Our first stop was at the Western Wall of the Temple. The wall was not part of the Temple itself. Rather, it was part of the huge retaining wall built around the mountain (Mt. Moriah later to be called Zion) to support the Temple.
We spent sometime simply being in the area of the Western Wall.
This photo shows the men's side of the Western Wall.
The following link is to a video I took while at the Western Wall.
After that, we went to The Jerusalem Archaeological Park which is located in this same area. You may see some similar pictures as earlier ones as I went to the part by myself the first week of our time in Israel. After we spent some time in the museum, we went to the southern wall. Scholars think that this is the side that most people would have gone through to get to the Temple in first century. This would include Jesus. The entry point was the Huldah Gates.
The gates have been filled in but the steps you see are from the 1st century. Jesus would have walked up them to go to the Temple.
This picture shows the ends of one of the stone blocks used to build the wall. You can see that they were quarried and laid so precisely that no mortar was used. This is even more incredible when one considers that some of the blocks were 22 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet high.
While we were at the southern end of the western wall, we were privileged to see either a bar or bat mitzvah going on.
We then left to go to the "City of David" which is the oldest section of Jerusalem. This is the portion of the city which David conquered and then built on.
This area is thought, by a number of archaeologists, to be the ruins of David's palace.
After looking at some of the above ground structures, we went to perhaps the most important structure of all, at least as far as keeping the ancient city going. This is the tunnel which was dug through limestone bedrock to bring the water from the Gihon Spring into the city.
This picture shows some of our group going down into the tunnel. This portion was dug by the Jebusites about 1,800 BC. This was 800 years before David and during the Bronze Age. This tunnel was dug by hand with bronze instruments. It boggles the mind.
The tunnel would later be lengthend by King Hezekiah. The extension runs for 485 meters. People can walk through it if they would like to.
The tunnel itself begins at the mouth of the Gihon Spring. The photo which follows shows the remains of the Pool of Siloam which was built at the mouth of the spring.
The pool of Siloam is featured in John 9 in the story of Jesus healing the blind man. You may want to read the story as you look at the photo.
We ended the tour at the pool. I do not think that is a bad place to stop. It is good to be reminded that Jesus came to heal and give sight in a variety of ways. May we all be so blessed.
God be with us all!
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