Day 6 Part 2

We travel south through the Lion's Gate and down a steeply downward narrow street (all the city  streets are narrow) which could have been a time warp back to the time of the Crusades.  We pass beneath the Temple Mount and just above the innumerable graves on both sides of the Kidron Valley.  Our destination is the City of David.  

We continue to wind our way through the narrow passages as we continue to descend.  We reach a very interesting area that looks quite fun.  

There are restrooms here and they are soon crowded with our groups.  There are little tourist shops with pictures, trinkets, olive wood carvings and ice cream.  Someone found a shop that produces espresso and iced coffee.  The servings are interestingly small, much smaller than you would expect to receive in most places in the USA for the same kind of money.  It reminds we of how accustomed we are to "supersized" everything including ourselves.  It is getting warm and we are mostly in the sun.  This area is built over some steep ground and we walk on decking the whole time.  I duck into some shade areas and wait as our group meanders through the shops.  For some reason I have no interest in the kitschy offerings.  

We arrive at the City of David.  I had always heard that King David was considered to be "legendary" like King Arthur of England, that outside of the Bible, there was no direct evidence that David was an actual person.  This is not true.  Way back on our first day of our tour in Tel-Dan we have seen the actual antiquity references to David as a real person.  We are now going to experience David's Jerusalem, or the city as it was in David's day.  Essentially, it extends from the Temple Mount's southern wall and further south until it ends at the Pool of Siloam at the juncture of the Kidron Valley and what is called the Central Valley at the most southern point.  There are plenty of rocks that get our attention.  Indiana Jolie and I snap away with our cameras.  Just wait until we get underground!  Many rocks in dim light!  It is too much to resist.

Jerusalem has changed sizes over the centuries depending on who was king and what the fortunes of the Jews happened to be at the time.  It was usually defined by the wall of Jerusalem which at times included more land and at times less land depending on the situation at the time.  Relatively, the size of Jerusalem was quite small in David's day.  

Not all of the city of David can be excavated as where the like sites of David's palace and other important locations are presently under some private homes and it would take great cost to not only purchase them but also to excavate them.  For budding archaeologists like Indiana Jolie, it is tantalizing to imagine what finds await there.  

Our Israeli guide, Eli Sukron tells us that this is his life's work, or at least 18 years he spent being the main archaeologist working on the excavation of the City of David.  We are told that the Jerusalem that David knew was originally 24 feet underneath the present level of the unexcavated surface.  So much of the archaeology was to remove all of the 24 feet of dirt and detritus of the intervening centuries to get at the level of King David's reign.

To get an idea of what this area might have looked like before excavations began, earlier in the same area, Eli, our guide shows us an area with the same amount of overburden that has not yet been excavated and at the bottom are some Roman era (1st century) steps going to who knows where.

On the south side of the City of David is more privately owned property so the excavation is actually squeezed in between these two areas.  We are on top of all of this so we get in line to walk down innumerable stairs that begins outside and then enters the earth where the excavations have taken place.  It is cooler and dark underground.  

There is some lighting that allows you to see massive stones that formed some of the walls of David's Jerusalem.  It is amazing to see all of this that was buried for centuries.

  

We enter "Hezakiah's Water Tunnel" which our Israeli guide tells us was not actually Hezakiah's water tunnel, but the water shaft by which David's men were able to enter the city of the Jebusites and defeat them (2 Samuel 5:6-8).

  

It is a long, dark, narrow and short passage that is extremely interesting to experience.  The Gihon Spring still holds water which would have fed the Pool of Siloam which we will talk about later.  

We spend a lot of time underground and descend many, many stairs of which I know we will have to ascend eventually.  It is worth it, after the confusing and disappointing experience on the Temple Mount, this is thrilling and absorbing.  

No religious ideology here to spoil things.  There is so much information being disseminated that I have no chance to preserve a fraction of it.  Hopefully the pictures will do some justice to the awe and excitement of this very ancient place.  

We do eventually begin to climb the hundreds of stairs on our way back up.  Still so much to see.   We end up where we started in this little village of shops on the decks overlooking the Kidron Valley on top of the City of David.  I would suggest "googling" City of David and especially see the "Images" section to get an understanding of my tepid descriptions.  

Now we "get it" a little better and for the first time, I enter the City of David gift shop with some interest.  There are two pictures that are of special interest.  One of them is a picture of our Israeli guide, Eli's hand.  The first is a small gold bell, about the size and shape of a hazelnut.  This bell would have belonged to the High Priest and would have been fastened to the hem of his priestly robe.  It is a unique find of Jewish related archaeology.  The other picture is also of a unique find.  It is what Eli calls a "temple ticket". 

It has some very small Hebrew writing on it that is translated "pure to God".  This ticket was given to a Jewish pilgrim who was going to the temple to offer their sacrifice.  Before he would be permitted to enter the temple, he would have to wash in the Pool of Siloam to cleanse himself ceremonially.  When he had done so, he would be given a "ticket" to present to the priest at the temple.  Indiana Jolie purchased a necklace that was made in the size and likeness of this ticket at this gift shop.  It is a nice memory.  

We descend another flight of stairs to go to the road that continues our journey south, away from the Temple Mount.  There is a jumble of what looks like homes, walls, power poles, hedges.  

We walk past a small group of young men dressed nicely, Palestinian is my guess.  They are very friendly and one tells me he attended school in the US.  I think to myself, hmm... very nice people.  Our guides tell us to turn right into what the signs tell us is the Pool of Siloam. 

 This is a relatively recent discovery.  Once again, our guide Eli Sukron made this discovery.  There were plans to turn this area into some kind of development, but as is quite common in Jerusalem anytime they stick a shovel in the ground they find something.  Such was the case.  Eli was called to supervise the excavation of the area.  On the first day, the bulldozer was skinning off the top layer of dirt and the blade struck a stone.  It was obviously a paving stone so Eli called a halt to the excavation and they eventually began a dig here which Eli identified as the Pool of Siloam.  

 There are step like stones here which provide ample seating for our group.  Once again, it is hot and there is very little shade.  Having to wear long sleeves and pants make this additionally uncomfortable.

This place too is fascinating.  In excavating the pool, they also discovered a tunnel that was once the Central Valley.  It was once open to the sky but over the years numerous bridges over the valley (it wasn't a big valley, more of a big ditch) finally connected and the valley became a tunnel. 

 When they discovered this, there were still cooking pots and artifacts left from Jews who used this place as a hiding spot when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  It was a literal time capsule from that terrible time.  This tunnel was the path that Jewish pilgrims used to go to the temple after their cleansing so they could avoid being defiled on their way.  

We are allowed to look around a bit but the heat is persuading me toward the bus.  As I leave the Pool area, that nice young Palestinian man engages me.  Would I like to purchase some ancient coins? he asks.  I inwardly groan, I was a sucker.  He set me up.  I cut to the chase.  "How much?"  Only $200 US is his answer.  I tell him there is no way I can buy his coins.  I walk with determination toward the buses which are not far away.  He cuts me off.  The new price, $190 US.  I say, I do not have $190 to buy his coins and move toward the buses.  It is a series of being cut off, offered a lower price until it is $40 US as I am boarding the bus.  There is no way to tell if the coins are genuine.  I am not interested in buying coins on the street from a Palestinian young man.  He does not hide his disgust of me refusing his coins.  "I have a wife and young children to feed!  He tells me.  I need to buy my babies milk, we have no milk in the house."  I get on the bus which is an understood safe haven from hawkers.  He leaves me to offer his coins to someone else.  I really don't like getting hawked on the street by these aggressive salesmen.  

The buses load and we are off to Bethlehem.  That sounds like an exciting prospect.  But before we see anything else, it is time for lunch.  I like that idea.