The stepped street linked the Pool of Siloam at the southern end of ancient Jerusalem with the area below the Temple Mount. It was a major route during the Second Temple period, used by residents and pilgrims moving uphill through the city. Excavators have exposed roughly 600 metres of the route; parts opened to visitors in stages, with the full public opening reported in January 2026.
A monumental street beneath the modern city
The paved road is about eight metres wide, with large stone slabs and drainage infrastructure below it. Shops and other structures lined portions of the route. Its location connects the Pool of Siloam with the ancient Temple precinct, making the road direct evidence for Jerusalem’s urban life in the first century CE. The City of David reports that the street was inaugurated in 2019, when an initial section was presented to the public; that ceremony was not the opening of the entire route.
Excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority recovered coins, weights, jewelry, and pottery in and around the street. The City of David’s excavation account identifies silver coins minted at Tyre in 33 CE among nearby finds and describes ash and destruction remains associated with Jerusalem’s fall in 70 CE. These finds provide chronological context for use of the street and its destruction, rather than a single definitive construction date.
When was it built?
Archaeologists place the street’s construction in the early first century CE, but attribution to a named ruler remains open. Herod the Great is associated with extensive building in Jerusalem, while the excavation account and current reporting discuss construction under the Roman governor Pontius Pilate as another possibility. Coins beneath paving can establish that a surface was laid after the coins were minted; they do not prove the exact year or name the builder.
The distinction matters because the road’s visible stones, the coins, and the street’s final destruction each answer different questions. The route was in use in the late Second Temple period and was buried as Jerusalem was destroyed by Roman forces in 70 CE. For earlier water systems that fed the Pool of Siloam, see Gihon Spring and Jerusalem’s ancient water systems.
Visiting the route
The City of David National Park lists the stepped street as a route between the Pool of Siloam and the foot of the Temple Mount. Opening arrangements can vary by section, so visitors should check current park information before setting out. The road’s archaeological value is clear in its paving, drainage, and associated finds; its construction date remains an early first-century range rather than a precisely established year. The 2019 account of the inauguration and finds distinguishes the first opened section from the later public opening.