Hezekiah tunnel
The Hezekiah Tunnel is an underground aqueduct built by the Judeans from the 8th century BC. In the city of Jerusalem . The 500 meter long tunnel leads the water of the Gihon spring into the city, into the pond of Siloam . The archaeologically developed tunnel carries water to the present day and can be visited over most of its length.
history
According to ( 2 Kings 20.20 EU ), ( 2 Chr 32.30 EU ) and ( Sir 48.17 EU ) the tunnel was opened in 701 BC. Built by order of King Hezekiah (reign 727–698 BC). King of Judah had given the always continue in the second half of the 8th century by Syria and Palestine to Egypt encroaching Assyrian protect military Jerusalem Army. In view of the many refugees from the northern kingdom of Israel , whose capital Samaria was 722 BC. Was taken by Assyria , Hezekiah re-walled the city, which had grown significantly to the west and south, and secured the fresh water supply from outside the city with the tunnel named after him. The attack on Jerusalem and its siege took place in 701 BC. Under the Assyrian king Sennacherib .
Location and construction
The curvy tunnel has a total length of 533 meters. It begins at the Gihon spring (also Gichon spring) in Jerusalem. It is the only year-round spring in the city. It is an intermittent spring that rises underground in a grotto at the foot of the eastern slope of the City of David in the Kidron Valley at approx. 630 m above sea level. The tunnel initially uses the old Jebusite inlet to the vertical shaft in a westerly direction (often equated with the biblical 'Zinnor' (( 2 Sam 5,8 EU )) through which Joab entered the city on behalf of David ; here the Canaanite Jebusites are said to have water within the walled area of their city). Then the water tunnel runs in large loops in the direction of SSW through the ridge of the City of David and flows into the Shiloah pond . This place was in the protected inner part of the city. The well-known pond, however, dates from the Byzantine period . More recent excavations in recent years are currently uncovering an older, somewhat southern and deeper basin of the pond.
In the Iron Age II (1000-520 BC), complex systems were built in Palestine for the safe supply of fresh water in Israelite and Judean cities, such as B. in Megiddo , Hazor , Tell es-Seba and other places. To this day it is unclear (in spite of the same theories being discussed again and again) why not an (almost) direct path between Gihonquelle and Siloah pond, but a much longer, unmotivated meandering path was chosen. Possibly because it was linked to older buildings. However, the construction was definitely a major project with a huge engineering challenge. Two construction crews dug their way through the rock, one starting at the source and the other at the mouth. The squads may have been directed by knocking signals. Shortly before the meeting (at a distance of about 30 m) the troops could hear each other and worked towards each other, albeit with a few corrections of direction. There is a partially preserved inscription from this last tunnel construction phase, which was affixed to the wall near the southern end of the tunnel on a smooth surface.
inscription
The Siloam inscription reports in ancient Hebrew script and language about the work shortly before the tunnel breakthrough and is interesting from an archaeological point of view. It was found in 1880 not far from the southern tunnel entrance. After trying to steal it in Ottoman times and the thief was caught, it was brought to Istanbul , where it is still kept in the Museum of Antiquities today:
" ... the piercing. This is the story of the piercing. When [...] hoe (s) [...] each went to his vehicle, and when three cubits still had to be pierced, [...] the voice of a man calling out to the other, because there was a crack on the right side [ …] And on the day of the breakthrough the workers met, hand to hand, hoe to hoe, and the water flowed from the source to the pond, 1200 cubits wide and 100 cubits was the thickness of the rock over the workers' heads. "
tourism
The entire area of the Gihon spring and the tunnel, as well as the Shiloah pond is today a unique archaeological facility that can be visited. A hand lamp can also be used to walk around 450 meters of the tunnel. You wade through the knee-deep (up to 70 cm) cold spring water. The tunnel is near the old town, below the Temple Mount and the Ma'ale HaShalom .
literature
- Israel Finkelstein , Neil A. Silbermann: David and Solomon. C. H. Beck, Munich 2006, p. 121f. ISBN 3-406-54676-5
Web links
References
- ↑ quoted from Finkelstein, p. 122.
Coordinates: 31 ° 46 ′ 20.5 " N , 35 ° 14 ′ 8.4" E