Day 11 - June 14th

The temperature today started off like yesterday but it didn't take long to reach the 80's.  Today we walked to the Damascus Gate through the market to the Dung Gate.  Again we had Eugenia, our fearless leader leading us.  Eugenia said that she had stayed with a friend in Israel for 2 weeks.  She said she ran errands for her friend so she had walked around in the Old City by herself.  She then led us to the City of David tour that was a little more than a block outside the Dung Gate.

Just before reaching the Dung Gate, we walked passed the Wailing Wall.  We heard drums and music coming from people in front of us.  Evidently, today was the day for Bar Mitzvah's.  Bar Mitzvah's are celebrated when a boy turns 13 and becomes a man.  The picture below shows the boy being taken to the Wailing Wall with friends and family.

Blowing horns and beating drums as a boy in lead to the Wailing Wall.

As you can see he is a very tall 13 year old boy.  The men with him are holding their horns up to his head like horns.  It is all in fun.

The tour was a very interesting tour.  It turns out that except for the Temple Mount, Jerusalem at the time of King David was outside the Old City.  The City of David was an active archeological dig.  Our tour guide was a young Jew that had lived in San Francisco at one time.  He spoke English with no accent.  Everything that he spoke about, he would read about it from the Bible to verify it.  I did ask him about the current believes of Jewish theologians regarding Genesis 1 and creation.  His answer was that the Earth is about 6000 years old and that the Seven days of creation were seven 24 hour days.  A woman on the tour butted in with her own ideas.

Part of the digs of the City of David

Ruins believed to be the Palace of King David

 Poster that shows how deep Hezekiah's Tunnel is (about 32 inches).

Part of the tour of the City of David is a tunnel built by the Jews at the time of King Hezekiah (8th century BC).  At the time of King David, the Spring of Gihon was the source of water for Jerusalem.  It was where King Solomon was anointed as king of Israel.  There are two parts to the tunnel.  One is now dry and the other has about 32 inches of water in it.  You can walk through the tunnel.  We chose the dry side but many went the wet way.  The Spring of Gihon is the source of the water for the wet side.

Terry descending in Hezekiah's Tunnel.

Cistern used to store water above the tunnel.

More steps to the tunnel.

After we exited the tunnel, we were at the Pool of Siloam.  We took a wild ride in a van back up to the start of the City of David tour.  The driver was in a hurry to get back down and collect more money from passengers.  We were scared to death.  Again, no bullets or bombs, just crazy drivers.

We walked back up to the Dung Gate, then to the Zion Gate, and finally to the Jaffa Gate.  At the Jaffa Gate we went on the southern Ramparts Tour.  This gave us fantastic views outside the Old City.  

As we were walking to the Dung Gate.  A dig being done by the UNC Charlotte

Same dig from above on the Ramparts Tour.

Terry on the Rampart.

There were 7 of us that did the Ramparts Tour.  Once we finished the ramparts we walked all the way back to the hotel.  We walked more than 6 miles again today.  We got back to our hotel and crashed.  

The Muslim holiday of Ramadan has been going on while we have been on this trip.  It is celebrated for a month and ends tonight.  We have already heard fireworks.  The markets were packed at the end of the day.  They have been partying the last couple of nights.  We haven't gone out after dark and decided not to take the midnight bike tour because of it.  Since it is Ramadan then we are not allowed to go up on the Temple Mount since it is controlled by the Muslims.