outside the walls of the Old City to the southeast. The pool is fed by the waters of the Gihon Spring.

Until 2004, people thought that the pool at the end of Hezekiah’s Tunnel was the right location. The Byzantine empress, Eudocia (400–460 A.D), was the first to build a church there, but was destroyed when Jerusalem was captures by the Muslims. Today we can see some of the church pillars located at that pool (now called the Byzantine Pool). For years, the Byzantine Pool of Siloam was a sacred destination for Christian pilgrims from all over the world.

In the autumn of 2004, during a sewer excavation in the area, stone steps were found. The shape of these steps and the fact that there was a corner to the steps led to the assumption that these were not regular steps but part of a Second Temple-period pool. Excavations commenced and confirmed that this is the original Pool of Siloam dating back to the time of Jesus.

This archeological finding made the Pool of Siloam one of few places in Jerusalem where we can be sure that today we can actually walk on stones that Jesus has actually walked on.
Hezekiah’s Tunnel

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