While on a tour of Ir David and the Pilgrims Road, I took these pictures for my friends who have read the book, When the Stone Speaks, but haven't been able to go on the Pilgrim's Road tour. 

The Pilgrim's Road is actually many feet underground and at this time consists of two sections: the part that is from what was the Givati Parking Lot walking north to the Temple Mount and the part that runs south from the parking lot to the Siloam/Shiloah pool. The northern part has been available to the public for many years. The southern part is newly excavated and is now open to the public.

The now non existant Givati parking lot is across ythe street from the southern wall surrounding the Old City and part of Ir David.

Here are some pictures of the recently excavated section of the Pilgrims Road. The book When the Stones Speak, by Doron Spielman, describes how the road was discoverd and all that was involved with excavating the area to uncover the road while protecting the houses and other structures above the road, as well as the politics of uncovering the road, the development of Ir David (City of David) and much more.

Our tour guide said that the Siloam/Shiloah pool may not actually be the pool of long ago. At this point in time, this label is still used for the pool we see today.  The picture after the map is the Shiloah/Siloam pool.

You will see parts of stone walls along the side of the road.  These were stores for the pilgrims to purchase food, animals to sacrifice and things needed for the scarifices. You will also see rounded metal support beams that keep the structures at todays ground level secure. Looking closely, you will see that there is more excavation going on at the side and lower down from the road as well.  The actual road is much wider than what has been excavated thus far. There seems to be two roads that meet to make one road. There is a lot more to be uncovered and discovered!!

There is also a stone "staired" platform. Read sign 19 for the explanation.

The way the pictures loaded is not 100% in the order of our walk- only the first few and last few are in sequence as we walked.

The last few pictures are of the dig at what was the Givati parking lot-The dig goes down through many time periods . In one picture you will see the tops of crowns from Roman columns. 

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