…An enormous flight of steps leads to the Southern Wall from the south. They were excavated after 1967 by archaeologist Benjamin Mazar and are the northernmost extension of the pilgrims road leading from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple Mount via the Double Gate and the Triple Gate. These are the steps that Jesus of Nazareth and other Jews of his era walked up to approach the Temple, especially on the great pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. The stairs that lead to the double gate are intact and “well-preserved.” The steps that lead to the triple gate were mostly destroyed.
The risers are low, a mere 7 to 10 inches high, and each step is 12 to 35 inches deep, forcing the ascending pilgrims to walk with a stately, deliberate tread. The pilgrims entered the temple precincts through the double and triple gates still visible in the Southern Wall. Together, the double and triple gates are known as the Hulda Gates, after the prophetess Huldah. (‘Southern Wall’ on Wikipedia)
The Pool of Siloam was built during the reign of Hezekiah (715–687/6 BCE), to leave besieging armies without access to the spring’s waters. The pool was fed by the newly constructed Siloam tunnel. An older Canaanite tunnel had been very vulnerable to attackers, so, under threat from the Assyrian king Sennacherib, Hezekiah sealed up the old outlet of the Gihon Spring and built the new underground Siloam tunnel in place of the older tunnel (Books of Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 32:2–4).
During this period the Pool of Siloam was sometimes known as the Lower Pool (Book of Isaiah, Isaiah 22:9), as opposed to a more ancient Upper Pool (Books of Kings, 2 Kings 18:17, Isaiah 7:3) formerly fed by the older Canaanite tunnel.
The pool was reconstructed no earlier than the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (103–76 BCE), although it is not clear whether this pool was in the same location as the earlier pool built by Hezekiah – if so, all traces of the earlier construction have been destroyed. The pool remained in use during the time of Jesus. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus sent “a man blind from birth” to the pool in order to complete his healing. As a freshwater reservoir, the pool would have been a major gathering place for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city. Some scholars, influenced by Jesus commanding the blind man to wash in the pool, suggest that it was probably used as a mikvah (ritual bath). (‘Pool of Shiloah’ on Wikipedia)
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