Day 10

Day 10:

There were two Hezekiah tunnels, a wet one & a dry one.... Tim lead the Wet tunnel team! Both Teams ended up at the Pool of Siloam.

This is by the Southwest corner of Jerusalem in the Archaeological Park. Notice the impact of an earthquake on the street pavers.

Rick is sitting on the same steps that Jesus taught from. About 30 feet below the current street level the street paver stones are found where Jesus carried His cross.
We finished up the day with a visit to Abraham's Tent. It was a delightful re-enactment of what life would have been like 4000 years ago.


Day 10 Redux:

We started our day at the south end of the temple mount on the teaching steps. According to Jewish tradition this is where the “just” shall enter on Judgement Day. The Umayyads (Muslims) blocked the Hulda gate in the 8^th century to prevent such an occurrence, but I don’t think they’re accounting for the “chance” of an earthquake or some other such handiwork of God.

After a short visit, we went down into the City of David and saw the initial exploration and diggings in David’s palace. The archaeological work here is still on-going and many great finds are anticipated to shed more light on the time of David. We also saw in the Stronghold of Zion the house of Ahiel. This was a wealthy house (two-story) belonging to one of the scribes listed in Jeremiah 36:10-13. They found signs of Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Jerusalem here including arrows and royal seals made from clay (survives and even strengthens when burned) and dating to the 6^th century B.C.

We had the opportunity to go on adventure here as we descended into the water source of Jerusalem: the Gihon springs. We had the opportunity to enter the water tunnels that Hezekiah had dug to safely reach the Gihon spring which was on the outside of the city walls. Rather than extend the walls to include the spring, which would have diminished the high-ground advantage of the city, Hezekiah dug a tunnel to the spring (2 Kings 20:20). Not only that he dug it from both ends and managed to make both ends meet in the middle! Remember, he had no compass, no laser alignment, no power tools or even steel tools. The tunnel is about 1750 feet long and about 80 feet below ground. The five most adventurous among us (Tim, Cathy, Cheryl, Jayne & Colin) grabbed our flashlights and headed through the tunnel with water rushing by nearly up to our waist. The water was cool and a welcome refreshment from the hot Judean sun on the surface. We ended up at the Pool of Siloam (Jesus heals the blind man – John 9:6-7) where we met the rest of the crew who had gone the Canaanite way. There was an interesting mural here showing the Pool of Siloam with several people around the pool in the 1^st century A.D. Our guide pointed out one older boy walking with his father and a younger boy riding on his father’s shoulders. This was done to show that at that time, there was a debate amongst the Pharisees from the school of Hillel and school of Shemiah as to when a boy was able to go to the temple. One rabbi said when they were old enough to walk and the other said when they were old enough to ride on their father’s shoulders. I wonder how they decided?

In the afternoon we went into the old city through the Herod’s Gate (aka the Flower Gate, aka the Crusader’s Gate) and walked to the Struthion Pool. It was through this gate that Godfrey de Bouillon entered the city in 1099 during the First Crusade – the only crusade that captured Jerusalem. Godfrey, unlike most of his fellow crusaders, sold all his possessions in France before going on the crusade. It was his intention to stay permanently in the Holy Land. He got his wish. After he captured Jerusalem, he was invited to visit the Emir of Caesarea. He graciously accepted and enjoyed dining with the Emir. Unfortunately, he got a bad tummy-ache immediately after and died when he returned home.

But enough about the crusaders … as I said we were heading to the Struthion Pool. This is the water source inside Herod’s Apolonia fortress. Herod was a pretty smart, albeit paranoid, guy. He felt he needed his own mercenaries nearby the temple because he knew the people hated him and might try to take him out at any moment. He also knew that having a personal guard that could be besieged without water was as good as having no guard at all so he built a cistern to hold plenty of water in the fortress.

The Romans garrisoned soldiers at the Fortress and they left behind evidence of a macabre game they liked to play: the King’s Game. In this game they would choose a “king” and would pretend to follow his orders and pay homage to him for a period of time. Then the “king” would have to take his own life. The Romans realized this wasn’t such a wise idea for the soldiers to be killing themselves off so they modified the game to select prisoners to be “king”. It was a poignant reminder of the royal robe and crown and the taunting that the Roman soldiers gave our Lord.

We closed the day by returning to the temple to walk the tunnels at midnight! No, it wasn’t anything spooky or mysterious about doing it at midnight, it was just the only time we could get a reservation. We walked underneath the western wall and at one point were very close to where the Holy of Holies would have been up above. This is a highly venerated site by the Jewish people and they have set up a small prayer enclave here complete with candles and censers. We walked most of the length of the wall and stopped at a broad paved street that was being constructed at the time of the death of Herod. We saw the base of the wall go all the way down to bedrock and the amazing precision construction that Herod used with massive blocks of solid rock. Thus ended a very long but rewarding day.