Jerusalem, Israel
Pool of Bethesda
Twin reservoirs by the Sheep Gate where Jesus healed a man who had waited thirty-eight years.
Biblical significance
John describes a pool with five porticoes near the Sheep Gate, and for a long time sceptics treated the detail as symbolic. Excavation beside the Church of St Anne uncovered exactly that: two large reservoirs divided by a central platform, colonnades on four sides and one across the middle — five porticoes.
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Around the pools lie the layers of everything that came after: a Roman healing shrine, a Byzantine basilica, a Crusader church whose acoustics still draw pilgrim choirs.
Scripture
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Open in YouVersion →Excerpts from the World English Bible. Full text opens in the YouVersion Bible app.
Best time to go
Any season; mornings are quietest before pilgrim groups arrive.
Visitor notes
Inside the St Anne's compound near the Lions' Gate. Sing in the Crusader church — the five-second reverberation is famous.
Coordinates
31.7813, 35.2360
On the map
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Getting to Pool of Bethesda
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Watch the site
Pool of Bethesda on film
This chapter of the documentary begins at Pool of Bethesda.
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