The past two days in Jerusalem have been great. We have had free time to roam the city, exploring the most ancient and holy places of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The Old City is one of the most fascinating places I have visited with its narrow streets and vendors selling their wares.
The 4:00 am call to prayers came and went this morning without any stirring from my bed. I was sound asleep, which is saying something considering the minaret from a mosque is quite literally outside our room. We met our tour guide for the day at 8:00. His name is Jarred and he is a Jew that immigrated from New Hamshire 12 years ago when he was in his early twenties. It's easy to tell his love for the land, particularly the city of Jerusalem by the enthusiasm and passion with which he speaks.
Our first stop today was the City of David, a few hundred metres to the south of the Old City. The City of David, as we learned was the original "Old City" as it was the place conquered by David and his army. There are currently houses built where the City once stood, but there have been ongoing excavations on the national park land for 100 years. One of the discoveries made was Hezekiah's Tunnel which is an underground passage made to transport water from the spring on the east side of the city to the collecting pools on the south west side. It was at these pools that Jesus told the blind man to wash the mud from his eyes. We walked through the tunnel which is about 800 metres long (1200 cubits to the Biblical scholar). The spring continues to feed the passage today so we were wading through mid-calf deep water. Most of the way the roof was about 6 feet high, give or take and the width was just enough to make my shoulders rub against the walls from time to time.
Our next stop was the excavations at the base of the Temple Mount. Before the Six Days War in 1967, a large part of the base of the Temple was buried under many metres of earth. We were able to sit on the large stone staircase that leads up to the main entrance. The south-west corner of the wall is where some scholars believe that Jesus was tempted by Satan.
Our final visit was to the Tower of David which is on the west side of the Old City by the Jaffa Gate. Oddly enough the tower wasn't even built when David was King. Jarred explained that travelers coming in the gate saw the tower and assumed that it must have been made by the great King David. The tower offered a great view of the Old City as well as a comprehenssive museum on the history of Jeusalem and its significance to Islam, Chrisianity and Judaism. Today was jam packed with history and as Linford put it, "4000 years crammed into 7 hours."
Tomorrow we look forward to a float on the Dead Sea and a closer look at the zealots.
P.S. We lost our memory card reader and so we can't post pictures at the moment.
Blog by: Ben
Pictures by: ?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
That part about Hezekiah's Tunnel was interesting. Is the water good enough to drink? I suppose it would have to be filtered. Stay safe. Love and Prayers! (Rachel's Dad.)
Post a Comment