Wednesday is already a blur. Isn’t that pathetic? I know. But Tuesday night gave me such horrible sleep (Yes that was me on Facebook in the middle of the night) that I along with the rest of the troops were dragging most of the day. I do not know why the jetlag hit us all so hard this trip.

Anyway, we dragged our sorry asses down to breakfast, which again while plentiful, wasn’t anything to write here about, so I won’t. Oh, wait but they did have champagne.

Moshe arrived just before nine and we hit the road for the City of David. We didn’t visit the City on a previous trip, and Moshe mentioned it wasn’t one of his favorite sites but overall we’d give it a thumbs up. I think the site frustrates Moshe because there’s so much yet to be discovered but they are unable to access it because it stretches under people’s homes. And though they’ve been offered 10 times the worth of their houses to sell, they won’t.

view from city of david

View Across Valley from City of David

Anyway, before you visit the excavations, you see a 15 minute 3D movie. Gotta tell you, I thought this would be hokey but it was interesting; also have to say 3D technology has sure come along way baby. After the movie and talking about the site … oh wait … let me back up here for a minute.

The City of David is an excavation taking place just outside and below the walled city of Jerusalem that we have today, believed to be the remains of King David’s original Jerusalem from about 3000 years ago (970s BCE). The actual city we have now has been built since then (with David’s son Solomon building the temple mount atop Mount Moriah after David’s death) and going from there until finally Suleiman built the walls we have today (around the old city, that is) in the 1500s. Okay – hope that’s enough of a reference.

down into tunnel

Going Down Towards Hezekiah’s Tunnel

So after the movie and talking about the site, we head down, down, down, into a tunnel built by King Hezekiah in about 701BCE to connect the city with its water source in a secret way, so it could withstand a siege. We did not actually walk through the water tunnel to the pool of Shiloah (it was cold and rainy and the water comes up to just below the knee) but instead saw where the water comes in and then took the dry Canaanite tunnel out. Then it was up a whole bunch of stairs (after all, you can’t go down, down, down without going up, up, up) and then back to the car.

climbing up from tunnel

Climbing up From Tunnel, Back to City of David

Oh, let me mention one other thing about this day before I continue. It was cold and rainy. And one thing about the stone sidewalks in Jerusalem is they get very slippery in the rain. And yes, I did take a spill but it was actually kind of funny and I wasn’t hurt. It seemed to be the day for it though as we saw several people fall throughout the day.