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Courtesy of Holylandphotos.org

While watching municipal workers replace a sewer pipe in the City of David, south of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, archaeologist Eli Shukron noticed that the construction equipment had revealed two ancient steps. Shukron quickly notified his colleague Ronny Reich, who identified the steps as part of the Pool of Siloam from the late Second Temple Period (first century B.C.-first century A.D.), as further excavations soon confirmed. It was at the Pool of Siloam, according to the Gospel of John, that Jesus cured the blind man (John 9:1–11). The newly discovered pool is adjacent to an area referred to as the King’s Garden and is just southeast of what had long been called the Pool of Siloam. The other pool, however, does not date to Jesus’ time but to the fourth century.