{"id":14536,"date":"2026-02-20T11:25:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=14536"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:25:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:25:41","slug":"pilgrims-road-opens-up-for-tourists-for-first-time-in-2000-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/02\/pilgrims-road-opens-up-for-tourists-for-first-time-in-2000-years.html","title":{"rendered":"Pilgrims\u2019 Road Opens Up For Tourists for First Time in 2,000 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_14539\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14539\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14539\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/02\/Pilgrimage-Road_credit-City-of-David.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14539\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">City of David<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After 2,000 years, an ancient pilgrimage road has reopened to the public. On January 20, around 30 people participated in the inaugural walk of the reopened Pilgrims\u2019 Road. \u201cIt was just the biggest honor to be among the first people to rewalk these steps,\u201d said Shira Greenspan, a resident of the central Israeli city of Modiin who was among some of the first people to tour the road. \u201cI thought it was just like a perfect blend of experiential, funny, and meaningful. It did not feel dry; it felt alive and real. You\u2019re suddenly connected across thousands of years. It\u2019s just breathtaking.\u201d The road begins at the site that is believed to be the Siloam Pool in ancient Jerusalem and ran several hundred meters to the Temple Mount during the Second Temple period. The Siloam Pool is mentioned in the book of John and is the site of one of Jesus\u2019s miracles. The road was originally used by millions of pilgrims on their way to the Temple for religious observances. It was built in the first century AD, possibly by King Herod or Governor Pontius Pilate, but it was abruptly abandoned during the Great Revolt. It was later buried and lost for a time.<\/p>\n<p>The site has been under excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) for the last 20 years. Amit Re\u2019em, IAA chief archaeologist for the Jerusalem District, told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/2000-year-old-pilgrimage-road-to-temple-mount-opens-to-public-after-years-of-digging\/\"><em>The Times of Israel<\/em><\/a> that the road is \u201cone of the most magnificent archaeological discoveries in Jerusalem in the last decades.\u201d \u201cFor the first time, you can see this direct link between the Siloam Pool and the Temple Mount, and the street was sealed under the modern city for thousands of years,\u201d said Re\u2019em. The discovery has some controversy as the road begins in the present-day city of Silwan, a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood. Palestinian residents who resided above the underground site objected to the excavations, claiming it would damage the buildings.<\/p>\n<p>The IAA celebrated the road\u2019s reopening in a statement. \u201cWe have been waiting for this moment for 2,000 years,\u201d the post read. \u201cFor many generations, the road was buried under layers of destruction. In recent years, we have been privileged to re-expose its entire length in a joint project between the City of David and the Israel Antiquities Authority.\u201d Tourists will be able to tour the road through self-guided and guided tours. The tour lasts about two hours according to the release. \u201cIts opening enables visitors to walk a street that lay hidden underground for thousands of years and to encounter Jerusalem as it once was \u2014 a living, dynamic and bustling city, revealed directly through its authentic remains, without reconstruction,\u201d the IAA noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After 2,000 years, an ancient pilgrimage road has reopened to the public. On January 20, around 30 people participated in the inaugural walk of the reopened Pilgrims\u2019 Road. \u201cIt was just the biggest honor to be among the first people to rewalk these steps,\u201d said Shira Greenspan, a resident of the central Israeli city of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":14539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pilgrims\u2019 Road Opens Up For Tourists for First Time in 2,000 Years<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After 2,000 years, Jerusalem\u2019s ancient Pilgrims\u2019 Road reopens\u2014linking the Siloam Pool and Temple 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