A visit from Nick and Kyla (part 1)

Last week, my friends from Notre Dame (who are now studying abroad for a semester in London)--Nick and Kyla--visited me in Jerusalem to do some sightseeing. I re-visited some familiar favorites, but also took the opportunity to check a few new destinations off my list. First, here are a few "repeats"--(1) the three of us at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, (2) Nick and I at the Church of the Last Supper, and (3) a picture of the Golden Gate, which I mentioned in an early post. The Golden Gate is believed to be the entrance by which the Jewish messiah will enter the city... perhaps for this reason, it is now filled in with cement.







On to the new stuff...

Pictured below is the grave of Oskar Schindler (as in "Schindler's List"), which is to be found in a Christian cemetery on Mount Zion near King David's Tomb. Recall that the Jewish custom is to place rocks on grave markers... suffice it to say that Oskar Schindler has a LOT of admiring visitors.



We also made it to the Tower of David, also called King David's Citadel, near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City. The complex is a military post turned archaeological excavation; here, a hodgepodge of remains have been unearthed from all different periods--from the Hasmoneans to the modern day. Despite the name, the site actually has nothing to do with King David, whose city was much smaller than the current Old City (some attribute the misnomer to the Crusaders). A photo of the whole complex is below.



Among the many significant archaeological remains preserved in the Citadel are: (1) the 2nd century BCE city wall, dating from the Hasmonean period (the time of the Maccabees), and (2) an incredible scale model of Jerusalem during the Ottoman period (note that the Dome of the Rock is not yet covered in gold). Both are pictured below.





Near the Western Wall plaza, but outside of the city walls (in what is properly the Palestinian village of Sillwan), lies the City of David. The City of David is another archaeological excavation, associated with the Canaanite/Jebusite and early-Israelite (i.e. King David) periods. In short, this is biblical Jerusalem. Before Nick and Kyla visited, I went on a tour of the City of David, put on by an archaeologist who was not associated with the site excavations. In contrast to the archaeology, he talked at length about the political complexities of having an excavation and tourist attraction run by Jews in a Palestinian neighborhood. To complicate the matter, many Jews settle in the neighborhoods around the City of David, in order to be King David's neighbors. Though the tour definitely illuminated the hidden dark side of the City of David, I do not necessarily agree with all of the guide's criticisms. For example, the archaeologist was angry that the excavations focused only on the Israelite layer, and not on the later (e.g. Greek, Roman, Muslim etc.) remains. But isn't the fact that here was the home of biblical Israel the reason why people visit the City of David in the first place? Perhaps the most intense part of this political tour was watching a Palestinian riot across the valley in Sillwan (we were downwind, and inhaled quite a bit of the tear gas). To clarify, this political-archaeological tour was a few weeks ago. When Nick and Kyla visited later, the three of us returned to the City of David for a proper tour. Several pictures are below:

(1) Several ancient (royal?) tombs are visible in the bedrock across the valley, under the houses of Sillwan.



(2) Pictured below is the foundation of a massive building on the hilltop, believed by many to be the palace of King David. Several metal seals were found in the area, leading archaeologists to believe that this was a governmental building. According to the tour guide, several of the names found on the seals correspond to those recorded in the Bible, in the story of the prophet Jeremiah's imprisonment (Jeremiah was accused of treason for foretelling--ultimately correctly--the downfall of Jerusalem to Assyria). On the early (political) tour, however, the guide claimed that not single potsherd or seal discovered at the site sports the name "David."



(3) This "stepped stone structure" is thought to be the supporting wall of King David's palace. In the lower-left corner, the remains of a large house can be seen. The archaeologists believe that this house belonged to a government official (potsherds give the name "Ahiel"), who lived near the palace. At the bottom-right, the remains of an ancient toilet is visible, indicating that the owner of this house was very rich.



(4) The original wall of the Jebusite stronghold.



(5) The houses at the foot of the hill likely belonged to the middle-class commoners. The village of Sillwan literally shares a wall with the City of David.



The rest of the tour took place underground, where two separate water systems were discovered. Originally, Jerusalem was watered by the Gihon Spring which flowed into the Kidron Valley. The original Jebusite inhabitants of Jerusalem, fearing attack, dug a massive tunnel connecting the city to a pool in the valley, so that--in the case of attack--the Jebusites had safe access to water. The 18th century BCE tunnel is pictured below.



The tunnel ends at the famous Warren's Shaft (pictured below), named after the archaeologist who discovered it. The narrow tunnel was the last leg on the journey to fetch water when Jerusalem as under siege. Originally, archaeologists believed that this was the shaft mentioned in the Book of Samuel--the route by which David and his troops broke their way into a subsequently conquered Canaanite Jerusalem. This theory has fallen out of favor.



In the 8th century BCE, as Assyrian dominance threatened the now-Israelite city of Jerusalem, King Hezekiah initiated a number of building projects. In addition to expanding the city to accommodate the many refugees fleeing from the north (the remains of the expanded city wall can be seen in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City), Hezekiah also revamped Jerusalem's water system by diverting the Gihon Spring inside the walls. Visitors to the City of David have the option of navigating through the narrow Hezekiah's Tunnel. Because water still flows (about ankle depth, but sometimes deeper) through Hezekiah's Tunnel, nobody on my tour group (including Nick and Kyla!) wanted to make the journey... so I did it myself! It took about 20 minutes to wade through the somewhat-scary tunnel, which was pitch dark (luckily I brought my headlamp) and incredibly narrow (see picture below). I attempted to photograph myself in the second picture.





The last picture is at the Quarrier's Meeting Point in the middle of Hezekiah's Tunnel. It was at this point that two teams, digging from opposite directions, met and completed the small canal. A paleo-Hebrew inscription was discovered at the meeting point, commemorating the completion of Hezekiah's building project. The original inscription is in a British museum, but a replica is pictured below.