Secret Tunnels

This morning, I met with my college roommate Noa! Noa and I were both supposed to spend Junior year abroad at Tel Aviv University but after September 11, 2001 - our trip was cancelled. We were randomly placed in an upper classroom suite together and thus became college roommates. Noa moved here soon after college.

After our visit and catching up, we joined up with our official "tour" and went to visit the Machane Yehuda Market, often referred to as "The Shuk." (Side note: originally, this tour we are now starting after visiting family for a week is a large bus trip of dozens of families, guides, driver but because of fear and the war, it is only us, one other family and our driver/tour guide named Shabat. It makes for quite a nice private tour.)

Anyhow, Machane Yechuda is an open-air market with hundreds of vendors selling everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to Turkish baked goods and Halva; fish, meat and cheeses; nuts, seeds, spices and candy. We went in search of lunch while at the market, our one criteria, it had to have AC. We happened to find a small shop with 3 tables that were cool and decided this was where we would eat. Only problem? They only had one thing on the menu! Sabich! While I love Sabich, Evan and the kids weren't so sure. The AC won out though and Sabich all around! (Theo choose his without the eggplant.)

We "tortured" Theo to try on some tallit for his bar mitzvah and then were off to the Hezekiah's Tunnel carved within the City of David in ancient times. Jerusalem, built on a mountain, was naturally defensible from nearly all sides but had one critical weakness: its main water source, the Gihon Spring, lay on the cliffside overlooking the Kidron Valley. This meant that defensible city walls would leave the spring outside, cutting off fresh water during a siege. In the 9th or 8th century BC, as King Hezekiah prepared for an impending attack, a secret aqueduct was constructed to safeguard the city’s water supply and keep it out of enemy hands.

The amazing thing about Jerusalem and visiting Israel, is that every time you come, it changes. They continuously are doing excavations and finding archeological ruins dating back thousands of years, directly relating to stories from the bible. This tunnel had just opened to the public last time Evan and I were in Israel, but this time, there was even more to see.

We put on our water shoes and prepared for our 1,740-foot trek through water in King Hezekiah's 2,700-year-old water tunnel. The tunnel is 2 feet wide, 5 feet high and pitch black. Definitely not advisable for the claustrophobic. At times, the water rises just below your waist. It takes about 40-60 minutes to walk through this narrow, dark tunnel and get to the other side, where you come upon the Shiloah Pool, which was only recently discovered and is still being unearthed.

You can also walk down the Herodian street (also underground) that myriads of Jews walked up to the Temple from the Pool of Siloam. We were told that these tunnels were the last hiding places during the Roman destruction for many Jews, and excavations in the tunnels found various artifacts indicating as such.

From here, the "men/boys" hiked across the new hanging bridge, witnessing a farm of camels, donkeys, sheep, goats, chicken, etc below them and off we went to take a rest at the hotel. After a delicious dinner and a quick geocache for the kids, we headed to the Tower of David the the Night Light Spectacular. We did a little shopping/haggling and waited for the show to begin.

Every night, the ancient stones of the Tower of David citadel come to life, and tell the story of Jerusalem. Huge images are screened on the citadel walls using video, sound and lighting, accompanied by music, it tells the story of Jerusalem through history. You can see kings rise and fall, holy buildings built, armies fighting, and cultures, religions and myths blossoming all shown under the open sky. It's pretty spectacular.

Perhaps my favorite part about this evening though is when the kids tried to find some Free WiFi in the Old City. We didn't get Israeli Sim cards so have been jumping from Wifi network to Wifi network throughout the trip. The kids found a free open network right outside the Christian Information Center. The catch? You were supposed to first acknowledge that you believe in the resurrection of Jesus before it would allow you on the Wifi network. Well played CIC ;-)