Walking Our Feet off in Jerusalem

Tuesday, our main goal after breakfast and coffee, was to see if we could get onto the Temple Mount. It is only open to non-Muslims a few hours a day, and not even always then, as we discovered when we went to Jerusalem with Sarah, Nina, and Julia. That day, there were unspecified "problems," and the keepers of the ramp (a bunch of heavily armed soldiers) weren't letting anyone go up.

Our hotel was on Saleh Ad-Din street, just outside Herod's Gate. On the way there, we saw this gentleman, whose coffee was likely much better than the cappuccino-machine coffee at the hotel. We shoulda tried it, but we were on a mission.

As seems to be very common, poring over our Old City map rapidly provoked a young man to ask if we needed help. Many people seem eager to practice their English. With his help, we quickly found the security gate to the Western (aka Wailing) Wall, crossed the plaza, and found that we were in luck! The ramp to the Temple Mount was open, and there were only a few people going up. Many Jews will not go there, for various reasons, so it was not crowded.

The first thing you see is the Al Aqsa mosque. There were groups of mostly women studying or praying in the shade close to the walls, and we were, not surprisingly, not allowed to enter even the portico.

This is the front entrance of Al Aqsa.

Much more prominent, and built upon an even more raised platform, is the Dome of the Rock. This is a shrine, rather than a mosque, and is built around the rock that all three major religions consider to be holy. For Jews and Christians, it is the rock in which Abraham was prepared to sacrifice Isaac, but stopped at the last minute by an angel. in Islam, it is the rock from which Mohammad made his night journey to heaven. It is probably also at or very close to where the first and second temples stood.

The thing in the foreground appeared to be a place to wash the feet before entering the shrine.

The Dome of the Rock is a wonder of decoration, especially the gold plated dome, which had originally had a much thicker layer of gold that was sold to pay off some caliph's debts. The current gold leaf was donated by King Hussein, who sold one of his houses in London to pay for it,

The little dome off to the side is known as the Dome of the Chain. According to Wikipedia, Muslim tradition has it that King David used to judge people under the dome by having the accused hold onto a chain that hung from the dome. If they weren't struck dead, they were telling the truth. Since it was built by Saladin in the 7th century, long after King David, this account is obviously apocryphal.

Since non-Muslims cannot enter the big Dome, the little one had to do. In addition to the prayer niche on the side, there was a marvelous inlaid stone floor, 10 columns (each with a different style of capital), and a spectacular mosaic and gold ceiling.

It is hard to convey the sheer size of the Temple Mount compound. The picture gives only a taste. The plaza was extended from its original size by King Herod, who added collonades surrounding 3 sides that hold up the outer part of the plaza. It is one of the walls from this extension that is now revered as the Western or Wailing Wall.

We were kicked off the Mount promptly at 11 a.m. and found ourselves back in the Arab quarter of the city. Near the church commemorating the spot where the Virgin Mary is believed to have been born, we found this lovely sign in Arabic.

From there we navigated with a few false turns to the Jaffa Gate and the Tower of David Museum. The fortification called the Tower of David is a misnomer, as it was built much later than David's reign. The oldest bit is the leftmost tower in this picture which is thought to be one of the three towers of Herod's palace, probably the Phasael Tower.

The octagonal tower to its right has this cute little dome on top. David remembers having read that it dates to the British mandate period.

The museum is interesting both from the building itself, which is the result of constant building and remodeling, from Herod, through the Byzantine period, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, the British, right down to today, if you count the various railings constructed to keep visitors from falling backward thought centuries.

The minaret shown here was built by the Ottomans in the 17th century on top of an earlier Mamluk structure. Somewhat incongruously dubbed the "Tower of David" (as is the entire fortification) it has become a symbol of Jerusalem.

In addition to the structure itself, the museum has a number of interesting exhibits, both permanent and temporary. Among the highlights of the permanent exhibits are maps and models showing Jerusalem in various time periods.

In the time of King David:

Solomon's extension to include Mt. Moriah, where he built the first temple. The wall shown is the present-day Old City wall, for reference:

And even a map of Warren's Shaft, Hezekiah's Tunnel, and the Siloam Pool, which we visited the day before.

Various replicas of archaeological finds, such as this ancient fist bump between Abraham and Melchtzedek, the king of Salem.

And there were a couple of fanciful temporary exhibits, including one called "Suspicious Objects" (i.e., anything new and unusual), which included this cake pan that one could use to bake a map of Jerusalem with its Arab, Christian, Jewish, and Armenian Quarters, complete with knife so you could slice and dice it as you pleased. There was also a cool wooden-block model of the Dome of the Rock that could be rearranged in various ways to make the Second Temple, the Dome, or even a Byzantine (I think) church.

And an exhibit called "Threads" in which 10 Israeli fashion designers were asked to create outfits for 10 historical women important in the history of Israel. Most were pretty dreadful (I sometimes wonder what curators were thinking), but this dress was pretty cool, especially since the raised parts of the white fabric were actually Hebrew letters. It was designed for Hemda Ben Yehuda, who along with her husband, was instrumental in the revival of Hebrew as a modern language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, before totally collapsing, we circumnavigated the city from the Jaffa Gate to the Dung Gate, which took us past a couple of rock-cut tombs built right into the base of the wall.

Just inside the Dung Gate, we visited the Davidson center and Ophel Archaeological Garden. Located just south and southwest of the Temple Mount (you can just see the dome at the top of Al Aqsa peeping over this wall), the Ophel is obviously an area with tremendous historical significance, from the time of Solomon onward. The half-hidden arch at the corner of these two walls is part of the old Hulda Gate, which was closed up and covered when Herod extended the Temple Mount. Much of what we saw were remains of an Omayyad palace. But I have to admit that by this time, one old rock wall was starting to look much like the next.

We left via the Dung Gate again, and continued our multi-day circumnavigation of the walls by re-entering at the Lion's Gate. Interestingly, this involved walking through a Muslim cemetery built close under the walls and overlooking the traditional Jewish burial grounds on the Mount of Olives.

Yesterday, we tackled two museums in the newer part of Jerusalem, Yad Vashem and the Israel Museum. Neither allowed photography inside the exhibits, so there isn't much to show. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, was a moving and overwhelming remembrance of the hell in the ghettos, concentration camps, cattle cars, and death marches perpetrated by the Nazi regime. Perhaps not the best place to visit only a week and a half before visiting Germany! The grounds of Yad Vashem have various memorials to resistance fighters, the Garden of the Righteous Among Nations, and this cattle car actually used to transport Jews to the death camps, donated by Poland and mounted by the Israeli architect Moshe Safdie.

We had little time in the Israel Museum, but we did get to see the new reconstruction of Herod's tomb, as well as the exhibit of Dead Sea scrolls. Then we had to leave to retrieve our luggage from the Joint and catch a train back to Tel Aviv. Our original plan to catch a ride back with Dina was foiled by the meeting she was scheduled to attend having been moved from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

 

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City of David and Holy Sepulchre

Yesterday, David and I came up to Jerusalem with Dina, who works here a couple or three days a week. We plan to stay two nights and return with Dina when she comes up on Wednesday. We had booked a tour of the City of David, which includes the chance to go through Hezekiah's tunnel, a must-do on our pre-trip list.

The ancient City of David was built on a small hill well protected by valleys outside the walls of what is now called the Old City. The Old City walls were largely a Byzantine creation, although some of the wall is Herodian. The City of David is an on-going archaeological exploration close under the walls of the Old City near the Dung Gate.

After a kitschy 3-D movie that did, however, give a good sense of the topography, we climbed to a overlook that allowed us to see into the Kidron valley:

and all of the surrounding hills. The Temple Mount (on Mt Moriah):

Don't remember the name of this one:

And the Mount of Olives (with almost no olive trees, but millennia of graves, including the rock-cut tombs used by the wealthier Israelites around the time of Jesus).

We then descended into the archaeological digs to see what some think are remnants of Herod's palace, or at least a very large public building:

And an area that probably housed ministers' offices and/or residences.

A view of Silwan (an Arab village likely covering part of the City of David):

As we prepared to enter the water tunnels, we passed a model that helps you understand what you are about to enter. The left, sloping tunnel, together with the vertical shaft are called Warren's shaft after its (re)discoverer. It was Jebusite (bronze age) in origin and designed to get water from the Gihon spring to a place accessible from within the walls. The overflow originally went to a pool outside the walls via the Siloam channel (not shown). The lower, nearly level tunnel, called Hezekiah's tunnel, was built in the late 8th or early 7th century BCE by King Hezekiah (actually, his minions) in preparation for the Assyrian invasion (the northern Israelite kingdom, Israel had already fallen to Assyria).

After descending Warren's shaft (the non-vertical part), we popped out into an ongoing archaeological dig, where it was apparently lunch break.

And then braced ourselves for the plunge into the cool waters of Hezekiah's tunnel. The water level used to vary periodically (on a scale of hours) from nearly filling the tunnel to nearly dry. Hence the name Gihon ("gushing") spring. Now water flow is regulated for the convenience of the tourists. Nevertheless, the water level starts out well above the knee, drops down to just above the ankle, and then briefly back above the knee at the end. Refreshing! It is pitch dark in the tunnel, so flashlights, as well as water shoes, are required. In fact, it was so dark, the camera's flash would not even fire, so we could only get picture at the entrance and exit.

Note the very low headroom at the entrance (above), and the much higher ceiling at the exits (below). This is because the workers tunneled from both ends and miscalculated slightly about each others' levels. Considering this was some 2700 years ago, though, it was quite a feat of engineering. How they managed it is completely unknown.

The exit led to this pool, which as thought until recently to be the Pool of Siloam, where Second Temple ritual purifications took place, and Jesus is said to have made the blind man see. The Biblical accounts of the creation in Hezekiah's tunnel reported it to be a certain number of cubits long (about half a km), and this pool was off by a handful of cubits. Turns out, this was a Byzantine pool built during the 5th century CE because they couldn't find the original under a great pile of garbage (the dung referenced in the name Dung Gate). Note the height to which my capris got wet to give you an idea is the max depth of the water in Hezekiah's tunnel.

Ironically, it was a sewage problem at an adjoining church that led to the discovery in 2005 of the true Pool of Siloam. While digging up the sewer, the plumber came upon steps that were then identified as part of the pool. A corner of this pool has been excavated, although the major portion is covered by the church and its gardens. The ugly black pipe on the left is the church's new sewer. The stepped structure on the right is the Pool of Siloam.

After the tour, we followed another underground tunnel, which served to carry rainwater in ancient times, but also was used by Jews to hide from the Romans during the second Jewish revolt. They were eventually found and rooted out.

And from that we popped out into yet another dig. You can't go anywhere in this city without stumbling on another bit of archaeology.

We grazed the food stalls in the city and then returned to "The Joint," where Dina works to retrieve our luggage. Miscalculating our route to our hotel, we walked the long way around, but eventually found it. After a restorative nap, we headed back into the old city to see if we could find the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The hordes of tourists had died down, in places replaced by hordes of children playing. But in general, the streets were much quieter.

And, with a little help from merchants along the way, we found the church, note the ladder beneath the second window, this has been there since the early 19th century, when the "status quo" agreement was drawn up by the Ottomans to determine who had control over what parts of the city and, presumably, no one was allowed to change things that someone else might object to.

Note also the mosque that abuts the plaza in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is sacred to so many Christian sects that it is divided into numerous enclaves and chapels controlled by various sects, and one Arab family has been in charge of opening and closing the church for centuries. Apparently there is a huge set of keys involved.

This is one of the stations of the cross, where Jesus is said to have been crucified. This chapel is controlled by the Greek orthodox.

 

And, lastly, the Stone of Unction, where the body of Jesus is said to have been washed for burial. Pilgrims kiss or embrace the rock, and many rub things on it to bring some of the holiness back home with them.

We did not attempt to enter the rotunda enclosing the Holy Sepulchre, as there was a long line of pilgrims waiting to enter, even at closing time.

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On Wednesday, we booked a tour of Masada and the Dead Sea that left from Jerusalem at 8:30 a.m. As usual, we got a slightly late start, and we hit a horrendous traffic jam on the way there (Jerusalem is a little more than an hour from where we are staying with David's sister in Kfar Saba). Lots of frantic telephoning with the tour company resulted in our catching up with the group at the last of the string of hotels they use for pickup, and we were on our way, a little the worse for the stress.

The tour begins with a long drop from the heights of Jerusalem (at 2500 feet above sea level) to the Dead Sea (-1400 feet) in about 20 miles. After the obligatory commercial stop at a factory store for Ahava cosmetics (Dead Sea minerals will apparently reverse aging and make you dance around trailing scarves seductively), we dropped 3 women at a spa and headed to Masada, site of the last stand against the Romans during the first Jewish revolt.

Whereas the last time David was here, access to this mountaintop stronghold was only by foot up a long winding path known as the Snake Path:

it is now accessible to 1200 visitors an hour via a cablecar. This is the view from the cable car down to three of the Roman siege camps clearly visible to the left of the cablecar base station as quadrangles laid out in the standard Roman army grid.

The crush of visitors and the pace of our tour did not allow for lingering anywhere very long. It was also very hot (about 95 degrees). We did see the remains of Herod's palace. He had captured Masada and built his palace and numerous storage rooms, along with the amazing water storage system (see later), so he could escape if anyone revolted against him. His mother was Nabutean, so he wasn't acutally Jewish, but basically he was pathologically paranoid. He killed off several of his sons and at least one of his wives so they wouldn't try to seize power. Anyway, here are the remains of his multi-level palace.

 

We didn't go down to the palace, but the remains of an officer's quarters give a whiff of the sorts of decorations that might originally have been there. The reconstructed portion is helpfully delineated by the black line. Frescoes covered the walls and mosaics covered the floors.

The Dead Sea gets about 10 days of rainfall (amounting to less than 2 inches) a year, so water catchment was paramount. There was an extensive system of channels surrounding the hilltop leading to cisterns that caught and stored the water. Apparently, a constant stream of slaves with donkeys transferred the water from these cisterns to those within the walls. Here is a model of the system -- an attempt to photograph the water poured on by the guide was foiled by the almost instant evaporation in the heat.

 

And here is a remnant of the system that can be seen as you enter and leave the site from the cablecar.

This water system, along with the fully stocked store rooms thoughtfully provided by Herod (for his own use) allowed the rebels holed up in Masada to withstand the 2- or 3-month siege by the Romans. The Romans first constructed a circumvallation wall around the city, then a siege embankment that allowed them to get their huge siege engines up to the city's fortified walls. Two more Roman camps are visible as quadrangles on the valley floor, and the siege ramp is the smooth wall of earth with the path leading up to and along its length at the left of the photo.

Probably the single biggest reason for the enduring interest in Masada is the account by Flavius Josephus of the final denouement of the rebels. As his story goes, the 10 heads of the main families were persuaded to kill all their relatives, and then one of the 10 killed the others and then himself. When the Romans entered the city, they supposedly found 960 corpses, less a woman and child or two who hid and were saved. These pottery shards with names on them are displayed as evidence of this story.

There are a number of problems with this story. First, the mass-suicide-instead-of-capture theme was one of Josephus' favorite tropes and appears a number of times in his accounts, including his own capture at Jotapata several years earlier. Second, if everyone died, how do we know what was agreed upon? Third, if you can read the sign in this picture, these 10 "lots" were conveniently chosen from among hundreds found at the site. And lastly, only 28 skeletons were found at the site, not 960.

 

After descending the cablecar again and enjoying lunch in a food court at the cablecar station that included a MacDonalds (we ate our picnic lunch thoughtfully provided by David's sister Dina), we all packed back into the bus and went back to the resort where we had dropped the three women earlier. Here we changed to bathing suits and did all the usual Dead Sea things: floated on the water (about 45% salt, as compared to normal seawater, which is about 3.5%) and slathered ourselves with Dead Sea mud (which is supposed to cure all manner of ailments, but really is very good for psoriasis).