City of David

     Just outside the Old City walls is the ancient City of David. This has been turned into a national park and is kept up very nicely. This city has a long history. The first account we have of it is when Abraham went to pay tithes to Melchizedek and it is still in use to today. That's about 4,000 years that Jerusalem has been a major city in this land. Pretty neat! 


We started off with an awesome 3D movie about the history of Jerusalem. Apparently I force Sam to take selfies with me a lot. I guess he was done for the day.

     We got to see what is thought to be the remains of David's palace. However, another building has been built on top of them so it is kind of hard to see how it would have looked. But there were lots of other sites to see so it wasn't too much of a bummer! For example, the House of Ahiel. This is a typical 4 room house structure that was common during the time around 600 BCE. While this house was just outside the city walls, Lehi and his family probably lived in a house very similar to this. 

      We also went to a quarry where they would have gotten some of the stones for the buildings within the city. It was neat to see the ones that they started carving out but never finished. 

     

     Of course we had a short talk about David and Bathsheba. We had discussed in class that David was not in a place where he shouldn't have been. This city is built on hills and valleys. Everyone uses their rooftops as another floor of there house. It was not wrong for David to be up there, his problem began when he didn't turn away when he should have. There are times when we are in places that are harmless except for the fact that we see or hear something we shouldn't. That is when we need to have the strength to walk away and leave that temptation. 

     Hezekiah's tunnel was next on our list. This tunnel was built around 710 BCE in preparation for the Assyrian attack. King Hezekiah wanted to keep the water source within the city walls so that the people would have it during the siege. He built this tunnel that led from the top of the City of David to the Siloam Pool at the bottom. We got to walk through it! You can see the marks on the wall from the chisels. 

There were no lights so all we had was our head lamps. For a bit we turned them off and walked in pure darkness. 

Trevor and Marty modeling how short the tunnel could be in places

And now Trevor's head modeling how high it could be in others. 

     We ended the day at the Pool of Siloam. Unfortunately we were running behind so I didn't get a picture. But we had time to talk about Christ healing the blind man there. Take some time to go back and read the story and see how he healed his blindness both spiritually and physically. 

Until my next adventure,

Lindy