More Pictures from Jerusalem

It's good to be home. Sorry for not posting these pictures earlier, but getting your body readjusted to a seven hour timezone difference is not as easy as it looks. I never really gave that whole "jetlag" thing much credence...until now. So, with my head being semi-coherent I can get back to business, not that it is much different now than before, but that's another topic entirely.

These pictures were taken on Tuesday (the 9th). We had an option of going to Masada or staying in Jerusalem for a free day. Let's weigh the options. Desert heat vs. tolerable heat. Cafeteria food vs. whatever we wanted to eat. Tall steep mountains vs. tall steep mountains. We chose to stay in Jerusalem. So, Andrew and I embarked on a great adventure. The story of which will undoubtedly be retold from generation to generation to come, but more on that later.

Together we walked through the bustling, chaotic streets of the Old City in search of Hezekiah's Tunnel. Along the way we took a few photos of the city. The first is of the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. The second is a view of Jerusalem taken from the city wall looking toward the south.


Now for the generations story. We had asked directions when we left the hotel and this was what we were told, "Go through the Dung Gate, turn left, then go down the hill and you will find the tunnel." Simple enough. We went through the Dung Gate and found the road that went down the hill - so far, so good.

After about 50 yards or so we came to the entrance of the archaeological site The City of David. Andrew suggested that we stop in there because perhaps they could give us better directions. Sensible, but we already had our directions, so I said that we should keep going. Besides, geographically the spring and pool had to be at the bottom of the hill. 1/2 mile later we came to the bottom and found the Pool of Siloam.

We told the two young Israeli boys in the kioske that we wanted to go through the tunnel and they told us that we were at the end of the tunnel and that we had to go back up the road to the entrance. The problem was that there were three roads and they didn't specify which one we should take. So we took the road we were standing on...back up the steep hill only to find out it dead ended into a residential area. Back down the hill. Then we tried road number two...same thing. We then went back to the kiosk to ask again, but the two boys were gone (probably laughing in the bushes).

So we tried road number three and it looked like we were about to suffer the same fate. Just as we were about to turn back, a Palestinian man asked us if he could help us. We told him what we were looking for and he pointed to some stairs behind us. "Climb those and you will find the entrance at the top." You guessed it, they went all the way back UP the mountain. So we climbed...and climbed...and climbed. To make an already painfully long story short, we ended up right back at the spot where Andrew had mentioned we try the first time. Now you know why this story will be told for generations to come, because he just won't let it go. Now on to the tunnel experience.

King Hezekiah built a tunnel connecting the Gihon Spring, which was outside the city walls, to the Pool of Siloam, which was inside the city wall. He did this because the city was under siege by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. The tunnel is 1749 feet long and was cut out of solid rock. Workers started from both ends and met in the middle, making it the original Chunnel. Water still flows through the tunnel. At its deepest it is nearly three feet deep, but most of the water level is between 6" to 8". To this day no one really knows how they did it, but it is really cool (literally and figuratively). The result was that Jerusalem now had a water supply inside the city walls and could withstand the siege. For the biblical story see 2 Chron. 32.

The first picture is of the tunnel we used to descend down to the water level. The second photo is of Warren's Shaft named after some archaeologist named Warren. The discovery of this shaft led archaeologists to discover the tunnel below. The final two photos are of the Pool of Siloam. The first is the view we had when we first emerged from the tunnel, the second was taken from above.






When we finally got through the tunnel we both knew that our struggle to get there was worth it. Until we realized that we had to go back up the hill for the FOURTH time. He still won't let it go. It was then back into the Old City and we purposely got lost just so we could experience the city in all its charm...and chaos. When we finally returned to the hotel, we took a nap. And that was the end of our excellent adventure that day.

John