Editing Pool of Siloam (section)

===Earlier excavations===
Archaeologists excavating the site around the Pool of Siloam in the 1880s have noted that there was a stairway of 34 rock-hewn steps to the west of the Pool of Siloam leading up from a court in front of the Pool of Siloam.<ref name="QuarterlyStatement1897">{{cite journal |last=Bliss |first=F. J. |author-link1=F.J. Bliss |year=1897 |title=Eleventh Report of the Excavations at Jerusalem |url=https://archive.org/details/quarterlystateme29pale/page/n3/mode/2up |journal=Quarterly Statement – Palestine Exploration Fund |volume=29 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/quarterlystateme29pale/page/n27/mode/2up 11], 13}}</ref> The breadth of the steps varies from {{convert|27|ft|abbr=on}} at the top to {{convert|22|ft|abbr=on}} at the bottom.<ref name="QuarterlyStatement1897"/>

The remnants of an ancient wall dating to the [[Bronze Age]] were unearthed near the older Pool of Siloam, known also as the "Lower Pool," and locally as ''Birket al-Ḥamrah'', during the excavations conducted by [[Frederick J. Bliss|F. J. Bliss]] and A. C. Dickie (1894–1897).<ref name="Yitzhaki">{{cite book |last=Barkay |first=Gabriel |author-link=Gabriel Barkay |contribution=City of David (עיר דוד) |title=Israel Guide – Jerusalem (A useful encyclopedia for the knowledge of the country) |editor=Chaim Rubenstein |publisher=Keter Publishing House, in affiliation with the Israel Ministry of Defence |year=1980 |volume=10 |location=Jerusalem, Israel |pages=166–167 |language=he |oclc=745203905 }}</ref> At the "Lower Pool" of Siloam there was a [[weir]] (levee), used to raise the level of water upstream or to regulate its flow.<ref name="Yitzhaki"/> [[Conrad Schick]]'s research in connection with a partially rock-hewn aqueduct related to the water system of Siloam has led researchers to conclude that the Lower Pool, ''Birket al-Ḥamrah'', received water directly from the "Fountain of the Virgin" ([[Gihon Spring]]) at some period and which Schick places prior to the completion of the Siloam Tunnel.<ref>{{cite journal |last=PEF |author-link=Palestine Exploration Fund |title=The Herodian Temple, According to the Treatise Middoth and Flavius Josephus |journal=Palestine Exploration Quarterly |date=1886|volume=18|issue=2|pages=92–113 |doi=10.1179/peq.1886.18.2.92}}</ref><ref>cf. {{cite book |author-last=Dalman|author-first=Gustaf |author-link=Gustaf Dalman |title=Work and Customs in Palestine, volume II |publisher=Dar Al Nasher |location=Ramallah|year=2020 |volume=2 (Agriculture) |language=en |translator=Robert Schick |editor=Nadia Abdulhadi-Sukhtian |page=280 |isbn=978-9950-385-84-9}}, who writes that the [[King's Garden (Jerusalem)|King's Garden]] was irrigated originally through a canal with side openings, which led the water of the [[Gihon spring]] at the edge of the valley to the south, until [[Hezekiah's Tunnel]] created a more southern exit for the water, from which the garden could then be irrigated.</ref>