Day 7 - Thursday, April 11 - ​Jerusalem above and below ground

Today's first tour showed lots of details about Jerusalem, with the highlight being to walk through the tunnel that was carved in the time of King Hezekiah to secure Jerusalem's water supply if the Assyrians attacked the city. Because before that time, the water ran through a canal above ground and outside the city walls.

It is still unknown how they managed to do that, carving the tunnel from two sides and meeting somewhere in the middle. The tunnel is 533 meters long and has a height difference of only 30 centimeters so the water flows very slowly. We walked through it in just under half an hour.

Later we walked through the old city with a friend of ours who lives in Jerusalem.

And third, a tour underground of what is now above ground the Wailing Wall and surroundings.

Videos:
(1) Walking through the tunnel, (2) according to many indications, these are the foundations of the palace of David, (3) Pharaoh's daughter, as Solomon's wife, had her own large house, and (4) the lowest layer of large stones of the wall that ran around the temple complex.

Photos:
(1) View from the Mount of Olives over the cemetery where you now have to pay a million dollars to be buried here, (2) view from below of the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane where olive oil used to be processed, (3) view of a high point from which Abraham may have first seen Mount Moriah when he traveled there from Beer-Sheba, (4) a view down from David's palace, (5) a less beautiful piece of wall from the time of Nehemiah when the wall was repaired in 52 days, (6) construction around the well of Gihon from the time of the Canaanites, (7) overview of King Hezekiah's tunnel, (8-10) three times the water tunnel, (11) recent and ongoing excavations of the great pool of Siloam where you could wash before going up to the temple, (12) an example of many where you encounter the name of God, YHVH, (13) a GPS of where we have been today , and (14) a beautiful sunset.