First up today went to the Old City again, this time visiting the Jewish quarter. We saw the Cardo [= heart] of old Jerusalem, a fascinating glimpse into the busy main street that would have been there in the time of Herod and Jesus. We then saw an ancient section of the city wall from the time of Solomon. Quite an engineering feat with just the thickness let along the height it was originally!

We heard some drumming, trumpets and singing in the distance and soon realised that a Bar Mitzvah was being celebrated and the procession came right past us. The shofar players and drummers were excellent and the joy in the family and friends was so evident. The proud parents even posed for all the tourists standing by. There were other bar mitzvah celebrations going on at other times in our morning as well, and it seemed that each one had a professional videographer and photographer for family memorabilia.

We then viewed a fascinating dramatised representation of a priestly family in the time of the Roman siege of Jerusalem in AD70 which was in the location of an archaeological find in the excavations following the 1967 six day war. The evidence in this house of burning, and the pottery and utensils found were from the 1st century. There was even a scorched arrow among the ruins. Absolutely amazing to be at the very location.

We then went to another relatively recent find which would have been in the rich area of old Jerusalem. Our guide, Erez, is convinced that this is the likely place of Caiaphas’ house [the high priest] where Jesus was interrogated during his trial. The priests of the time were part of the rich elite in society and it is more likely that it would be in this location than in the lower part of the city where it is more traditionally thought to be. The extensions of this ruin are truly incredible, and we took the time to contemplate and pray together. There are other scholars who are also coming to the same conclusion as Erez, but this view isn’t yet being publicly spoken of because of what is currently on the site.

Our next stop was a visit to the Temple Institute, which is a small group of zealous Jews who have a vision for a third Temple to be built on the Temple Mount. They are doing all they can to prepare for this occurrence by making sure that all the vessels are ready for whenever this might happen. We came away from that place feeling very glad that we have the New Testament theology that the temple is the living stones of believers and that the new Jerusalem is not necessarily a physical city but the new community of believers all around the world. However, we did get a better insight into the temple precincts.

We then walked down the hill and got another view of the Western Wall before walking outside the city walls to get to the old City of David. Here we were able to view some extensive ruins of King David’s palace overlooking the Kidron Valley. It was very easy to imagine him looking out from his balcony over the valley to see Bathsheba across the way.

We then moved forward a few hundred years and went down into the old city walls to view the tunnel that King Hezekiah had built to divert the waters from the Gihon Spring when the Assyrian army was approaching. There was a choice we could make between walking through the short and dry Canaanite Tunnel, or the much longer and wet Hezekiah Tunnel. Five of us chose the wet option and had to make sure we were wearing shoes and clothes that could get wet, as in a couple of sections the water was over 70 cm deep. These tunnels were quite arduous just to get to with many steps going down, before the group split.

Erez took the ten [Joyce, Graham, Ivan, Judith, Eric, Joan, Elizabeth, Kelvin, Don & Dianne] through the dry tunnel as there were some twists and turns with options along the way and he didn’t want them getting lost. The other five of us [Wendy, Bruce, Nicole, Chris & Lynda] took the wet tunnel which was much longer, with no option of getting lost. There was huge disappointment for the 10 as after their 5 minute walk through the tunnel section, the tourism authorities were refusing to let people walk the next couple of minutes to get to the location of our bus, due to the fact that on the previous day there were problems with children throwing stones from above. This meant that they had the very difficult walk back and around, and up steps in the heat, to be reunited with the other five and the bus. They thought they were choosing the easy option, but that was far from the truth.

However for the five of us who chose the wet option, we had an absolutely marvellous time through this narrow, extensive, often very low but amazing tunnel, needing torches the whole way, with the fast flowing water from the spring refreshing us along the way. For the full length we were walking through water which was varying in depth and the human skill it took to build this simply blew us away with every step. We would do it again in a flash! We reckon this experience should be on everyone’s ‘bucket list’.

Getting back to the hotel for a well earned rest, especially for the ten whose experience wasn’t so special, was the priority.

As we exited the tunnel, we were at the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus healed the blind man, which is now unfortunately dried up.

After resting, we had an early dinner, and then got back in the bus to go the Citadel of David for a fantastic light show, with video. It was displayed all across the huge stone walls of the Tower of David. This show tells the story of the complex story of the history of Jerusalem over 4000 years. It begins with King David playing the harp and goes through all the periods from Canaanites, Israelites, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Early Muslim, Crusader, Mameluk, Ottoman, British and finally the state of Israel. It lasted 45 minutes, and as we walked in there was even preliminary vision as we followed the path to our seats. A thoroughly enjoyable night with beautiful breezes. Jerusalem at night was magnificent.