City of David: ancient Jerusalem's walls and Pool of Siloam

Here we are–about to visit the Pool of Siloam!

As I stated last week, the ancient Hezekiah's Tunnel leads directly into the Pool. I actually don't know where modern tourists will exit from it now, but you can see the exit at the pool. Because I took the dry Canaanite tunnel, I was able to walk and see more outside, including:

THE ANCIENT CITY WALLS!!!!!

Cue me freaking out again, because this is awesome!!!

This is a model of an ancient crane used to build these walls:

And, we saw more ancient tombs before walking through part of a village to get to the Pool:

Finally, we found the Pool!

This pool was also commissioned by Hezekiah (2 Kings 20 and Isaiah 22). The stepped structure of the baths (covered over with stone from the Hasmonean period, aka The Inter-Testamental Period) lead archeologists to say that it was an ancient ritual bath, or a mikveh. 

Which, leads to something very interesting my friend pointed out. In John 9, Jesus heals a blind man at the Temple by spitting in mud and putting it on his eyes. He then tells the blind man to go wash at the Pool of Siloam, which means "sent". 

Something I never realized is how far the blind man had to walk in order to wash. Now a days, that's an easier path because of modern roads, but I still looked it up on GoogleMaps:

It's 700 meters to get from the Western Wall to the Pool of Siloam on modern roads. That's almost half a mile. The man was already blind, but this time he was navigating there and dodging people, animals, obstacles, etc.—all with mud and spit running down his face! 

Wow... being here in Israel is reading the Bible with GPS... it gives so much extra context!

Here again is the exit to Hezekiah's Tunnel:

There was more to see in the City of David- an ancient market and street, for example, but at this point, it began to rain and it was in the low 40s as far as temp. My friends and I needed to get back up north for class the next day, so we decided to leave. Which just means there will be more that is "new for me" for me to see next time!

Did you enjoy this tour of the City of David? Please let me know what you liked best in the comments below!