Excavation has shown tliat the present BirJcet Silwdn has been constructed witliin the limits of the ancient pool of Siloam. The original pool measured 71 it. from N. to S. and 75 ft. from E. to W., and was for the most part excavated in the rock. A flight of rock-hewn steps led do^vn to it from the city, and it could be emptied by a sluice- gate at its southern end. After the return from the Captivity, possildy during the reign of Herod, a covered arcade, 12 ft. wide, 22J ft. high, and roofed with larfje flat slabs of stone, was erected in the pool, and ran round its four sides. This was prob- ably the condition of the pool when Christ told the blind man (Jn 9') to go and wash 'in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent).' +
In the 5th cent, a three-aisled church waa built, with its high altar directly above the point at which the stream issued from the tunnel, and its south aisle over the northern arcade of the pool. The church was entered from the north, on which side there were an atrium, and a narthex with a flight of steps leadinj; doivn to the level of the north aisle. It appears to have hecii the work of the empress Eudocia, who is said to have included the pool of Siloam within the city wall. In the reign of Justinian the basilica was converted into a domed church, I which is noticed by Antoninus Martyr (c. 570), the only pilgrim who mentions a church at Siloam. § Tlie church must after- wards have been destroyed, probably during the Persian invasion (C14), for it is not again mentioned (Bliss, Ezcavatuttis at Jerusalem, pp. 132-210 ; Quthe, ' Ausgrabungen bei Jeru- salem,' in ZDPVv. p. 52 ff.).
The larger pool, Birkct el-IIamra,\\ has not been completely examined, but excavation has shown that it is partially cut in the rock, and that the dam of masonry at its lower end, wliich has a thickness of 20 to 8 ft., and is strengthened by buttresses, is at one point 44 ft. high. The con- struction of the dam, and the manner in which its masonry is bonded into the rock at either end, shows that, like the dam of the Birket Israil, it formed part of the defences of the city (Bliss, I.e.). The pool is probably the work of llezekiah, and referred to (Is 22") as the mikveh, or 'ditch (IIV reservoir) between the two walls for the water.s of the old pool.' The dam is apparently the wall of the 'pool (birekhah) of the Slielah ' repaired by Shallun (Neh 3"). This pool is mentioned by the Bordeaux Pilgrim, by Antoninus Martyr, and other pilgrims, and, in the Middle Ages, it was frequently called Natatoria Siloe, to distinguish it from the upper pool of Siloam. The tunnel and
* Conder, in his very complete description of the tunnel (PEFSt, 1882, p. 122ff.), gives its length as 1706-8 ft., or, »rpro.viMiately, 1200 cubits of 17 in., and states that the point of junction wa.s 944 ft. from the Siloam end. See aino PEFJletn. 'Jerusalem,' p. Si5.
t On the play upon the meaning of the word, and on the pftrallelism between 'the sent one' and 'the sent water,* see Risil on Is 8.
I The position of the church with regard to the pool is not unlike that of St. Mary in probatica, in the Pool of Betliesda near the Church of St. Anne.
ft The church is also mentioned in the life of St. Peter the Iberian (409-488).
I This name is derived from the hard red cement full of pounded pottery which is used for lining cisterns, and is locally called hamra.
the pools are possibly referred to in 2 Ch 32*, Ii 22», and Sir 48".
The water of Siloam is described by Josephus aa bein" sweet and abundant (5/ V. iv. 1); and by the Kabbis, who attributed digestive properties to it, as being clear and sweet. On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, water from the spring was poured upon the altar (Neubauer, Giofj. du Talmud, p. 145 f.). In 985 Mukaddasi, a native of Jerusalem, calls the water ' fairly good ' ; but the author of the Marasid (c. 1300) says that it was then no longer sweet. Writers of the 15th and 16th cents, call it brackish but wholesome. As the sprin" depends upon the annual rainfall for its supply, the water, which percolates through vast accumulations of refuse, must to a certain extent be impure, but it is still used for drinking pur- poses by tlie villagers of Silwdn and by tlie poor of Jerusalem. In consequence of the miracle wrought on the blind man, the water and pool are held in much honour by Jews, Christians, and Moslems. Healing properties, especially in the case of eye diseases, have been attributed to tlie water from the early days of Christianity, and numerous legends have gathered round it. (Chris- tians believed that it came from Shiloh or from Mt. Zion ; Moslems, that on the night of 'Arafat it came underground from the holy well, Zemzem, at Mecca. A small perennial stream flows from the Fountain of the \ irgin to the Pool of Siloam, and its volume is increased, at uncertain times, by a sudden rush of water from the spring. The Bordeaux Pilgrim, Jerome (in Is. 8'), and most of the pilgrims, write of the increased flow as periodic ; but in reality it varies greatly, and is dependent upon the rainfall and the season. During a wet winter the stream swells two or three times a day, whilst in summer the rise takes place only once in two or three days. All knowledge of the tunnel through which the stream runs was lost for several centuries, and it was first rediscovered in the 13th cent. It may perhaps even be inferred from the silence of Josephus that the Fountain of the Virgin was unknown to him, and that it was first opened, after its closure by Hezekiah, some centuries later.