Pools of Jerusalem. The approximate location of King Hezekiah’s pool adjoining the conduit that he constructed to bring the waters of the spring of Gihon into Jerusalem is the Pool of Siloam, the present Birket Silwan, just SW of the City of David. (2Ki 20:20; 2Ch 32:30) The first-century Pool of Siloam (Joh 9:7) seems to have been found nearby, some 100 m (330 ft) SSE of Birket Silwan.

Remains have been found of a channel, or canal, that ran S from the Gihon spring, following the contour of the Kidron’s bank and terminating in an ancient reservoir now called Birket el-Hamra. Sections of the canal were covered with stone slabs, but it appears that there were openings so that water could be drawn off to irrigate parts of the valley. The gradual slope of this canal may be referred to in the words “the waters of the Shiloah that are going gently.” (Isa 8:6) The location of Birket el-Hamra fits Nehemiah’s placement of the Pool of the Canal, near the King’s Garden and the Stairway going down from the S end of the City of David.