Biblical accounts say the tunnel was constructed to move water from the Gihon spring all the way across the ancient city of Jerusalem into the pool of Siloam to protect the city’s water supply from an Assyrian siege. Today it is a tourist attraction.
Sept. 10 — A tunnel that snakes under the ancient walls of Jerusalem likely was built around 700 B.C. during the reign of King Hezekiah, as described in the Bible, a new study suggests.
THE TUNNEL’S AGE had been debated by biblical scholars, a few of whom had suggested it was built centuries later. The only surviving clue to its age had been an inscription discovered in 1880 on a tunnel wall, which supported the link to Hezekiah but did not specifically name him.
In the new study, analysis of stalactite samples from the ceiling of the Siloam Tunnel and plant material recovered from its plaster floor both confirm the biblical record, researchers say.
“We believe this point is now clearly settled,” said Amos Frumkin, a geologist and director of the Cave Research Center at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He and colleagues present their analysis in Thursday’s issue of the journal...
