Question: What major construction job was a highlight of Hezekiah’s reign?
Answer: Water works (reservoirs, pipelines, etc.) (II Kings 20:20).
Comments: Hezekiah's tunnel was dug during under the orders of the king od Judah around 701 BCE. The biblical account of this landmark is detailed in II Kings 20:20 and II Chronicles 32:2-4, 30.
The tunnel was dug in bedrock for over half a kilometer, about 40 meters beneath Ophel in Jerusalem, between the Gihon spring and the pool of Shiloah or Siloam.
Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? (II Kings 20:20, NASB)
Its purpose was to deny water to the Assyrian army under Sennacharib, that was expected to lay siege to Jerusalem and to provide a water source to Jerusalem during the siege. It is a winding tunnel 533m in length, and has approximately a 0.6% gradient, causing water to flow along its length from the spring to the pool. The tunnel was discovered by the American biblical archeologist Edward Robinson (1794-1863) in 1838.
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