in the middle east

Jessica and I are continually amazed at how many interesting things there are to discover here. One day when Jessica's parent were here, we spent a day cruising around some of the older layers of the city. After church Jack and I went to what is called the "City of David", a recent tourist attraction that holds layers and material from the oldest area of Jerusalem, i.e. pre-Israelite Jebusite Jerusalem and the Jerusalem of the kings of Judah. Here is the famous Hezekiah's tunnel: an aquaduct of 1/4 mile's length hewn out of bedrock in the late 700's BC. (I've incorporated some pictures from when Jessica and I went there in the late summer as well, so she makes a star appearance). After that Jack and I met up with Jessica and Joyce and we wandered into the ancient valley of Kidron (known as the valley of Jehoshaphat "Yahweh judges" from Joel chaper 3) where you can find remains of 2,000 year old rock tombs. After eating some snacks of beef Jerkey and nuts in the graveyard (somewhat surreal) we headed back up into the city for a 5pm tour of the Western Wall tunnel. This is an archaeological site where a tunnel has been dug out along the length of the original Western wall of the temple mount. It was long, impressive, and full of interesting tidbits about the city's history. So, follow our adventures in old Jerusalem and older Jerusalem, Click Here.