After spending the night in a hotel in the Old city, some of us met at 0700 to “scavenge” for food. Little did I realize that we would literally have to scavenge for food at 0700 in the morning in the Old City. After walking around for an hour and twenty minutes we finally returned to the rest of the group with our finds: warm pita, pastries, fruit, juice, and empty stomachs. After enjoying the fruit of our early morning walk, we started on our hike for the day.
Our first stop was the Broad Wall. Hezekiah built this wall in 701 B.C. on the north side of the city, as he prepared for the attack of the Assyrians led by Sennacherib, who had come to the throne in 704 B.C. This wall was about 25 feet wide and is assumed to have been just about as high. In the race to build the wall, anything that happened to be in the way was torn down, including some houses (see Isaiah 22:10). At the time of the Assyrian attack, the city included what we now know as the City of David, the Temple Mount and Hezekiah would have extended the wall to include the Western Hill. Hezekiah’s tunnel that runs from the Gihon spring to the Pool of Siloam would also have been built around the same time as the Broad Wall in preparation for the attack of the Assyrians.
Our next stop was an indoor model of the Old City. This model helped us understand the development of the city basically from the time of the Canaanites to the time of the Herodians. At the model we discussed a few important people and dates in relationship to Jerusalem. The first person we discussed was Abraham and how he met the Melchezidec, king of Salem in approximately 2000 BC. Abraham was returning from fighting the five kings that had united against him after his nephew Lot and his family was kidnapped. At the time of Abraham’s meeting with Melchezidec, Jerusalem (known as Salem at that time) was located down by the Gihon Spring and was not a walled city. By 1400 B.C. and Joshua’s siege of Canaan, the city was walled and held by the Canaanites/Jebusites. Even though Joshua was able to conquer the city, he was unable to hold it at that time. By 1000 B.C. and the time when David was made king, the city was made up of what is today the City of David. David needed a new capital, as the previous king’s capital was a little too far north and named after the former king, Saul. Bethlehem was too far south for David to be an effective leader for the whole country, so he chose Jerusalem to be his new capital. By David’s death, the land just to the north of the City of David had been purchased in preparation for the building of the temple. During Solomon’s reign, the city walls extended from the City of David to encompass the Temple Mount, which probably included the king’s palace. Solomon spent 7 years building the temple and 13 years building his palace about the year 960 B.C. Hezekiah extended the walls of the city to include the Western Hill in preparation for Sennecherib’s attack and by 586 B.C. the city was still in the height of its glory. After the Babylonians attacked and destroyed the temple and carried away the people, the city lay in ruins for about 70 years. After the return from exile, Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of the city, but only to include the City of David and the Temple Mount. It wasn’t until the time of the Herodians that the city again expanded to include the Western Hill. During the Herodian period the walls of the city were also pushed further north to make more room in the city for the ever-growing population. After the model we walked through the Jewish quarter and to the traditional Tomb of David. We discussed how impossible it was for this to really be the Tomb of David, but we also discussed the likely hood of the same area to be the part of the city where the Upper Room probably was located in New Testament times. The Upper Room we entered was built by the Crusaders and was located near the Byzantine Dormitain Abbey. Constructed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, this abbey commemorates the “rest” the Catholic faith believes Mary to have entered in to, but more importantly is a landmark for the summit of the Western Hill (modern Mt. Zion.) After looking at these two landmarks, we trekked back to the Cardo and ate pizza. It was great fun to eat Italian food in what was once a Roman market.
After lunch we worked our way towards the City of David down many flights of stairs. We saw the location where archaeologist Eilat Mazar is excavating what he believes to be the palace of David; a large structure built on the slope of the hill built into and part of a highly fortified stepped structure. Some of their finds seem to indicate that the people living in this area had a higher standard of living than those in other parts of the city. We then walked further down the hill and looked at some excavations of Kathleen Kenyon. We saw two walls that date to 1800 B.C. and 700 B.C. (Hezekiah’s Wall) respectively.
Our next adventure was to walk down Warren’s shaft and saw the Pool and Spring towers. These towers date to the 1800s (Middle Bronze period). After observing the remains of the towers and pool, we descended into the Siloam Channel, which runs along the Kidron valley from the Gihon spring to the south-eastern side of the hill. From the end of the tunnel we descended even more down the Hinnom valley to Ein Rogel where we discussed Adonijah’s attempt to take the throne before Solomon. From this area we started our “surprise” ascent up the Kidron valley towards Jaffa gate where we started. Along the way we visited some ancient tombs, and discussed ancient burial practices. Afterwards we finished our hike up the hill where we waited a for our bus to return us home.
Some things I learned today:
- Jerusalem really is “up” from just about anywhere, and is REALLY up from some particular places.
- A good pair of shoes are most essential.
- There are not many shops open in the Old City early in the morning.
- It is important to resist sin in every form. While God can forgive all our sins, sometimes the consequences last a lifetime,
and affect many people…if not entire nations.
