City of David

Tzaharaim Tovim!

That means "good afternoon" in Hebrew :-) Today we went on a half-day field trip to the City of David, including the famous Hezekiah's Tunnel. "The City of David" refers to the "original" Israelite Jerusalem of King David/Solomon/Lehi's time. 

This is the Kidron Valley, which runs parallel to the current city of Jerusalem. It was much deeper in ancient times. The buildings in this picture are roughly where the old city of Jerusalem was. King David's Jerusalem was built (south of the current temple mount) and then the city expanded to the west, and then pretty much in all directions...

This is the Palestinian settlement of Silwan. It is built on top of tombs from ancient Jerusalem. Also, the green on top is the Mount of Corruption, the traditional place where Solomon's wives sacrificed to their Pagan Gods. 

This is the bottom of the Silwan settlement. You can see the squares cut out of the rock are ancient tombs. There is a big debate about excavations versus preserving people's modern property. Actually, in many areas, there are excavations going on underneath people's homes (without their consent)...

Me and Courtney with the City of David behind us.

This is a current excavation going on

The police are guarding the archaeologists/excavation crew because it is such a highly confrontational issue...

We watched a 3D movie telling us the history of the City of David--it was interesting to hear it from a very Jewish perspective :-)

Spencer on a pillar...

Eden... I think this pretty much sums up everyone today--we are all pretty low energy (midterms, lots of socializing, not enough sleep, etc...)

Paige and Jen "listening" to Brother Judd

I will never get enough of the Olive Trees here :-)

this is a picture of current Jerusalem (top) compared to an artists design of the same area as the City of David (bottom)

Then we went to Hezekiah's tunnel! This is on the way down--Warren's Shaft (named after the archaeologist who discovered it) it was an access point to the Gihon Spring (the water source for Jerusalem)

Lindsay and I both get fairly claustrophobic, so we were nervous....

Headlamps!

I don't have many good pictures from inside the tunnel because it is pitch black inside. literally. you cannot see anything (not even the hand in front of your face) if you do not have a light.

The tunnel was built by Hezekiah to bring water from the Gihon Spring to the western part of the city of Jerusalem (partially to help the new immigrants from the northern tribes who were refugees because of Assyrian invasion, and partially so that the old canal (outside of the city) could be blocked off so that it did not allow the invading Assyrians to break into the city that way.) The tunnel now has water in the bottom (when you first get in and when you get out it is up to your waist, but in the middle of the tunnel it is ankle or mid-calf deep). The tunnel is fairly consistent in width, but some areas are high ceilings and a lot of it you have to hunch over as you are walking. I was very thankful for Lindsay ahead of me and for walking fast through the tunnel! Otherwise, I would have been extremely uncomfortable. As it was, I felt extremely anxious and had to consciously control my breathing (I get claustrophobic and have anxiety when I am in caves/tight spaces with no escape). I am really glad I did it though! It was really cool!

Sawyer and Hunter... I don't know what it is with these two...

Tye and his "Pikajew" shirt...

Our class at the end of Hezekiah's tunnel :-)

Myself and Rachel at the pool of Siloam :-) 

This is the pool of Siloam. It has stairs and then a platform and then more stairs and another platform, etc. The water would come out of Hezekiah's tunnel and cascade down the stairs and fill up the pool to whatever level it was (it depended upon the amount of water coming out of the Gihon spring). This is where Jesus Christ healed the blind man in John 9.

Chaille, Lindsey, and Sarah... It was a cold day...

This is a rock that was partially mined (cut out), but not removed from the rock. It is part of a quarry that had to stop because they hit historical material (that is the law in Israel). They found tombs that may have been part of the royal tomb complex where King David and Solomon, etc. were buried.

Mikkel and his Doppleganger. We saw this poster, and were all shocked at how alike the two of them look!

Chaille and Lindsey while we were waiting for the vans to take us back to the JC...

The City of David is an incredible historical area. I loved this field trip! 

-E