In John 9:7 Jesus told a blind man to "wash in the pool of Siloam" to be healed. The March-April 2005 Good News described archaeologists' discovery of this very pool ("Archaeologists discover biblical Pool of Siloam," p. 16). Subsequent excavations in the area have begun to yield more secrets, possibly including the discovery of another, much older pool mentioned in the Bible.

At one end of the steps descending to the Pool of Siloam archaeologists dug a shaft to learn what lay beneath it. According to reports from the Israel Antiquities Authority, there they found remains of a much earlier pool tentatively identified as the one mentioned in Nehemiah 3:15.

Describing the repairs to the city wall initiated by Nehemiah in the fifth century B.C., this passage states: "Shallun . . . repaired the wall of the Pool of Shelah by the King's Garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the City of David ."

The newly discovered pool fits this geographic description very well. The area of "the King's Garden," also mentioned in connection with King Zedekiah's attempted escape from the Babylonians recorded in Jeremiah 39:4-5 and 2 Kings 25:4-5, is thought to be the unexcavated orchard and garden, owned by the Greek Orthodox Church, part of which currently overlays most of the Pool of Siloam.

At the other end of the Pool of Siloam excavators have uncovered what they believe is a colonnaded plaza that joined the pool to a previously discovered first-century street that led up the Tyropoean Valley to the magnificent temple complex constructed by Herod the Great. If so, they will be bringing to light more of the first-century streets on which Jesus and the disciples walked.

Archaeologists also uncovered a portion of an aqueduct, covered with stone slabs, which passed through yet another small pool exposed in the upper steps of the Pool of Siloam.

In the immediate area is the southern end of Hezekiah's Tunnel, a 581-yard passageway carved by workmen under the command of Judah 's King Hezekiah in the eighth century B.C. to provide a secure water source for Jerusalem in the face of an Assyrian invasion. This ancient engineering feat is described in 2 Chronicles 32:30, which records that "Hezekiah also stopped the water outlet of Upper Gihon [spring], and brought the water by tunnel to the west side of the City of David ."

Also in the area are drainage channels, leading from the nearby Gihon Spring, which are thought to date from the time of King Solomon in the 10th century B.C.

Excavations are continuing in the area under the direction of Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa.