WATCH! Walking Through Hezekiah’s Tunnel

Elana and I used to lead tours, typically twice a year. One of hardest parts of the past few years, beginning with COVID and then the October 7th massacre and war that followed, is that we have only been able to do one tour since 2019. One of my favorite places to take people is Hezekiah’s tunnel in Jerusalem.

A few year ago, I had the incredible opportunity to walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel in Jerusalem — a narrow, hand-carved passage that carries water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam—with a film crew.

As I waded through the cool, ankle-deep water, the walls closing in on either side, I couldn’t help but marvel at the faith and determination it took to build this ancient engineering wonder.

Carved over 2,700 years ago, during King Hezekiah’s reign, the tunnel was a lifeline — a way to secure Jerusalem’s water supply against the Assyrian siege.

Every echoing footstep reminded me that God’s people have always trusted Him to make a way, even in the darkest and narrowest of places.

Here is the story:

Around 701 BCE, King Hezekiah faced an existential threat: the mighty Assyrian army, led by King Sennacherib, was sweeping through Judah. Knowing Jerusalem would likely be besieged, Hezekiah ordered a brilliant and daring project — to secure the city’s water source, the Gihon Spring, and divert it safely within Jerusalem’s walls.

The work was carried out by teams of stonecutters, who used simple hand tools — picks, chisels, and hammers — to carve a tunnel through solid limestone beneath the City of David. What makes it extraordinary is that two teams began digging from opposite ends, one starting at the Gihon Spring and the other at the Pool of Siloam, and they somehow managed to meet in the middle.

Archaeologists believe they used sound and surface markers (people making noise by hitting the ground so that those underground could estimate the correct path) to stay roughly aligned — an incredible feat given the lack of modern surveying equipment.

The tunnel stretches 533 meters (about 1,750 feet) and has a gentle gradient, allowing water to flow naturally from the spring to the pool. The famous Siloam Inscription, written in the biblical Hebrew of its day, was discovered on the tunnel wall in the 19th century. It describes the moment when the two teams finally broke through the last thin wall of rock to meet — a scene of joy and triumph echoing through the stone.

“... the tunneling was completed.

And this was the way in which it was cut through:

While [the stonecutters were still wielding] the pick,

each man toward his fellow,

and while there were still three cubits to be cut through,

there was heard the voice of a man calling to his fellow,

for there was a fissure in the rock on the right.

And on the day of the tunneling through,

the stonecutters struck, each man toward his fellow, pick against pick;

and the water flowed from the source to the pool,

a distance of 1,200 cubits.

And 100 cubits was the height of the rock above the heads of the stonecutters.”

This project not only protected Jerusalem’s water supply during siege but also demonstrated the technical sophistication and organizational strength of Hezekiah’s kingdom.

Even today, walking through that dark, narrow passage connects us to the ingenuity, courage, and cooperation of those ancient workers who literally carved life through stone.