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The term Pool of Siloam refers to a number of rock-cut pools on the southern slope of the Wadi Hilweh, considered by some archaeologists to be the original site of Jerusalem, located outside the walls of the Old City to the southeast. The pools were fed by the waters of the Gihon Spring, carried there by the Siloam Tunnel.
The City of David, known locally mostly as Wadi Hilweh, is the name given to an archaeological site considered by most scholars to be the original settlement core of Jerusalem during the Bronze and Iron Ages. It is situated on southern part of the eastern ridge of ancient Jerusalem, west of the Kidron Valley and east of the Tyropoeon valley, to the immediate south of the Temple Mount.
The siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War, in which the Roman army led by future emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem, the center of Jewish rebel resistance in the Roman province of Judaea. Following a five-month siege, the Romans destroyed the city and the Second Jewish Temple.
The Siloam inscription or Shiloah inscription, known as KAI 189, is a Hebrew inscription found in the Siloam tunnel which brings water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam, located in the City of David in East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. The inscription records the construction of the tunnel, which has been dated to the 8th century BC on the basis of the writing style. It is the only known ancient inscription from ancient Israel and Judah which commemorates a public construction work, despite such inscriptions being commonplace in Egyptian and Mesopotamian archaeology.
Gihon Spring or Fountain of the Virgin, also known as Saint Mary's Pool, is a spring in the Kidron Valley. It was the main source of water for the Pool of Siloam in Jebus and the later City of David, the original site of Jerusalem.
The newer Siloam Tunnel, also known as Hezekiah's Tunnel, is a water tunnel that was carved within the City of David in ancient times, now located in the Arab neighborhood of Silwan in eastern Jerusalem. Its popular name is due to the most common hypothesis that it dates from the reign of Hezekiah of Judah and corresponds to the "conduit" mentioned in 2 Kings 20:20 in the Hebrew Bible. According to the Bible, King Hezekiah prepared Jerusalem for an impending siege by the Assyrians, by "blocking the source of the waters of the upper Gihon, and leading them straight down on the west to the City of David". By diverting the waters of the Gihon, he prevented the enemy forces under Sennacherib from having access to water.
The Western Wall Tunnel is a tunnel exposing the Western Wall slightly north from where the traditional, open-air prayer site ends and up to the Wall's northern end. Most of the tunnel is in continuation of the open-air Western Wall and is located under buildings of the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. While the open-air portion of the Western Wall is approximately 60 metres (200 ft) long, the majority of its original length of 488 metres (1,601 ft) is hidden underground. The tunnel allows access to the remainder of the Wall in a northerly direction.
The Acra, with the meaning of "stronghold", was a place in Jerusalem thought to have had a fortified compound built by Antiochus Epiphanes, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, following his sack of the city in 168 BCE. The name Acra was also used at a later time for a city quarter probably associated with the by-then destroyed fortress, known in his time to Josephus as both Acra and "the lower city". The fortress played a significant role in the events surrounding the Maccabean Revolt, which resulted in the formation of the Hasmonean Kingdom. The "upper city" was captured by Judas Maccabeus, with the Seleucid garrison taking refuge in the "Acra" below, and the task of destroying this last enemy stronghold inside Jerusalem fell to Simon Maccabeus surnamed Thassi. Our knowledge about the Acra is based almost exclusively on the writings of Josephus, which are of a later date, and on the First and Second Books of Maccabees, which were written not long after the described events.
Warren's Shaft is a vertical shaft next to the Gihon Spring, the main source of water of Bronze and Iron Age Jerusalem, discovered in 1867 by British engineer and archaeologist, Sir Charles Warren (1840–1927). The term is currently used in either a narrower, or a wider sense:
Silwan or Siloam is a predominantly Palestinian district in East Jerusalem, on the southeastern outskirts of the current Old City of Jerusalem.
Leen Ritmeyer is a Dutch-born archaeological architect who currently lives and works in Wales, after having spent 22 years (1967–89) in Jerusalem.
Ronny Reich is an Israeli archaeologist, excavator and scholar of the ancient remains of Jerusalem.
Ir David Foundation or City of David Foundation, commonly known as Elad [El'ad] is a Jerusalem-based, Israeli settler association which aims to strengthen the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, and renew the Jewish community in the City of David, which is also part of the neighborhood of Silwan. The foundation works to achieve its goals by tourism, education, archaeological excavations and obtaining homes in the area to establish a Jewish presence.
The stepped street, as it's known from academic works, or the Jerusalem pilgrim road as it has been dubbed by the Ir David Foundation, is the early Roman period street connecting the Temple Mount from its southwestern corner, to Jerusalem's southern gates of the time via the Pool of Siloam. It was used by ritual processions ascending from the pool to the Temple, Judaism's holiest site. The stepped street was built at the earliest during the 30s CE, with the latest coin found under the pavement dating to 30–31 CE, during the governorship of Pontius Pilate of New Testament fame.
Eli Shukron is an Israeli archaeologist employed by the Israel Antiquities Authority. He has made several significant finds from the period of the Second Temple of Jerusalem.
Robinson's Arch is the name given to a monumental staircase carried by an unusually wide stone arch, which once stood at the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount. It was built as part of the expansion of the Second Temple initiated by Herod the Great at the end of the 1st century BCE. Recent findings suggest that it may not have been completed until at least 20 years after his death. The massive stone span was constructed along with the retaining walls of the Temple Mount. It carried traffic up from ancient Jerusalem's Lower Market area and over the Tyropoeon street to the Royal Stoa complex on the esplanade of the Mount. The overpass was destroyed during the First Jewish–Roman War, only a few decades after its completion.
The King's Garden is a location mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, and associated by biblical archaeologists with the Al-Bustan neighbourhood in the Silwan area of East Jerusalem.
The Givati Parking Lot dig is an archaeological excavation located in Silwan. It is adjacent to the City of David archaeological site. The dig was conducted by Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets of the Israel Antiquities Authority and underwritten by the City of David Foundation.
Montagu Brownlow Parker, 5th Earl of Morley was a British aristocrat and army officer. He became famous for the eponymous expedition he led to Jerusalem starting in 1909 which searched for the Ark of the Covenant and other treasures for the First Temple.
The Eastern Wall is an ancient structure in Jerusalem that is both part of the eastern side of the city wall of Jerusalem and the eastern wall of the ancient Temple Mount.
References
- 1 2 [Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron, The Second Temple Period Central Drainage Channel in Jerusalem – upon the Completion of the Unearthing of Its Southern Part in 2011, in City of David Studies of Ancient Jerusalem: The 12th Annual Conference, ed. Eyal Meiron (Jerusalem: Megalim, City of David Institute for Jerusalem Studies, 2011), 68–95]
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Ancient tunnel discovered in Jerusalem". The Jerusalem Post. AP. September 9, 2007. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
- ↑ Leen Ritmeyer, Tunnel-vision politics in Jerusalem (cont.), 5 February 2011. Accessed 6 December, 2015
- ↑ Leen Ritmeyer (11 September 2009). "Tunnel east of Siloam Pool extended". Ritmeyer Archaeological Design (blog). Retrieved 6 December 2015.
- ↑ Samuel Sokol, "Ir David Foundation Uncovers Second Temple Pilgrims' Road, Water Channel", in the Five Towns Jewish Times weekly, December 24, 2009 [ permanent dead link ]
- ↑ Norman Golb, Newly Discovered Tunnel May Once Have Carried Dead Sea Scrolls, in The Forward , October 24, 2007
- ↑ Capt. Charles Wilson, Capt. Charles Warren (1871). The recovery of Jerusalem. A narrative of exploration and discovery in the city and the Holy Land. New York: D. Appleton & Company. pp. 80–85 etc.
- ↑ Leen Ritmeyer (16 November 2011). "Walking through the Herodian sewer in Jerusalem". Ritmeyer Archaeological Design (blog). Retrieved 6 December 2015.
- ↑ Archived June 17, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ David Bedien, Middle East Correspondent (September 20, 2009). "Ancient Temple Street Discovered Beneath Jerusalem". Philadelphia Bulletin. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
- ↑ Szanton, Nahshon; Uziel, Joe (2016). "Jerusalem, City of David [stepped street dig, July 2013 – end 2014], Preliminary Report (21/08/2016)". Hadashot Arkheologiyot. Israel Antiquities Authority. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
- ↑ Archeologists find ancient tunnel used to escape Romans. 9/10/2007, USA Today
- ↑ City of David: The Central Water Drainage Channel, Present Excavation 2007–2012