Hiking through a Wadi and more

This will be a shorter post because we haven’t seen too much in the past couple days. There has been some tension in town because of the peace talks, so we have been laying low and avoiding certain areas prone to conflict. Sunday was the day the President was going to decide to let the settlement building freeze expire or extend it. We thought it would be better to stay out of the city that day, so we played games and watched movies in the convent. He let the freeze expire, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of conflict yet thankfully, at least where we are.
Thursday we toured the property of the Passionist Priests’ house next to ours, and the Sisters of Charity next to them. The houses are built on land that used to be part of ancient Bethany. They have a fantastic 1^st century Jewish Mikveh, the most complete one we have seen. It is the ritual bath in which Jews purified themselves after touching something “unclean” or before going to the temple, etc. This one in Bethany is important because Bethany was the last stop on the pilgrimage route from Galilee to Jerusalem, so many pilgrims would have stopped there to purify themselves before going on to the city. Jesus would have stopped here to purify himself, especially since he stayed with Mary and Martha in Bethany while visiting Jerusalem. There have only been two other mikveh’s found in the area, one dating from a later period, so this has a really good chance of being one used by Jesus. There are two sets of steps, one “unclean” set to go down, and another “clean” set to come back up after bathing. It was neat to see the graffiti inside the mikveh from when they re-plastered the walls and from the crusaders.

The entrance to the Mikveh

 

 Saturday was a really neat day. We walked along the pilgrimage route between Jerusalem and Jericho, which was the path Jesus and the disciples would have taken from Galilee. It goes through the Judean wilderness, which basically means the desert. It is also the area along the Jordan River where Jesus went for 40 days after being baptized by John and was tempted by Satan. I have no idea how he lasted 40 days because we barely lasted the 5 hours it took us to walk through. And unfortunately we did it in the heat of the day! It was about 104 degrees and we were hiking through the wilderness. We were sweating out water faster than we could drink it. I’ve never been so sweaty in my life. The path is through the Wadi Qelt. A wadi is a dry river bed, and you could see where water carved the rocks, but there hasn’t been water here in decades, maybe centuries.
We started on a paved road that led to the monastery of St. George. I have no idea how these monks get these crazy ideas to build monasteries in the most difficult places possible, but there it was. Along this road there were many Bedouin men offering their donkeys and camels as taxis! Then we walked down into the canyon and past the monastery and continued our journey in a single file line along a narrow path on the side of the cliff. It was really beautiful. When we could finally see the oasis of Jericho in the distance we cheered! It was a really neat experience. Not only do I have a deeper appreciation for Jesus’ temptation in the desert (I’m sure many in our group would have traded their first born child for a cold bottle of water), but also for the passage in Isaiah that announces the coming of God where the way will be made straight and every valley shall be exalted and every mountain made low. How amazing that would have sounded when you are used to walking in terrain like this! If we had a straight path we could have cut out time in half!

The beginning of our hike

Monastery of St. George

 Sunday we had Mass in a cave on the Passionist property. It would have been attached to a house like I described in my post about Bethlehem. The Passionists believe it was Martha and Mary’s house, but there is no proof.


Monday we had Easter Mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus’ tomb is. It was really nice! Then some of us walked around town and did some shopping which was nice. Today we did the same. We are getting down to the end of our time here in Jerusalem, so we are making sure that we spend all of our shekels and get all of the souvenirs we have been eyeing over the past weeks. Tomorrow we go to the Dead Sea and surrounding area for two days. Then we come back and have a few retreat days, then it is on to Jordan and Egypt! 3 weeks from tomorrow I will be on a flight home. I cant believe it!

Around Jerusalem and a Little Town called Bethlehem



The day after we got back from Galilee was the eve of Yom Kippur, so the city was basically shut down, which was a blessing to give us a day of rest from the whirlwind week! The next day was Yom Kippur, so we still took it easy and just walked up the Mount of Olives to a church on top dedicated to the “Our Father.” I think this church started the trend of having scripture and mosaics in several different languages, because in the original church there were reports of finding inscriptions of the Our Father in Greek, Hebrew and Latin. That inspired the current church to have the prayer written in over a hundred different languages. There were really so many that I did not recognize at all. Even Cherokee Native Americans had one! And several languages were written in Braille as well. It was really neat.

The courtyard of the Pater Noster church with some of the different languages

The next day, Lori and I went to the Citadel and the Tower of David. It is part of a fortress Herod built, that was mistakenly identified as David’s before they knew where the real City of David is (on the complete other side of the modern city). The museum there was really interesting. Instead of artifacts, they had really well-done visual representations of the history of Jerusalem. We are getting so good at our history that we could identify many events without reading the descriptions!

The ruins inside of the fortress

Monday we walked around half of the city on top of the walls! It was really neat! We walked around the Christian and Muslim quarters. Some of the time we were just looking at the sides of buildings that are built right against the wall, but most of the time we were looking at the rooftops, which are basically the people’s backyards with swings and laundry lines. It really gave us an appreciation of the residential life of the city, which you can forget about when all you do is visit the shops and tourist attractions. There was also a great view of the Temple Mount from the Damascus Gate in the Muslim Quarter. Then we went to the basement of a convent called the Lithostrotos. They have pavement from the 1^st century where Jesus might have been in prison, and in the marble pavement is a engraving called the “Game of the King” which was a dice game prisoners would play. The winner was king for the day and could do whatever he wanted, but at the end of the game he was killed. Something like that. I didn’t really understand, but it was interesting to see!

Walking along the top of the wall

Part of the Lithostrotos



Tuesday was one of my favorite days. We went to Bethlehem! Bethlehem is in Palestinian territory so we had to go through a checkpoint in the wall separating Israel and Palestine, but we didn’t have any problems. We started out at Shepherd’s Field, which is the field where the shepherds were watching their sheep when the angels appeared to them announcing the birth of Jesus. We had Christmas Mass there, meaning we used the Christmas readings and sang Christmas carols! It was so moving to be in the place the songs are referencing! And lo and behold, a shepherd walked his sheep through the field below us while we were watching! So picturesque! While we were waiting for the bus to pick us up, we started talking to one of the vendors selling olive wood and bags, and it turns out, he works in Pittsburgh during the Christmas season! He has a kiosk in the Pittsburgh Mills Mall selling olive wood! It is such a small world! He was so friendly. He was sharing with me how since the wall was constructed, the cost of living in Bethlehem has gone up. At the same time, tourism has gone down. So it is becoming very difficult for people who have been dependent on tourism to make a living. Please, after November 20, if you are in the Pittsburgh Mills Mall, stop by his kiosk and buy some olivewood! He really needs the support! This year he is hoping to have a kiosk near the food court. His name is Gassan, and he is really a nice man! We exchanged emails, so he will remember me and give you a good price if you mention that I told you to go to him!

The fields of the Shepherds

Sheep!

Then we went to the Church of the Nativity. This is one of the oldest churches still in use in the world. Helena built the first church in the 4^th century, and most of it was destroyed so Justinian built one on top of it in the 5^th century. In the middle ages when the Muslims were destroying all of the churches, they saw a mosaic of the Three Kings in this church, which looked like them, so they didn’t destroy it! That’s why the church has been able to be in continual use for so long! In the church is the cave where Jesus was born, which you can touch. The site has been reverenced since the 2^nd century which makes scholars think it is pretty authentic. Don’t worry, Jesus was born in a manger. The area has a lot of caves carved into the soft chalk rock, and people would often build their homes in front of the caves, using the caves as part of the home. In the winter, they kept their animals in the cave because they provided warmth for the rest of the house. To separate the animals and the house, the mangers would block the cave. So when there wasn’t room in the inn, Mary and Joseph may have been in the back cave of an inn or house. Not the picture we imagine, but a more archaeologically accurate representation. Pretty neat! After the church we went to the olive wood shop that is owned by friends of our professor. We got to see them carving the wood which was really interesting.

The Church of the Nativity



The grotto where Jesus' birthplace is reverenced. Its so decorated you cant even tell what you are looking at.

Then we went to Bethlehem University to talk to students about life in Bethlehem and how the Christian presence there makes such a difference. The school is the only Christian college in Palestine, and was built in the 70s. Most of the students are Muslim, but that makes the school one of the only places in Israel where Christians and Muslims can learn together and become friends with each other. The video we watched about the school said that no one knows when peace will come to this area, but when it does, Palestine will need well-educated, well-rounded citizens with open hearts to rebuild Palestine, and those people will come from Bethlehem University. The students shared with us the hopes they have for the future, and the fears that they have for today. It really gives such a different perspective on the conflict, as simply living here has. The news does not portray it accurately, and that was one of the most important things the students wanted to tell us. 

The chapel in Bethlehem University



Yesterday Kasia and Kate and I walked around the city ALL day! We wanted to go to a museum, but it was closed because of Sukkot. It is really amazing how the holy days of each of the 3 religions really affects daily life as far as what is open, which buses run, where you can go, etc. Anyway, we walked around all 4 quarters. It was the first time I had been in the Jewish and Armenian quarters. I also find it amazing how each quarter is like going into a completely different world. In the Jewish quarter we saw a lot of the booths they have built for the feast which was neat. We went to “The Burnt House” which is the remains of a house that was burned down when the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in 70 CE. It had a video presentation about the destruction of Jerusalem that gave a good idea of what life was like, and that the whole city was destroyed, not just the temple. The churches we wanted to see in the Armenian quarter were closed, but we were talking to a shop owner who told us to go up the staircase near his shop to the roof because there is a good view. What was even better than the view, was the fact that the rooftops were like another street. They are paved and all connected, and people were walking around. We felt like Aladdin! 

A Sukkot booth in the Jewish quarter



The Burnt House

On the rooftops



We went to the Christian quarter and climbed to the top of the bell tower of the Lutheran church of Christ the Redeemer. It had a beautiful view of the whole city! Then we went back to the Holy Sepulcher (where Jesus’ tomb is). The line at the tomb was still way too long, but we were able to go to the chapel upstairs on the hill of Calvary and reach your hand under the altar and put it in the hole where the cross would have been inserted. That was really amazing. Then we went to the Western Wall to see the Jewish people getting ready for Sukkot. We got there too early, but since the wall was empty we went and prayer. The woman praying next to me was reading the Jewish scriptures and was actually weeping. I couldn’t help but cry myself. It was a really moving experience to pray there. We saw a few families coming to the wall with their palms and fruit, but we had to leave so we could make it to dinner. We might go back another day this week.

The view of the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives from the bell tower



It is hard to see, but to the left of the altar is part of the stone of Mount Calvary, and under the altar where Kate is in the blue shirt is where you can reach through and feel the hole.



Adventures in Galilee Part 2

This is the second post from Galilee, so if you havent read the first one, read that first! We started Tuesday at the Mount of Beatitudes which commemorates the site Jesus preached the sermon on the Mount. There is a pretty little church at the top which has all of the beatitudes written in stained glass. It is very peaceful and pretty. Next we went to Tabgha, which commemorates the miracle of the fish and loaves. In the church there is a stone under the altar on which Jesus supposedly stood when he blessed the food, and in front of the stone is a lovely mosaic of a bread basket flanked by two fish. Then we went next door to the church of the Primacy of Peter, which marks the site where Jesus appeared to his apostles on the sea after the resurrection and made them breakfast. Here Jesus also reinstated the primacy of Peter by commanding him 3 times to care for his flock. Inside the church there is a huge rock that marks this site. These 3 churches are mostly pilgrimage sites, but they are very beautiful and prayerful.

The view of the sea from the Mt of Beatitudes

A little blurry, but the rock on which Jesus stood is under the altar, and in front is the mosaic of the fish and loaves

The rock on which Jesus made breakfast :)

Then we went to Capernum, a fishing village where several of the Apostles were from. There is a 4^th century synagogue built on top of an older synagogue that would have been the one Jesus taught in. There is also the house of Peter, now with a huge church built over it. Scholars are pretty certain this is Peter’s house because the archaeological evidence shows that the site took on a transformation in the mid 1^st century, where it was no longer used as a residence, but as a public facility, most likely a house-church. Then in later centuries, an octagonal church was built around the site. 

Peter's house under the church. You can see the octagonal shape.



After Capernum we went to a little museum that houses a first century fishing boat. This was really neat because it would have been the type of boat used by Jesus and the Apostles. There was a video showing how it was found by two fishermen in the 1980’s when there was a drought and the sea was low. They called in archaeologists who were so careful in excavating it because the wood had been waterlogged for so long, it would break easily or crumble if it dried. They used some scientific process to replace the water in the wood with wax, so now the boat is preserved forever.

The Jesus Boat

It is so much easier to imagine Jesus on the sea when you know what kind of boat he was in! But it doesn’t make it easier to figure out how they braved the waves! Every night when the sun goes down, the air cools and the movement of this air creates wind and waves. So every night, the sea gets rough, some nights more than others. That is why Jesus’ calming of the sea was so important, because he halted this natural, continuous occurrence.

We took a boat from Tiberius, across the sea of Ein Gev, where we were having dinner and staying overnight. The boat ride took a little over an hour and was peaceful and the sea and surrounding lands were just beautiful. But when we got to the other side, the sun had dipped below the mountains, and the sea was so rough that we couldn’t dock! The boat was tipping back and forth so much, I could see how the apostles in a much smaller boat would have been in danger of capsizing! We had to go all the way back across the sea to dock because the waves were calmer there. Then we had to order a bus to pick us up and drive us around the sea to Ein Gev. It was such a perfect example of how unexpectedly the sea can change, and I sure wasn’t going to complain about having extra time on the boat! When we got to Ein Gev, were had traditional St. Peter’s fish: head, tail, fins and bones included! 

On the front of the boat, the first trip across



The waves getting rougher, still beautiful though!

The next day we went to Bethsaida, where some of the Apostles were from. They had the remains of a fisherman’s house there because they found in it many fishing tools and nets and things like that, so it gives a good idea of how they would have lived. The site also has a section of original Roman road, which is always exciting to walk on because there is a pretty good chance Jesus would have walked there as well. 

Standing on one of many Roman roads we have seen



Then we went to Gamla, where we really didn’t know what we were getting into. We stopped at a cliff that goes into a deep valley, and our professor pointed to a sharp peak in the middle of the valley and said that was where we were going. We looked down to find a steep rocky path leading down the cliff, after which we would have to walk back up the slope to the peak that the city was on. We started down fresh with full bottles of water, and immediately saw a group on their way back, drenched in sweat, panting like dogs and barely dragging themselves up the hill. Needless to say we were a little intimidated. While climbing down, all I just couldn’t imagine why anyone in their right mind would built a city on such a steep slope! And on top of that, why the Romans felt the need to try to conquer it 3 times! If I’m a Roman, I’m going to look at the city and say, “Nope. You Jews can keep this one!”

We got to the bottom, rested for a bit, and started up the slope towards the city. It has a great synagogue, several houses, the hole in the wall where the Romans broke through, and a fabulous view all the way to the sea of Galilee. After exploring for a bit, we rested some more, refilled our water, and started the trek back up. It really wasn’t as bad as it looked, and Lori and I made it up in about 15 min, only stopping a couple short times, panting, hearts pounding, and drenched it sweat. But it felt like a great adventure and accomplishment! To top it all off, there are vulture feeding grounds there, so the vultures were circling overhead the whole time, just waiting for one of us to collapse!

Our goal...

Trying to get there...

On our last day we started by going to the Jordan river and renewing our baptismal vows. It was a really pretty and serene site for pilgrims to do just that. Most of the other groups had the white gowns on and were doing full-submersion baptism, but we just put our feet in and Sally poured water over our heads as we renewed our vows. It was really moving to be doing that in the Jordan river.

Sitting by the lovely Jordan River after renewing my baptismal vows

Then we went to Beit She’an, which was a Gentile city back in Jesus’ day, and was a really well preserved site. They had a great theater, huge bath complex, and a long shopping district lined with columns. Its claim to fame though is that the tree on the mound that covers the earlier cities was the tree in Jesus Christ Superstar where Judas hangs himself.

The whole site. You can just barely see the tree on top of the hill.

On the way to Jerusalem we stopped in Jericho, which was really just disappointing. It was sweltering hot, and there was not much there to look at other than part of a Canaanite tower and some mud bricks in a hillside. I was expecting more.
When we got back to Jerusalem, it was like coming home! I love that I can call the Mount of Olives home. The sisters were so excited to see us again, and we really missed them and the food!

Galilee Part 1

Galilee was amazing. The land is so different there, so beautiful! We did SO MUCH and went non-stop every day, so to fit it all in, I’m just going to give you the basics. I’ll have to do it in two parts, so this is just the first half of the trip! On the way up to Galilee, we stopped at Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast. The city was a man-made harbor built by Herod the Great, and was a residence of Pontius Pilate as well. Paul was imprisoned here at some point too. It was interesting because our professor had dug at the excavations there, so she knew a lot of really neat things about the site and the process of excavating.

The racetrack at Caesarea Maritima with Herod's palace behind it to the left.

Then we went to Megiddo, which is a huge site, with like 26 layers of ruins, meaning 26 different cities had been built here on top of each other. There were so many terrible wars here, that the word Armageddon comes from Megiddo. One excavation trench goes all the way down to the Canaanite period and has a huge round altar. We also climbed down the water source tunnels here, because we like tunnels!

The Canaanite altar at Megiddo



We stayed overnight in Nazareth, which is surprisingly a big modern city now. No tall buildings or anything, but nice shopping and restaurants, and lots of young people out and about. Its basically the last big Christian city left in Israel. We drove to Mount Tabor in the morning, which is the mountain on which the Transfiguration took place. It has a very distinctive rounded shape and is visible from almost everywhere throughout the region. I’ve learned that Jesus was really good about choosing locations. The church on top has a beautiful mosaic of the transfiguration, and two chapels in the back dedicated to Moses and Elijah since the Apostles didn’t get to construct the tents they wanted to. 

Mount Tabor from a distance



Then we went to Sepphoris, which was the big city back in the day. It was being built in the first part of the first century, so many scholars believe that Joseph worked there building the city since he was a craftsman and Nazareth had nothing but farming. The site was nice, with a synagogue that had beautiful mosaics, and a bathhouse that has a mosaic of a woman who has come to be known as the Mona Lisa of Sepphoris. It was really pretty. 

Mona Lisa of Sepphoris



Then we went back into Nazareth, where we went to the Church of the Annunciation. It was built over a cave-house that is believed to have been Mary’s. The courtyard was covered in Mosaics form all over the world, depicting Mary as a native woman of that country. It was beautiful. We had Mass there, which was really great, except that there were so many tourists watching and taking pictures that it almost felt like we were putting on a show or something. (2407)

The Church of the Annunciation. The cave house is to the left.

The next day we went to Tel Dan, which is the northernmost point of Israel. It is a beautiful forested area with fresh springs that feed the Jordan river. It was so refreshing to walk in the shade of the trees and smell the earth. So different from the arid lands further south. Dan has an awesome mud-brick gate from the Canaanite period. Mud bricks usually arent preserved because they are mud, so they melt. But this was covered, so it was a really rare and important find. There was also inside the city walls from a later period, the benches on which the elders of the town would sit and talk and people would come to them for judgment and wisdom, so we made the elders of our group sit there. (2451)(2458)

Lori and I playing in the spring



The mud brick gate

Then we went to Banias, also known as Caesarea Philippi. This was the site that I had to research ahead of time, and give a presentation at the site. It was so meat to see everything come to life that I had read about. There are beautiful red cliffs overlooking the city, and a big natural cave which used to have a spring that feeds the Jordan. Now the spring is underground. The people of Jesus’ time dedicated the site to the god Pan and carved several niches in the cliff where they placed statues of Pan and other gods. It was here that Jesus asked his apostles the question “Who do you say that I am?” With these pagan Gods in the background, Peter’s response that Jesus is the Messiah, Son of the living God would have been a direct challenge to those gods. Then Jesus declares Peter as the “rock” on which he will build the church, which is in contrast to the gods in the rock that the gentiles worshipped. After exploring the temple area, we took a long hike to a beautiful waterfall!

Me pretending to be a statue of Pan in the niches.



The beautiful waterfall

Monday we started at Tel Hazor, which was a huge city. Joshua destroyed the Canaanite City, and later King Solomon built it up. There is a great example of the 6 chambered gets which may be unique to Solomon. Soldiers would hide in these chambers and ambush invaders. There are also great examples of houses, and in the palace area you can see the burn marks and ashes of a great fire that destroyed the city, which may or may not have been from Joshua’s conquest. Then we went to Chorazim, which is a city right on the Sea of Galilee, and unfortunately one of the cities that Jesus condemns because they did not change their ways after seeing the miracles he performed. The city was built out of black basalt stone from the region, so it is completely black. It may have looked stunning when it was all built, but the black made the ruins look very dreary and absorbed a ton of heat. My theory is that the people were too hot and depressed to repent. The synagogue there is really neat and has a seat of Moses on which the scribes, Pharisees and others with teaching authorities would have taught from the Torah. Of course being from CTU, we took a picture of all of the women around the seat!

The depressing city of Chorazim.



The women around the seat of Moses

Then we went to the cliffs of Mount Arbel, which have the most breath-taking view of the Sea of Galilee. It is so blue! When we got to the hotel, we immediately changed into our bathing suits and went swimming in the sea. It was surprisingly warm! It really did feel like taking a soothing bath because the waves were very gentle and just kinda rolled you around. It was so refreshing. Now I see why Jesus spent so much time on the Sea of Galilee!

More to come in the next post!

 



Me on the cliffs of Mount Arbel




Sunset on the Sea of Galilee. How perfect!



Hills and Tunnels of Jerusalem

Sorry I havent posted in a while. We have had very little internet and even less time. I’m in Galilee right now and will be for the rest of the week. This post is from Jerusalem before we left. I’ll update with Galilee next time I get a chance!
On Sunday, a group of us went to a town called Ein Kerem, which is in the “hill country” where Elizabeth, Zechariah and John the Baptist were from. First we went to the Church of the Visitation where Mary met Elizabeth and the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy, and Mary responded with what is known as the Magnificat. It was a beautiful church, and the courtyard had the Magnificat written in 60 different languages on the wall. There is also a tradition that tells a story of Elizabeth and John, that when Herod was killing all of the first born sons in an attempt to kill Jesus, John was also a baby at the time. Elizabeth was running away from the soldiers and when she couldn’t go any further she cried out to God for help, and the earth opened and hid her and John. The rock that supposedly hid John is enshrined in this church. Then we went down the hill and across the street to the Church of John the Baptist which commemorates the birthplace of John. Here on the wall in the courtyard they had the Canticle of Zechariah written in many different languages.

Statue of Mary and Elizabeth with the Magnifact behind them in different languages.

The rock that hid baby John :)

chapel dedicated to the birth place of John the baptist

Then we went to the Hadassah hospital because they have a synagogue there with windows made by Marc Chagall. There are 12 windows representing each of the twelve tribes of Israel and they are very symbolic as to the characteristics of the tribes. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but I recommend doing a google search to see them because they are really beautiful (http://www.hadassah.org.il/English/Eng_MainNavBar/About/Art+at+Hadassah/The+Chagall+Windows+Pictures.htm). From there we went to the Israel Museum, which had a huge model of ancient Jerusalem, so you could see what the Temple would have looked like, Herod’s palace, the walls at different times, the residential areas, etc. It was really neat to pick everything out that we have been learning about. The museum also had some of the Dead Sea scrolls on display in a building modeled after the shape of the lid on one of the jars the scrolls were found in. We got to see the scroll of Isaiah, as well as some others from the Qumran Community. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of them though.

Lori and I infront of the model of the city. The temple is in the upper left, Herod's palace is right behind us.

The building the houses the dead sea scrolls

Monday we went to Tel Aviv to get our visas for Egypt, and we stopped at a museum there as well. I was pretty museum-ed out from the day before, but something they had that was neat was a model of an ancient Israeli house. Then on the way home we stopped at Nicopolis, which is one of the 4 sites that claims to be Emmaus. They don’t know which one really is Emmaus, but this is close enough! The city was normal ruins, nothing special. the really interesting part was that they have two 1st-century Jewish tombs! And you could go in one! This would have been very similar to Jesus’ tomb. Its not what we imagine from movies and pictures. The hole is only about a 2ft square, enough to crawl into and pull a body through. Inside was a room about 6 ft square that had 7 more little holes which would hold the bodies. So when they say that Jesus’ tomb was one in which no one else had yet been buried, that was important because the tombs were shared by many people, probably a whole family. The stone that kind of plugs up the hole still would have been too heavy for the women to move by themselves.

Model of a first century Israeli house

Me "resurrecting" from the tomb

Tuesday we toured the ruins of the City of David. This was the first Jerusalem, but it lies just outside of today’s walls. There really isn’t much left other than a huge retaining wall that would have held the temple on the top of the hillside, and other little walls. The best part was, King Hezekiah in the 8th century BC decided to hide the city’s water source so that invaders could not block it off from the city, and he built a huge tunnel underground to bring water inside the walls. We got to walk through the tunnel with flashlights in water that was up to your knees and at one point almost to your waist. It took about 25 minutes to walk through and was so much fun!

In Hezekiah's Tunnel

Then we went to the Southwest corner of the Temple Mount today, which is still part of Herod’s original construction. The street along the west side of the temple was like the 5th avenue of the day with shops and socializing, so our guide said that Jesus definitely would have walked on this street because anyone who came to the temple did. That was pretty neat.

We had about 5 minutes at the Western Wall before our next tour, so I was able to go up to it, touch it, and say a quick prayer, but I will definitely have to go back and spend some more time in prayer there. Then we walked through another tunnel that runs along the Western wall. From what I understand ( I was getting all of my time periods mixed up by then because we basically walked underground through Jerusalem’s entire history that day), part of this tunnel was dug recently and the area would have been at street level back in the day, and part of it was actually a secret tunnel then in in which they could hide the arc of the covenant during an attack.

At the Western Wall

 

After getting out of that tunnel, we were exhausted, so we stopped at the Austrian Hotel and had a beer on the roof.

The past two days have been just catching up on rest and school work. I have a presentation to give next week, and needed to finish up some research. We leave for Galilee tomorrow! We will be spending a week in Galilee touring all of the cities Jesus preached in up there. We are staying a couple nights right on the sea of Galilee! I will post again when we come back!

“ Jesus is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him as he told you.” Mark 16:7