CONFIEMED BY RECENT DISCOVERIES IN PALESTINE AND THE EAST. 137 



on by the officers of the Royal Engineers, under the auspices 

 of the Palestine Exploration Fund, for the purpose of deter- 

 mining the form and position of the ancient foundations of 

 Jerusalem beneath the accumulated rubbish of centuries by 

 which they are concealed from view, a remarkable inscription 

 was met with in an ancient aqueduct near to the Pool of 

 Siloam in the year 1880; this is now known as "The 

 Siloam Inscription." The inscription is in Phoenician charac- 

 ters on a tablet of stone, and describes how that the workmen 

 engaged in hewing out the conduit front opposite directions, 

 approached so near that the sound of their pickaxes and 

 their voices became audible through the intervening partition; 

 and that ultimately this partition of solid rock was hewn 

 away so that the waters flowed through into the covered 

 reservoirs prepared for them ; there being a cubit between 

 the roof of the conduit and the surface of the Avaters. The 

 inscription is very nearly perfect, and has been reproduced in 

 a photograph from a squeeze by the Committee of the Pales- 

 tine Exploration Fund. 



When we come to inquire whether there -is any reference 

 to the making of this conduit in the Bible, we are not long 

 h'ft in doubt. We read in the books of 2 Kings xx, 20, and 

 2 Chronicles xxxii, 30, how that Hezekiah on the approach of 

 the army of the King of Assyria, impounded the waters com- 

 ing down from the uj^per springs of Gihon, and covering them 

 over with masonry so as to conceal them from the Assyrians, 

 carried them by a conduit into a pool within the city " to 

 the west side of the City of David." The work was one con- 

 sidered of great importance, as we gather from the fact that 

 the account of it is thrice referred to, and were it not that an 

 erroneous opinion has gained considerable ground regarding 

 the true position of the '• upper spring of Gihon," no doubt 

 could be entertained that this is the very conduit constructed 

 by Hezekiah. The identification has now happily been 

 established by Colonel Sir Charles Warren and Colonel Conder, 

 who explored the conduit from end to end, and have given 

 an account of the somewhat perilous undertaking, which is 

 exceedingly graphic and interesting {Survey of Westei-n Pales" 

 tine, part II, page 346, 1886; also the Recovery of Jerusalem, 

 page 257). It was also explored by Dr. Robinson in 1838, 

 and is referred to by Quaresimus in 1625. It has a length of 

 about 1,760 feet, or 1,200 cubits of 16^ inches each. The 

 waters of the spring are intermittent, as mentioned by the 

 Bordeaux Pilgrim and Jerome in the fourth century; and the 



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