In Hezekiah's Tunnel

One of the most interesting figures in the bible is King Hezekiah—reformer, builder, and entirely historical, attested to in a passel of extra-biblical sources. New sources have been excavated over the last few weeks.

Archaeologists place Hezekiah's reign as stretching from 715 (or '16) to 686 BC. Hezekiah was king of the southern of the two Jewish kingdoms—Judea, corresponding to central Israel and the southern lobe of the West Bank. He dramatically expanded Jerusalem's power and its population, and helped reunite the 12 tribes, despite their being spread over his kingdom and the Kingdom of Israel to the north. He refused to continue playing tribute to Assyria, so Assyria's King Sennacherib invaded, and laid siege to Jerusalem. The siege is discussed in a number of ancient sources; an ancient Assyrian tablet recording Assyria's campaign in Ethiopia says this about it: "As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid siege to 46 of his strong cities … and conquered them … Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage."

Hezekiah prepared for Assyria's wrath at his non-tribute by forming an alliance with Egypt. When Assyria invaded, Egypt (evidently) refused to honor the alliance, so Hezekiah was forced to prepare for war against a vastly stronger enemy. In fact, the first thing he did, as Assyria started to raze Judea's towns, was pay Assyria an enormous peace settlement, to bring the war to a swift end. Assyria accepted the settlement, but continued the war.

At this point, Hezekiah did two things. The first was build a massive wall, the so called "Broad Wall," which, despite being 2700 years old, can still be seen today in the Old City of Jerusalem (you know, the part the UN says Jews are illegally settling.) To go with the wall—according to 2 Chronicles—"when Hezekiah saw the Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. 'Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?' they said." 2 Kings adds some detail: "Hezekiah made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city."

That tunnel—Hezekiah's Tunnel, also known as the Siloam Tunnel—is perhaps what Hezekiah is best known for today. It's a remarkable thing. It winds its way deep under Jerusalem; it's 1,500 feet long, and despite an altitude difference of less than a foot between the source spring and the reservoir to which the water is being moved, water is able to flow smoothly from one end to the other.