Jerusalem Day 2

Today was another fun and exhausting day. First we took a trip down to the City of David, which is where David established his capitol back in the day (the original area of Jerusalem). It's on a different hill than the Jerusalem of today but because Jerusalem and the surrounding area was destroyed and rebuilt so many times the valley between the hills has gotten a lot smaller. There we saw this sweet 3D historical film about the City of David and the surrounding area which I thought was very helpful and informative. Walking around the City of David was pretty neat because it's just a lot of archeological finds and ruins that are still being dug out to this day. Then we went through Hezekiah's Tunnel, which was made when King Hezekiah wanted to ensure that Jerusalem had a water supply inside the city walls and so he had these builders cut am underground tunnel in the rock from the Gihon spring to this pool near the bottom of the city. This was definitely the coolest part of the trip thus far. We walked through this tunnel in darkness for 30 minutes with water sometimes up to my knees. We had 3 flashlights between the 12 of us so we spread them out - one in front, one in the middle, and me with my flashlight bringing up the back. I took a bunch of pictures using flash, I'll try to post one up sometime so you guys can experience it. Then when we came out at the bottom of the tunnel we saw the Biblical Pool of Siloam mentioned in John 9. That was fun; we got some funny pictures there.

Then we had some free time and so some of us had lunch near the Western Wall and then went up to the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock is and where the Biblical Temple used to be. It was cool to think that at one time thousands of years ago, the very Presence of God dwelled in a temple that was at that very spot. The mosque that's currently there is also pretty nice looking, with its roof that's plated with gold. But after we had been there for about an hour some official looking guys told us to leave and that it was "over" or something and when I tried to ask what was going on the guy said there was a service soon or something. So then we came back to the hostel for a bit to rest and then went out to the markets to eat some bakery items and see about some nice sandals. The bakery stuff was interesting but I didn't really know what it was and I didn't really like the way the sandals looked so I'm going to wait a while and see what I see.

After that we just came back to the hostel and played some cards while waiting for dinner. Dinner was again a delicious three course meal with soup, an entree with some beef and pasta and veggies, and a dessert with some melons and a peach slice. Thinking bout going to bed after I shower soon (it's 8.30 right now).