Our Last Day in Israel - Hezekiah's Tunnel

On our last day in Jerusalem we went through Hezekiah's Tunnel in the City of David.
To get there we walked through the Old City...

We saw quite a few of these little carts hauling goods to the different shops.  This one had a unique brake...the driver would stand on the dragging rubber tire to slow the cart down as he pushed it through the streets.

We walked out the Dung Gate of the Old City and down to the City of David where Hezekiah's Tunnel is located. All these soldiers that were getting off the bus were also going to Old City.


We saw them later eating their lunches in groups


The soldiers were all young teenagers, 18 or 19 years old, so we wondered if they were in training.  None of them had clips in their guns. We later saw their guns stacked and being watched by a few soldiers while the others went through the tunnel.

Hezekiah's Tunnel is a tunnel that was dug underneath the City of David in Jerusalem in ancient times.  According to the Bible, King Hezekiah was preparing Jerusalem for an impending siege by the Assyrians. The tunnel was designed to provide Jerusalem with water during the siege.  The curving tunnel is 533 m long, and by using a 0.6% altitude difference between each end, brings the water along its length from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam.  

This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.   - II Chronicles 32:30

Headed down into the Tunnel!

When we first entered the water was almost to our waists but then it got down to just above our ankles.

 

It was pitch black inside of the tunnel so we used Daddy's phone light to see where we were going! lol

It was pretty low in some places!

 

At the end...

We also were able to walk out through the newly opened underground tunnels which run from the Western Wall to the Pool of Siloam. Jews hid in these tunnels during the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.


Joshua by the Royal Quarter remains of the City of David.
The City of David is the Israeli name for the oldest settled neighborhood of Jerusalem and a major archaeological site. It is on a narrow ridge running south from the Temple Mount in a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. It was a walled city in the Bronze Age and, according to tradition, it is the place where King David built his palace and established his capital.


This is the Kidron Valley on the eastern side of the Old City, with Mt. Olives in the background.

Some 3,000 years ago David conquered the small Jebusite city and make it his capital--the City of David.  A visit to the City of David is a journey to the heart of one of the most compelling places in the world.  David and Solomon ruled here, and here the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah spoke their eternal words.  The City of David is where Jerusalem was born--the place where it all began.  We spent most of the morning and afternoon in the City of David.  It was an amazing experience!  Going through Hezekiah's Tunnel was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

We saw a few of these vehicles with cages over their windows while we were in Israel and it perked our curiosity...

...we found a mechanic working on an old beat up Land Rover with cages over the windows and paint thrown all over it so we asked him!  He said that the vehicles are used to take Jews to Jerusalem from their settlements in the Arab neighborhoods. The cages over the windows are to keep the glass from shattering when the Arab's throw rocks.  They also throw paint at the cars so the drivers can't see out the windows.  Personal bodyguards take care of transporting the Jews to work or school in Jerusalem and then back to their homes.  4 or 5 guards are at each complex 24/7.  The children aren't allowed to play outside, only on the rooftop with the guards watching.  Are you wondering why the Jews live in areas where they are faced with such hostility?  They are moving into these Arab neighborhoods to resettle the areas with Jewish families and take back the land that was promised to them.  We certainly were educated in the short time we talked to the mechanic!

We took the bus from Jerusalem to the airport but before we left we stopped at the market for sunflower seeds.  Daddy likes to eat sunflower seeds on his way to work and the seeds in Israel were huge and really good so we bought a kilo to take back to the states.

 

These pomegranates were HuGe!!!!  They were 6 shekels per kilo!

And that concludes the posts on my trip of a lifetime to Israel!  I wish I could have taken all my friends along to experience everything I did but since that wasn't really possible I hope you all enjoyed your visit through the pictures! If you ever get the chance to go I would highly recommend it!  You definitely won't regret going!  Thanks for looking at my blog!  God bless you...

 

~Kaitlyn



Mt. Olives & Garden of Gethsemane

 

Saturday we decided to give our hiking feet a break and rented bikes in Jerusalem to go up Mount Olives.  Daddy wasn't quite sure how to get there but after an unintentional detour through an Arab neighborhood and riding in a 18" space between parked cars and moving buses, we did make it to our destination! =D  The picture above is of a Jewish mother and her six young daughters we saw walking to the Synagogue Saturday morning.



Dad and Joshua on Mount Olives with Jerusalem in the background.

To get to Mount Olives from the Old City it's quite a climb because you have to go through the Kidron Valley. Jesus and his followers must have been in shape to be able to walk all over those hills!  They sure didn't have air-conditioned tour buses to ride in! :D

 

The Dome of The Rock.
 

According to some Islamic scholars, the Foundation Stone inside the Dome of the Rock is the place were their Prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven.  The Foundation Stone and its surroundings are the holiest site in Judaism. Though Muslims now pray towards the Kaaba at Mecca, they once faced the Temple Mount as the Jews do. Both groups traditionally regarded the location of the stone as the holiest spot on Earth, the site of the Holy of Holies during the Temple Period.  Because Muslim authorities refused to permit Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, the custom developed of praying near the Western Wall, since it was the site nearest to the Foundation Stone.  According to Jewish tradition, the stone is the site where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac; most Muslims believe it was Ishmael, not Isaac, who was to be sacrificed.

We rode down Mount Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane.

 



Taking a break at the bottom of the Mount of Olives.

Behind Joshua is the Golden Gate of the Old City.  The Golden Gate is the oldest of the current gates in Jerusalem's Old City Walls.  According to Jewish tradition, the Shekinah used to appear through this gate.  It is also said that Jesus passed through this gate on Palm Sunday. The Jews also believe this is the gate that the Messiah will enter when he comes.

  

A close up of the Golden Gate

 



Quite the line up of tour buses!



The burial cave to the left is dated back to the second century BCE.  The second structure was never used for burial but it is a monument commemorating the deceased. We happened upon them as we were riding our bikes around in the Kidron Valley.



We wanted to find Hezekiah's Tunnels but it was closed on Saturday so instead of riding through the heavy traffic back up to the Old City, we decided to walk our bikes up these steps.

 

Taking a break after lugging our bikes up all those stairs!  :)  Mount Olives is behind us.

 

We did most of our souvenir shopping on Saturday in the Old City.  I wanted to get some scarves and at one store the owner draped one over my shoulders to convince me I needed to buy it from him!  The shopkeepers are very high pressure salesmen over there!  Whenever you want to buy something, never pay the asking price.  You have to haggle with them because they will rip you off big time!  For example Joshua asked one owner how much he wanted for a small toy drum.  The shopkeeper said 40 shekels and Joshua haggled with him until he finally got it for 15 shekels--less than half the price he named!

 

We didn't have to return the bikes until almost 9 p.m. so Dad thought it would be fun to ride back up Mount Olives and see Jerusalem all lit up at night... but I didn't really want to go through an Arab neighborhood at night! :P So instead we went on a little excursion through a Jewish neighborhood and then on to the Old City :)

 



We bought some "Jerusalem bagels" for a snack in the evening.  It's a soft and slightly sweet bread sprinkled with sesame seeds. They come with a packet of spices you can dip your bagel into. 

We all liked it!

 

 

Sunday was our last day in Israel but our flight wasn't until 11:30 p.m.

What did we do on our last day?  Find out in the next post! :D

 

~Kaitlyn



Back to Jerusalem - Yad Vashem & the beginning of Shabbat

Joshua and Daddy by the Sea of Galilee before we left Tiberius for Jerusalem.

 

Friday morning the bus was nearly empty with only about 10 civilians when we left Tiberius.  But by the time we arrived in Jerusalem over 50 teenage soldiers had gotten on! When we arrived in Jerusalem we went to the Yad Vashem, which is the new Holocaust Museum.  Because the Jewish Sabbath, Shabbat, starts on Friday evening the museum was only open until 2 p.m.  We were there for almost three hours and didn't even get through the whole thing!  There is so much information and so many interviews with survivors that you could spend all day there listening to them recount the horrors they went through.  No cameras are allowed inside the museum so I don't have any pictures to share of that experience.  After the museum closed we took the tram to the market which was pure chaos!  Everyone was trying to buy the things they needed for the next few days because almost all stores and the market is closed on Shabbat.

 



I wish we would have gotten a video of this guy selling bread!  He was yelling at the top of his lungs in Hebrew and people were filling their bags as fast as they could!  It was sure a sight!

It's a common sight to see soldiers walking through Jerusalem...

Joshua and Dad beside the walls of the old city near the Damascus Gate.

That evening we went down to the old city.  It was very quiet on the walk there, no public transportation runs during Shabbat.

These little Jewish boys were so cute down at the Western Wall.  They were with their daddy on the men's side and wanted their mommy so he sent them over the divider to the ladies section  :)  They looked so cute peaking over the wall and then climbing over!

We noticed this golden menorah near the Western Wall.  A plaque beside it states this;

"The creation of this golden menorah was based on comprehensive research according to the writings of Maimonides and the great sagest of Israel.  The menorah is overlaid with one complete kikar of pure gold and is fit to be kindled in the Holy Temple.  At the time it is brought to its proper place within the Sanctuary, it shall be sanctified for the Divine service of the Holy Temple.  May it be rebuilt speedily and in our days."

Sorry for the delay between postings! I hope I'm not boring you with all the pictures and commentary!  Thanks for your patience! God bless...

~Kaitlyn

Golan Heights & Banias Falls

Dad really wanted to go up in the Golan Heights and so on our last day in Tiberius we hired a taxi to drive us there.  It all sounds really easy right?  Hire a taxi and just go.  Not quite! Even getting a taxi driver is interesting in Israel!! :D Thursday morning we walked down to the tourist information center in Tiberius.  The employee was very helpful and told us the best way to tour the Golan Heights is hire a guide, which was not really in the budget.  Or the cheapest way was to rent a car for the day. This was not possible since we left in such a rush on Saturday for the wedding in New Jersey, daddy forgot his wallet which had his drivers license in it!  The employee told us he would call a taxi for us and it would only be 900 shekels for 6 hours.  We didn't have enough shekels so we left to go exchange some money at the bank.  Not even a hundred yards after we left, a taxi driver comes up and wants to take us around Galilee to Capernaum and Ein Gev.  After we finally got him to understand that we had already been to Capernaum and that we wanted to go up in the Golan Heights he told us he would take us for $200 US.  We decided to take him up on his offer since it was a better deal and because he pressured us quite a bit!

We were only 60km away from the capitol of Syria!

With our taxi driver, David, on the Golan Heights looking into Syria.

There was a ceremony with lots of army officials on the Golan Heights when we were there to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Yum Kippur War.

 We went down into the bunkers that the Israeli's took from the Syrians during the 6 day war in 1967.
It was pitch black down there so I can only imagine the adrenaline rush the Israeli soldiers felt as they fought hand to hand combat with the Syrians as they overtook the Heights!

Evidence of the fighting that took place here

 Looking out of the bunker into Syria.

We also went to the Banias Falls located at the foot of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights.

This is one of the three water sources that feed the Jordan River.

We hiked the Suspended Trail over the stream.

On the way back to Tiberius David tried to persuade us to visit other places along the way so we would go over our 6 hour time and have to pay him more! :P  I think he figured out that we weren't the typical tourists ready to spend money at any suggestion! lol He finally just stopped trying and drove us back in time!

In the evening we went to the market for some fruit...

 

...and sunflower seeds!  They're huge and a nice snack for during the day!

 

On Friday we rode back to Jerusalem where we spent the last three days of our trip.

 

~Kaitlyn