Hezekiah's Tunnel - Sun., 4/13/08

Some time after the twelve tribes of Israel had split into Israel in the north and Judah in the south, Hezekiah became king of Judah, which included Jerusalem. He was a good king and served God. Only 4 years into his reign, Assyria attacked and conquered Israel to the north. Knowing that his kingdom was next, Hezekiah began making preparations to protect his people and his city. At that time they had to go outside the city walls to get fresh water. It would have been very easy for Sennacherib, king of Assyria, to cut off their water supply and conquer the people without ever drawing a sword. So King Hezekiah commissioned the digging of a tunnel that diverted the water into a pool inside the city walls. Although you must ultimately give God the glory for saving the people of Jerusalem, Hezekiah's tunnel played an instrumental role in keeping the people safe from the Assyrians. You can read all about it at 2 Kings 18-20, but take note of 2 Kings 20:20-21...

As for the other events of Hezekiah's reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 21 Hezekiah rested with his fathers. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.

That tunnel is fed by the Gihon Spring and is still there today with the spring actively running. You can hike through it although at its lowest point the water comes up to your ankles and at its highest it comes to your upper thighs. Being spring water, it's cold. Unless you're within a few feet of the beginning or the end of the tunnel, there is absolutely no light. Depending on your height, you have to duck to get through about half of the tunnel. Not exactly a lot of fun? That's not what Jimmy and I thought so after seeing we would have to wait for over an hour to get on the Temple Mount, we headed to the City of David just a block away and went down into the tunnel. You really should watch the 9 minutes of video of us descending into the earth to get a feel for where we are, but here we are entering the tunnel...


Jimmy is fearlessly leading in front with the video camera set on night vision. I was behind with a small flashlight he had thought to bring on the trip.


The tunnelers carved an inscription in the tunnel telling that the tunnel was built by two teams who started at each end and met in the middle. As you go through the tunnel you can tell where the two teams met, primarily because the lines made by the carving switch directions. The lines arc to the middle. )))) / ((((


After 35 minutes we could see the light at the end of the tunnel...

The Dead Sea - Sun., 4/12/08

I guess the time has come to explain why 2 grown-ups decided to go play in the mud as seen in one of my earlier posts.

After leaving Masada on Sunday we drove to the Dead Sea for a picnic and swimming, or, should I say, floating. The weather has been wonderful on the trip but I wouldn't really call it swimming weather. Although it was in the high 80's the day we were at the Dead Sea, the water itself was freezing! Nevertheless, no trip to Israel would be complete without a float in the Dead Sea.


The beach of the Dead Sea is the lowest dry land on earth at about 1200' below sea level. The water is about 33% salt which is over 8x saltier than the ocean. It's main tributary is the Jordan River to the north which flows fresh water. The water becomes salty after entering the Dead Sea as it has no river outlet. The water evaporates back into the atmosphere but the salt and minerals remain in the water. Over thousands of years, that has caused the salinity level to get higher and higher.

The high concentration of salt and minerals causes you to float on top of the water just like an inflatable raft. That may seem like not such a big deal, after all, we float on top of lakes and swimming pools all the time. The difference is that you can't help but float. If you try to push your feet down into the water it feels just like trying to push a life vest underwater. It requires conscious effort to hold them down or your feet just pop back up again in front of you. This picture may look like I'm treading water but I'm actually in a sitting position, just sitting on water instead of a folding chair. The funny expression is due to the even colder water a few feet below the surface that I had just stuck my feet down into.


Now, about the mud... The mud under and around the Dead Sea is famous for its skin treating properties. The high concentration of salt and minerals helps exfoliate and soften your skin. In fact, many people use it to treat psoriasis, eczema, and the like. The healthcare system in Germany even pays for people in Germany to come here for two weeks a year to treat their psoriasis. You have to be careful not to get in into your eyes, ears, nose or mouth as it can be quite painful but other than that...jump into the mud pit and get a little dirty!


In Hebrew, the lake is known as the Salt Sea or Sea of Salt. Our tour guide said, "You can't call it the Dead Sea because it provides life to the area." First, as I mentioned earlier, tourism is a huge deal in the Dead Sea area. Although you might expect to see many hotels and resorts there, the area is hardly built up at all due to the desert conditions surrounding it. There are hotels at Jericho and Ein Gedi, the only two water springs and oases in the desert. Nevertheless, people come from around the world to float in the salty water, cover themselves in mud, and dry out on the rocky beaches. Since it's so far below sea level, the air is also high in oxygen which many people like as well.

The high mineral content of the water has also created two huge industries in this area. First, Ahava Skin Laboratories are known around the world for their packaged skin care products made from the mud of the sea. Their laboratory, factory, and shop provide employment to many people. The other huge industry in the area is the harvesting of minerals from the sea. Dead Sea Works is a large company that harvests potassium chloride, sodium chloride, bromine, and other minerals out of the water to then export around the world.

The Dead Sea is shrinking. Due to increased irrigation out of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee in the north, the water level continues to drop each year. A hundred years ago the highway we were riding on in this picture would have been below the water. Most of the shrinkage, however, has happened within the last 40 to 50 years.


That's not all bad though because the increased irrigation in the north has caused Israel to be one of the leading fruit and vegetable exporters in the world. The Israeli diet revolves around fruits and vegetables. That's understandable when you taste the fruit they produce. We had grapefruit that was sweeter than oranges in this country. Apples, bananas, cucumbers, tomatoes, dates, pears, oranges...you name it...they were all so much better in Israel.

Masada - Sun., 4/12/08

We got a few minutes on free wi-fi while we wait at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. So, I'll take a few minutes to tell about our experience at Masada.

Masada is a fortress built high on top of a mountain in the Judean Desert. It was built by Herod the Great around 30 BC as a place to escape to if the need should arise. Later, around 65 AD it was occupied for a few years by a group of Jews escaping the Romans in Jerusalem. Other than that, this site has never been occupied.

We took the cable car up but it would have been more fun (I think) to take the 40 minute hike up the side of the mountain. You can see it snaking up the side of the mountain to the right.


The fortress consistes of not one, but two, palaces for Herod, one of which had a swimming pool and hot and cold showers. How do you get enough water to even drink, let alone fill an entire swimming pool in the desert. In the desert it doesn't rain often but when it does it rains hard for a short time causing flash floods. Herod designed and had built an elaborate system that collected the flood waters from as far as two mountains away towards the west and fed it all into one of three different cisterns. It also had living quarters, a synagogue, and ten or more food storage rooms, each of which was probably 10' x 100'.


Although the entire fortress was built out of the local rock, Herod was never one to skimp on beauty. His palaces were elaborately painted and tiled, the remains of which can still be seen today. Here is a picture of some of the painting on one of the walls. It remains to this day because it hasn't been exposed to the elements and is in such a dry environment.




The mountain was surrounded by a 30 foot wall and eight different soldiers camps outside the walls. These structures can still be seen clearly except they have just crumbled to the ground. They lay in piles right where they once stood. The soldier camps are the square structures and the wall is the 45 degree line running through the middle of the picture.


The Romans weren't able to cut off their water supply or wait it out until they starved to death so they built a ramp, attacked and conquered the city. Due to the writings of Josephus it is most commonly believed that the men killed their wives and children before killing themselves rather than be taken into slavery. There is a little bit of controversy around this theory (as there is with everything in Israel) and it is also possible that they fought but were completely annihilated by the Romans. Either way they met with a tragic end.

Just a Note

We just got home from a busy day and I have lots to write about but I'll be losing internet service at the hotel in a few minutes. Hopefully we can get back on at JFK Int'l during our layover when we get home. Until then, we just wanted to say "Hi!" and we'll see y'all soon!




We appreciate all the time you've taken keeping up with our trip and the comments you've left. Check back in a couple days for all of the wrap up posts!

Yad Vashem - Fri., 4/11/08

Several years ago I had the opportunity to go to Dachau death camp in Germany. That was a life altering experience. The images, the feelings, the thoughts are permanently etched into my memory. Nearly 50 years after the end of the war, I still felt the demonic oppression over the place. The place was overwhelming to the point that waves of nausea almost made me sick to my stomach. That visit took some time to process through and come to terms with on my part. The good thing that came out of it was that I had already processed through all of those emotions and was more psychologically prepared when Jimmy and I visited the Holocaust Museum in
Washington DC a few years ago. I figured visiting Yad Vashem today would be the same way. Granted, I did handle it much better than I would have without those past experiences but there was one display that I don't think anything could have prepared me for. The Memorial to the Children overwhelmed me with tears. We entered the dark building and walked through a hallway while 1,500,000 candles (well, fewer candles but with the aid of mirrors) burned - one for each child lost in the holocaust. A recording of their names, ages, and hometowns is played continuously as a lasting memorial. All I kept thinking, over and over, was the words God told Abraham in regards to his descendants, "as numerous as the stars in the sky, as numerous as the stars in the sky." Here's a picture but this is another one that you really have to see the video when we get home...


I've seen many memorable quotes carved into stone at Dachau and the Holocaust Museum but what I kept noticing here were verses from the Old Testament.

On the archways walking up to the entrance...
I will put my breath into you and you shall live again, and I will set you upon your own soil.
Ezekiel 37:14

Scrolling across a large building (only half of it can be seen here)...
I will give them...a memorial and a name...
I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.
Isaiah 56:5

And on a column as we were leaving...

Has the like of this happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, and let your children tell theirs, and their children the next generation!

Joel 1:2-3

The middle picture, containing the verse from Isaiah, is where they get the name Yad Vashem from. The phrase in the the middle of the verse, "a memorial and a name," is yad vashem in Hebrew. A goal of Yad Vashem that I haven't seen anywhere else like Dachau or the Holocaust Museum is to identify, by name rather than number, each of the six million Jews killed in the holocaust. To date, they have identified over 5.5 million. At their website linked above you can submit any information you know about anyone who died in the holocaust. They value any information at all as it helps to build a lasting memorial to that person. As a spectator today I could see the value of their efforts as I could see where pieces of this 6 million piece jigsaw puzzle were put together. Displays contained multiple pieces...letters, trinkets, photographs, clothing...from one person that has been pieced together from different sources. Then, in the last room, a large library, is a memory box for each and every person. For each of these people, a box on a shelf containing papers that people have submitted with pieces of information about their lives is the only gravestone they will ever have.

I had Jimmy take the last picture of the passage from Joel because it verbalized something I had to come to realize as we walked through the museum. Both Jimmy had and I have grandfathers who bravely served our country in WWII. Neither one of them was or is willing to talk about it. They won't share their stories or the lessons they learned from that part of their life. I believe that is a western mindset - if we don't talk about it we can just forget it ever happened and move on to happy times. That's not Scriptural and it's not the Jewish way of life. God commanded the Jews to celebrate Passover as a lasting memorial to when the death angel passed over and spared their lives. To this day they still celebrate Purim to remember what Queen Esther did for their people thousands of years ago. Jews tell their stories to their children and to their grandchildren. That's how we learn and remember and to quote one of the engraved sayings I remember from a wall in Dachau, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (Santayana)

Garden Tomb - Fri., 4/11/08

There is controversy around every issue in the city of Jerusalem. Today we got to see the other possible site of where Christ was crucified and buried - The Garden Tomb. I won't go into all the pros and cons of each site. I do know that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was a place I don't care if I ever go back to again and The Garden Tomb that we visited today was such a peaceful, beautiful place. My ultimate opinion is that it really doesn't matter where Christ was crucified and buried. What matters is that He did willingly and lovingly go to the cross as a perfect, sinless sacrifice to pay the penalty for my sins. Even more so, whether He was buried in the tomb at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or The Garden Tomb, both places were empty because He resurrected again on the third day. Praise God!

The entrance to the garden...


Golgotha as it appeared in the 19th century when this site first started being considered as a site of the crucifixion and burial...


Golgotha or Skull Hill today


Before proceeding down to the tomb our group celebrated communion together (in peace and love despite any theological differences)...


And then went down to the tomb...


The site where someone, perhaps Christ, was temporarily entombed in the 1st century...


After being pretty disappointed with other "holy sites" we have visited the last two weeks I really wasn't expecting much on this stop. I was quite surprised as I entered the tomb and was overcome with emotion. Contrary to the spiritual oppression I felt at Church of the Holy Sepulchre, here I felt a holiness and sense of reverence.

There's much evidence for why this might be the site...including Golgotha is on a major trade route which is where crucifixions were done, it matches all evidence given in Scripture, the presence of the oldest, most well preserved wine press in the country shows this site used to be a vineyard (or a garden), the tomb has evidences of having belonged to a wealthy man, and there is much physical evidence that a church met in this site during the 1st century AD. To me, the fact that its use changed from a vineyard to a church during the 1st century is pretty compelling evidence but I'm not a judge needing to determine a verdict.

To me, as I said earlier, I worship the Man and am grateful for what He did. This is the kind of setting I choose in order to reflect on and honor that event.

Garden of Gethsemane - Fri., 4/11/08

We started out our morning by visiting the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of the Nations that is built there. This site was a little more moving than some of the other churches we have visited. Traditionally, this is the site where Jesus spent His last night praying in the garden. (Matthew 26:36-56) We walked through the garden of olive trees, some of which are nearly 2,000 years old. Despite their age, none of these trees were around on the night Christ was in such agony that He sweat drops of blood on the ground. (Luke 22:44) In 70 AD, when Titus and his soldiers entered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, he also ordered that all of the olive trees on the Mount of Olives be cut down. He only cut them down rather than uproot them so they did grow back again and the ones that grew back from the original root systems are what still stands there today, still growing and still producing olives.






The church sits right next to the garden and is built over the rock where it is believed Jesus spent the night in prayer. I don't know how they could possibly know which stone He prayed on but so the tradition goes. The first church was built by Helena, mother of Constantine in the 4th century AD, as were most of the churches built on holy sites here in Israel. Also, just like the others, this site has gone through its fair share of being destroyed by one group and rebuilt by the next group as battles have been fought through the last two millenia. The church that stands there today was built in the 20th century. The facade of the church, the flooring inside, and all of the murals on the walls are mosaics done with tiles that are probably less than 1 sq. cm. They're beautiful but would have required hundreds if not thousands of hours to complete. The stained glass windows are all alabaster that was cut very thin to let only a minimal amount of light through. The architect, Berlucci, wanted to create a dark atmosphere inside the church so that even on the sunniest day it feels like you are there during the dark night hours when Christ would have been praying.

The facade of the church...


The stone where Christ spent the night praying...


Jimmy turned the night vision on on the camera so that is why everything is green...


This wall mosaic depicts Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss...

Epicenter Conference - Thurs., 4/10/08

This entire day was dedicated to the Epicenter Conference here in Jerusalem. You can watch videos from the conference at Epicenter 08 Archives. I encourage you to listen to Pastor Ortiz' testimony...he is the man I wrote about whose son was severely injured when he opened a gift they received anonymously for Purim. At the time of writing this, the videos for Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Boykin and MK Gideon Saar (Israeli Knesset Member) are not posted on the archives. If they are added later I encourage you to watch them as well. I'm not sure if they'll be added though. For security reasons I'm afraid we weren't allowed to take pictures at the conference.

A lady sat beside me who has to be the most talkative woman I have ever known in my life. Fortunately, she was interesting to talk to, especially with her New Zealand accent. She is a Messianic Jew who grew up in New Zealand, spent 15 years serving in Indonesia and is now trying to make aliya to Israel. She lives here but hasn't been able to obtain citizenship. I wasn't real clear on all of the details but it had something to do with signing a document claiming that as a Jew she is not a believer in Jesus. She was unwilling to sign the document so they won't allow her to become an Israeli citizen. She said she just kept thinking of the verse "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)

Shemen Sasson - Wed., 4/9/08

After the spiritually uplifting time working and reaching out to the Ethiopian Jews in the afternoon, we went to a worship service at a Messianic congregation here called Shemen Sasson. (Jerry, here's a little note for you...it was 2.5 hours long. An hour of worship, an hour of testimonies and half an hour of sermon.) This country is in such a spiritual darkness. Spiritual warfare, religious oppression, hatred between and within religions, and suppression of the truth have created an environment void of love, joy, and peace. Let's continue with that...void of patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Now of course there are kind people, faithful people, people that love each other, but, overall, the environment is lacking in those things. After several days of exposure to that environment we were as spiritually drained as we were physically. What a breath of fresh air it was then to join this local community of believers where Jesus was praised and the Spirit was free to do His work in people's lives. I wish you could hear this picture...


The church was started as a home church in 1992 by a Messianic Jewish family that had made aliya to Israel from America. The father, John Myers, is still the pastor, and one of their six children is now serving as an assistant pastor. He can be seen on the left in this picture. He is translating the testimony the young man on the right is sharing. Another of Pastor Myers' sons can be seen in the background of the above picture playing the drums for the praise time.


I'm just assuming this, but in Israel, unlike in America, you don't follow Jesus because it's just what you've always done or to make business contacts. If a person makes a public profession of faith in this country it's the real deal or else they wouldn't be doing it. Persecution is alive and well. Just ask the Messianic family of the boy who opened a gift the family received anonymously for Purim a couple of weeks ago, only to have it explode. If left shrapnel all over his body including in his eyes and slashed across his neck. It left nuts and bolts in his lungs which could be seen from outside his body and the list of injuries goes on. A miracle of God, even according to the doctors, he shouldn't be alive today. Although he is still in the hospital recovering, he should be fine eventually. This post could have ended on a tragic note when I decided to share that story but with God all things work together for good and even out of this will come good.

Joshua Fund Ministry Day - Wed., 4/9/08

The first blessing of this day was that our bus didn't leave until 12:15. Although members of the other three buses were envious that we got to have some down time, Jimmy and I were very thankful to have a few moments to relax and catch up on some stuff.

In a nutshell, The Joshua Fund is a not-for-profit organization setup by Joel and Lynn Rosenberg to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus according to Gen. 12:1-3. Today we had the opportunity to assist Bridges for Peace, one of the organizations they have teamed up with in order to accomplish this goal. We spent some time at one of their Jerusalem offices learning about the organization and filling sacks with a new set of pots and pans and utensils to go distribute to Ethiopian Jews.




The Ethiopian Jewish community began to make aliya (Hebrew for immigration, but most commonly used of the Jews around the world who are leaving their home countries and settling in Israel.) in the mid-1980's. Although the government makes special concessions for Jews making aliya, due to language and cultural barriers, the Ethiopians have had a hard time assimilating into Jerusalem life. The people left a life of grass huts and no modern conveniences to move to a first world country where they didn't know the language. What amazing obstacles to overcome!

Once our sacks were loaded we boarded the bus and drove to the Ethiopian community. Once some logistical details were taken care of, the community director began calling out the names, one by one, of each of the families that had been approved to receive the gifts. As a member of the family would step forward to receive their gift, one of our team members would step forward to give them their gifts and try to communicate the love of Jesus across language barriers through hand shakes, hugs and kisses.




We only had fifty gifts to give away but 75 people showed up. Although all were in need, a lottery had been done to determine which of the families would receive the gifts. All of this was being done in the Ethiopian's language and we weren't really sure what was going on. We were all fully aware though that 25 families left dejectedly as there weren't going to be enough gifts for them to have one. Once we had all pieced together what was going on we decided that would just never do. When we got back on the bus we took up a collection to raise the $1,500 necessary to provide gifts for the remaining 25 people. $1,592 was raised so supplies will be purchased and Bridges for Peace will be bringing gifts back to those 25 families in a couple of weeks. To me, these gifts were given as a symbol to show our love as believers in Jesus as the Christ. God forbid it should come across to anyone as His love not being adequate to be available for all people.

Via Dolarosa & Church...Sepulchre - Tues., 4/8/08

I haven't been looking forward to this post but I want to paint a true picture of this land we are visiting. After leaving the Western Wall we left the Jewish Quarter, walked through a tunnel, and came out at the Via Dolarosa in the Muslim Quarter. In my head (fortunately for all those around me), I was worshipfully singing...

Down the Via Dolarosa called the way of suffering,
Like a Lamb came the Messiah, Christ the King
But He chose to walk that road out of His love for you and me
Down the Via Dolarosa all the way to Calvary.

What a shock to come out of the tunnel, realize where we were and behold this filthy and crowded row of shops. The situation was worsened by all of the shopkeepers anxious to make a dollar off of pilgrims wanting religious icons from the place where Christ had walked.





The Via Dolarosa ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As with all of the churches we have visited up until this point, it was absolutely beautiful architecturally. Spiritually, the place was dead. Six Christian sects share the church. The three primary members are the Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, and the Roman Catholic. The three secondary members are the Ethiopian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, and Syriac Orthodox. I would like to tell you that the six sects lay theological differences aside and have come together in a spirit of peace and unity to maintain the church and provide services for Christians from around the world. Sadly, that is far from the case. Disagreements and attitudes have led to centuries of violence, hatred, and dishonest practices within the church walls.

The tomb where it is believed Christ was buried is surrounded by this small chapel. This chapel is within a huge cathedral area. The second picture is the dome of this cathedral area. The church overall is massive...it just seems to go on forever with chapels, icons, relics, and the like. If you want to see more of this church you'll have to watch our video because I just can't convey the scale of it here.




We covered much ground on Tuesday, both physically and spiritually. We went from a mountain top high (literally) on the Mount of Olives to severe spiritual oppression and dead religious rituals. It kind of reminds me of an earlier post where I wrote about the geography of this land that was so lush and beautiful in the north country and just a short drive south brought us to sparse deserts.

Don't worry though! We won't stay in the spiritual deserts for long. Wednesday will breath fresh air into our spirits and rejuvenate us for the rest of our trip...

Western Wall - Tues., 4/8/08

Many Americans know this stop as the Wailing Wall but that is not a Jewish name. Jews refer to it as The Western Wall or simply The Wall. The Jews hold this section of the Temple Mount wall to be sacred as it is the spot closest to where the Holy of Holies once was inside the First and Second Temples. I thought this would be a special time even though I don't share in some of these particular Jewish beliefs but I have to say when I got there all I felt was sorrow. My first wave of sorrow came as I read a sign after going through airport type security that asked people to please be respectful and prayerful as they approached the wall as it was "the place of the Divine Presence." How sad to believe that you must approach a rock wall in order to be near the Divine Presence, near to God. I fully believe that God once made His dwelling at a spot on the Mount but He is no longer there. He is not at The Wall anymore than He is at our home in Missouri. I stayed a few feet away from the wall rather than push my way up. I felt it more appropriate that way and to leave the few spots for Jewish worshippers.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him;

for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

One thing I did find cool was the presence of soldiers. They weren't just there for security but because they were having a special ceremony at The Wall later on that evening as several young people were being inducted into the Army. It is surreal however to see a little old Jewish granny bowing to the wall in prayer next to a young woman in her fatigues with an M-16 strapped across her back. The men and women are separated and Jimmy had the camera on his side of the fence so I'm afraid I couldn't get a picture of that particular scene. Jimmy did get some good shots though.

Ah! Here, Jimmy took a picture of the girls away from the wall up in the common area...

Old City of Jerusalem - Tues., 4/8/08

After lunch we went into the Old City which is the part still within the city walls. The walls that stand there now were built by the Turks about 400 years ago. We joked about how that's recent history in this part of the world. Within the Old City are the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter and the Armenian Quarter. Needless to say, tensions can run pretty high within this walled area. We entered through the Zion Gate which is under renovation so I really don't have a good picture of it. It's all just scaffolding covered with black cloth. Again, as with the others, we had to turn as going through the gate. It is called the Zion Gate as it faces Mount Zion.

We began by walking through the Jewish Quarter. This area was destroyed by the Muslims prior to and during the Six Day War in 1967. Once the city was reunited after the war one of the first things the government wanted to do was rebuild this part of the city but before doing so they took advantage of the amazing opportunity to do many excavations. The old city has just been built layer upon layer for thousands of years so there is no way to know what historical treasures lay below the ground. We went down a level and were walking on the cardo from the time when the city was under the Romans. The cardo in any Roman built city was what we in America would call "Main Street."


The ground here is the actual Roman road that was built 2,000 years ago. One of the most fascinating discoveries from the excavations was the presense of a gravity run sewer system below the street. The sewer was blocked off by the Muslims around the 7th century and they allowed the sewage to flow down the middle of the street. A working sewer system that many years ago was an amazing accomplishment.

So excavations could continue and construction could begin, they added columns to the ones still standing and built a roof over this area to protect it. The new construction then began right above it. We followed the cardo lower beneath the city and it is a fun little shopping area now. It was amazing to see the modern shops built in the holes that were once ancient shops with the ancient arches serving as their entrance. At the time of the Romans this would have been open at the top. The Crusaders added the arched ceiling sometime around 1100-1200 AD.


Further down the cardo there is a plexi glass covered hole where you can even further beneath the city to a portion of Hezekiah's wall.


Outside this area they excavated all the way down to Hezekiah's wall and have left it open to see. Originally it would have stood 8 m. high and was about 20' wide. The black and white bar going up behind the wall is marking meters to show how high the original wall stood. It goes up a few feet higher than you can see in the picture. The Romans tore the wall down to just the foundation in order to build on top of it. The curve of the wall had nothing to do with the curve of the city but rather it followed the natural bedrock there. That way invading troops couldn't dig beneath the city.


In this picture you can also see the remains of a house they excavated right along the wall.