[2] Being intermittent, it required the excavation of the Pool of Siloam, which stored the large amount of water needed for the town when the spring was not flowing.

[4] The spring is under the control of the Israeli organization Ir David Foundation ("El'ad");[5] it is sometimes used by Jewish men as a sort of ritual bath (mikvah).

[3] Three main water systems allowed water to be brought from the spring under cover, including natural, masonry-built, and rock-cut structures: In the mid-19th century, James Turner Barclay attempted to explore a subterranean passageway leading from the "Virgin's Fount" (Gihon Spring) and which channel led, in his view, "to a point within a short distance from the Mugrabin Gate, where it turned abruptly to the west," and where he could proceed no further because of it being blocked by stones and by fallen debris.

[11][12] A 2017 study by the Weizmann Institute of Science has redated the constructions, reporting that "Scenarios for the construction of the tower during Middle Bronze Age (MB) and Iron Age II are considered, based on the new 14C data, yielding a series of dates, the latest of which falls in the terminal phases of the 9th century BCE, alongside previous excavation data.

The precise point is unknown, the operation's code name speaks only of dosing waters in the Shelomo ha-Melekh area of Jerusalem.