GIHON. - A spring outside the walls of Jerusalem, where, by David’s order, Solomon was secretly anointed king, forestalling the proclamation planned by Adonijah and his partisans gathered at the rock of Zoheleth near the spring of Rogel (1 Kings 1:9). It has been identified with ‘Ajn Sitti Maryam, the only spring in Jerusalem, located at the foot of the hill (Ophel) on which stood David’s palace, on the western side of the Kidron Valley about 100 meters from Bir Ajjib (= spring of Rogel) and opposite the steep slope Zahwejleh (= Zoheleth?) that ascended to the village of Silwan.
Archaeological exploration of the cavern from which the Gihon flows has revealed an entire hydraulic system designed to supply the city with water in the event of a siege. In the second millennium, a secret passage cut into the rock led from the city to the mouth of a well from which water could be drawn by ropes and vessels; the water from the spring, whose natural outlet had been blocked, was channeled inside the hill down to the well. Scholars generally agree that through this passage (sinnor) it was possible to penetrate the Jebusite fortress and conquer II.
As the city expanded westward, new works (pools and channels) were added around the Gihon even in Solomon’s time. In the days of Ahaz, a channel was constructed along the hillside almost at ground level, with various open sections for irrigating the royal gardens; it conveyed water from the Gihon to the lower pool, now known as Birket el-hamrâ’ (Isa. 8:6). This channel, which could also serve besiegers, was blocked by Hezekiah (2 Chron. 32:30), who had a deep tunnel dug that, passing underground through the Ophel hill, carried water from the upper Gihon to the other side of the hill on the west side (2 Chron. 32:30; 2 Kings 20:20; Ecclus. 48:19) into the pool of Siloam (John 9:7). There, in 1880, the inscription describing the work was discovered—now in the Museum of Constantinople.