We slept late getting up at 7.30. We felt that we needed a bit extra sleep since we had been up early every day since we got to Israel.

With getting up later than usual we seemed to run out of time so once we had collected our things together we started to walk to the City of David.  It is on the opposite side of Jerusalem (The Old City) and we would have to walk through all the souks so we flagged down a cab. The cab driver seemed determined to get some extra business as he wanted to know if we wanted to go to Bethlehem or if we needed a guide, how much and who etc. etc..  You have to admire there persistence in trying to find work.

We arrived to find a small mob – it seemed that half of Jerusalem had come to the City of David. Our tour guide was a young man named Yeshua. He led our band off the see a 3D movie about city. With our Polaroid glasses we had pigeons flying at us, and we flew through buildings and tunnels.   After the movie we moved to were they were still busy with excavation. It is really amazing that we are looking at stones that were laid over 5000 years ago.  What has been uncovered in this part is the base of the main northern wall of the city.

Moving on we saw the remains of a scribe’s house.  It was amazing to hear how some of the names on the seals found in that house are mentioned in the account of Jeremiah.

We then descended a tunnel that had been chiselled through solid rock by the original inhabitants, the Canaanites, until we came to what is called Warren’s Shaft, named after British archaeologist.  Descending further we came to the Gihon Spring. Here is were Solomon had been proclaimed king.

Here we entered Hezekiah’s Tunnel. This is a 750 meter long tunnel cut through the rock to bring the water from the spring to the Shiloach Pool which was inside the city. This was how King Hezekiah was able to resist the Assyrian siege. The walk through the tunnel involved walking through water ranging from thigh deep to ankle deep.  The tunnel twisted and turned a number of times until we emerged at a pool.  At its widest, the tunnel was about 1m and at its narrowest, about 60cm.

This was not the Shiloach Pool but a pool created when a Byzantine church was built. A recent discovery was the real pool. This was a large pool with steps on four sides leading down into the water. Another find was the roadway that led from the pool up to the southern steps of the Temple Mount.  They are in pristine condition looking like the stone was cut last week. Excavation has been stopped because “someone” has objected saying that the house above would collapse.  The joke is that the house belongs to the foreman of the work party doing the excavations!   The “somebody” is clearly making a political issue out of history.

The walk back up to the top of the site was long and strenuous, but by now we were quite fit so it was not too bad. The tour which had started at 10h00 finished at 13h00 and after the walk back to the studio, and a quick lunch at the Menorah coffee shop in the Jewish Quarter, we were ready for a little sleep. Some needed the sleep more then others so while some grumped others slept (no prizes for guessing who the grumpy one was … )

Our once-guide, now friend, had booked a Shabbat dinner at Christ Church so after changing clothes we met her at the church, which is the oldest protestant church in Jerusalem. The start of the meal was delayed by the tour group that was staying at the guest house being delayed on the way back.

The meal was a “Christianification” of the Shabbat meal and somehow for us was rather empty and lacked what we have come to understand about Jewish tradition. After the meal we went to a Armenian Coffee Shop, belonging to friends of Suzanne, and sat and chatted about Judaism, Christianity and the history of Jerusalem, a very interesting conversation.

Just before we were due to leave Suzanne cut her hand badly on a piece of metal in the lady’s room;  the restaurant is still being completed.  As this was now 11:30 pm we called a cab and took her to the Magen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross), the ONLY one open on Shabbat, which was on the other side of Jerusalem.

En route, despite having lost a lot of blood (we were glad we weren’t going to have to clean up at the coffee shop), Suzanne continued to do the “tour guide” thing and described/commented on anything of interest that we passed.  Eventually, after 4 stitches (and more “tour guide” business) we called a cab, went to drop her off and were then dropped off a few minutes walk from our studio at 1.45 am.  Needless to say, we were both exhausted … but at least we weren’t the ones suffering from pain!

Tomorrow, Beit Lechem & Jericho Day 13