X-DreamersText version
Hezekiah's Tunnel: the guided tour as text
The 3D lab's guided tour as a story you can read, stop by stop, with the scripture behind each one. It works on any device, without 3D.
Open the 3D labCan't see the 3D? How to turn on hardware acceleration
Before Hezekiah
Stop 1 of 10
The Gihon spring
This is the Gihon, the city's only spring, at the foot of the ridge. Every water system here starts from it.
The king also said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon:
Read 1 Kings 1:32–40
Stop 2 of 10
The Spring Tower and the rock-cut pool
A huge tower guarded the spring about 1,100 years before Hezekiah, with a pool cut in the rock beside it. Not his work: it is marked as earlier.
Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David.
Read 2 Samuel 5:6–7
Stop 3 of 10
Warren's Shaft
Warren's Shaft drops about 13 m to the water. For a century it was thought to be how the city drew water; now many think it was never used.
And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
Read 2 Samuel 5:6–8
Stop 4 of 10
The Siloam Channel (Channel II)
The older Siloam Channel ran along the slope outside the walls, watering the gardens. An attacker could reach it.
Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;
Read Isaiah 8:5–8
Hezekiah's tunnel
Stop 5 of 10
Hezekiah's tunnel
Here is the tunnel through the ridge: 533 m in an S, though the ends are only about 320 m apart, and a fall of about 30 cm.
This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
Read 2 Chronicles 32:1–4; 2 Chronicles 32:30
Stop 6 of 10
Hezekiah's tunnel
Walk it by lamplight, in the water. Watch the head height drop to about 1.1 m and rise to 5 m near the end.
And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
Read 2 Kings 20:20
Stop 7 of 10
Where the two crews met
Two crews dug toward each other. With three cubits left they heard each other's voices.
This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
Read 2 Chronicles 32:30
Stop 8 of 10
The Siloam inscription
Six metres from the south end they carved the story of the breakthrough. The stone is in Istanbul today.
And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
Read 2 Kings 20:20
The pools
Stop 9 of 10
The pool at the tunnel's end
The water came out into a pool inside the walls. Where Hezekiah's own pool was is not certain.
Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.
Read Isaiah 22:8–11
Stop 10 of 10
The Pool of Siloam of Jesus' day
Lower down is the Pool of Siloam of Jesus' day, found in 2004, still fed by Hezekiah's water. That's the end of the tour.
And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
Read John 9:1–11
Open the 3D labCan't see the 3D? How to turn on hardware acceleration