Catching Up

For those following this blog every day, you will realize I didn't write a post yesterday. What can I say except we had a beautiful, but exhausting day walking the streets where Jesus walked. At the moment I'm sitting at the base of Masada, opting for a "rest period" while the others have ridden the cable car to the top of the mountain. I have been before so I will not miss that much.

In the last four years since we were here, new discoveries are now available to see as excavations are always ongoing. If anyone wants to be an archaeologist, Israel's the place to work. No matter where you put your shovel, you're bound to discover an earlier settlement.

Yesterday we began the day at one of these places with ongoing excavations, the City of David (the original Jerusalem) and the Canaanite water tunnel. Before King David, the Jebusites lived at Jerusalem. King David, in an effort to unite the 12 tribes, thought Jerusalem a good location, and so decided to invade the city and make it the capital.

The harp marks the entrance to the City of David.

The City of David descends on a narrow hill directly down from the Temple Mount, and we end up at the entrance to two water tunnels--Canaanite, which tunnel is dry, and Hezekiah's tunnel, which has about two feet of water and takes 40 minutes to walk. As you can imagine, we old folks took the Canaanite tunnel. That only took about 5 minutes, but it had some very narrow places!

From there we went to the Southern Steps of the Temple Mount. Much new excavation has been done in the last four years. Some of us felt very close to Jesus here and his disciples. These are the steps where he would enter the temple and where, our guide related, Simeon and Anna, the prophetess, met Joseph and Mary as they brought Jesus to the temple for a blessing. The steps can be seen in the photo below and all the ongoing excavations.The Crusader-built wall goes right up to the Temple Mount wall.

My group should be returning soon, so I'll close for now. Hope to add more tonight.