Beneath Jerusalem: The Pilgrimage Road reopens an ancient path

In the complex, which is located just outside the Old City’s walls, a new attraction has recently opened to the public: a 1st-century Pilgrimage Road, which is considered both sacred and controversial.

The sacred journey began at the Pool of Siloam, where thousands of pilgrims from across the world would flock to Jerusalem for Jewish festivals such as Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. Beneath the stones of the pool, archaeologists unearthed coins ranging from Carthage to Alexandria, Greece to Persia, showing the diversity of those who continuously made the trek more than 2,000 years ago.

This historic Siloam pool was rediscovered by accident in the early 2000s, after a burst pipe revealed man-made stone blocks near an orchard owned by the Greek Orthodox Church adjacent to Silwan.

Silwan and several other neighborhoods are situated on a slope just to the south of the Old City, an area that archaeologists believe to be the foundations of the 3,000-year-old city. Tension between the mostly Palestinian residents of the area and Jewish groups – as well as a growing number of Jewish residents – has been brewing for decades, compounded by the lengthy excavation of the Pilgrimage Road and the City of David archaeological site.

Amid a myriad of legal battles between both sides, Israel’s High Court ultimately denied the claims of the Palestinian residents over the Pool of Siloam in 2022 after evidence was presented, showing that the land had been legally purchased by a Jewish organization in the early 2000s, which later donated it to the City of David Foundation.

During the pipe repairs near the Siloam pool, what caught archaeologists’ attention was a set of stone stairs that were identical to those discovered along the Western Wall. It was these stairs that first led researchers to believe they had discovered the starting point of the Pilgrimage Road, based on Jewish and historical sources.

“We can’t destroy today in order to learn about the past,” Kleid explained to the visitors, stepping past the pool and up to the start of the Pilgrimage Road, where fluorescent lighting shows the way, and heavy steel beams reinforce the structure of the tunnel under the weight of the streets above.

The beams give a glimpse into the caution archaeologists took when excavating the road. Rather than starting from ground level – burrowing down through the layers in traditional archaeological style – and disrupting the residents’ life in Silwan, archaeologists dug sideways for 13 years, a meter and a half at a time.

Upon entering the tunnel, one sees a display of a market stall to the right, complete with goats and a colorful awning, depicting what the road might have once looked like: thousands of pilgrims, market stalls lining the streets, and vendors shouting as they try to sell their wares.

Kleid explained that some of the original limestone steps had been stolen from the site. In their place, wooden steps were built to facilitate walking.

Beneath the road itself lies an equally interesting piece of history. The drainage channel, which was also constructed by Herod, was used at first to prevent flooding, and then to conceal Jewish rebels from the Romans during the Bar Kochba revolt, 132 CE to 135 CE.

A seal bearing the words zaka le’elokim (“holy to God”) was found in the channel, alongside a stone cup with one of the oldest depictions of the menorah. There was another significant find: a golden bell, thought to have belonged to one of the high priests of the Temple.

Visitors on the tour were invited to enter the drainage tunnel itself, a narrow, moist shaft that seems to continue endlessly in both directions. Stepping into the cool space, it was easy to enter the mindset of rebels who had once hidden there. It was also easy to imagine archaeologists discovering candles, clay pots, and weapons there.

Sections of the road above the channel are broken through in places and are filled in with glass panels. This, it was later explained, was where Roman soldiers broke through the rock to reach the Jewish rebels.

Walking along the Pilgrimage Road is walking in the footsteps of history.

The road itself mirrors the climb through the ages, as the stones underfoot shift from Herod’s Roman-era road to Byzantine-era stonework. Then, you step out from the underground and into the shadow of the Western Wall, just under Warren’s Arch in the Davidson Center.

The Pilgrimage Road was not only a journey bringing together thousands of people year after year but also a way to form a religious and spiritual connection to the Temple Mount.

“The Pilgrimage Road connected tens of thousands of people who came from all over the country and the world during the Second Temple period on their way to the Temple,” City of David Foundation founder and CEO David Be’eri said during the site’s formal opening ceremony. “It is expected to again connect with millions of visitors and tourists walking those very stones today.”

“Walking the Pilgrimage Road and giving these tours is a privilege. It’s been a long time coming,” Kleid told the Report, adding that any story she can tell that enables people to connect with their heritage and history is one worth telling.■