Originally carved on the wall of Hezekiah’s tunnel, the Siloam inscription describes the building of a channel to carry water from the Gihon spring to within Jerusalem’s walls. By providing the city with safe access to water, King Hezekiah sought to withstand a siege by the Assyrian king Sennacherib in 701 B.C.E. The Siloam inscription, the oldest and most important Hebrew monumental inscription, was chipped from the tunnel wall by vandals in the late 19th century. It now rests in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. For further details see the following three articles in the BAR 20:04: Dan Gill’s “How They Met,” BAR 20:04; Terence Kleven’s “Up the Waterspout,” BAR 20:04; and Simon B. Parker’s “Siloam Inscription Memorializes Engineering Achievement,” BAR 20:04.