Day 5 - October 1, 2026
Most of today was spent back inside the old city walls and around the City of David and Temple Mount. But first we had a peaceful start with a stop at the Garden Tomb. The Garden Tomb is a beautiful quiet garden just outside the old city and was a part of a quarry and a garden at the time of Jesus. There are Old Testament era tombs in and around the garden.
We then walked to St Anne’s Church which is a crusader era church just outside Temple Mount at the north end. The church was built in the 1130’s AD over the remains of a byzantine basilica. It is near the remains of the pools of Bethesda. The pools of Bethesda had a Byzantine era church built over the wall that separated the north and south pools - that church is gone now and the pools are exposed. In the Roman era, there was a pagan shrine to the Egyptian god Serapis and the greek god Asclepius - echoing the long held Jewish belief in the healing waters of the pool. It is possible, due to excavations, to get a good feel for the size and depth of the Bethesda pools. Back to St Annes - the acoustics are amazing! Even a group without many real singers can sound fantastic!
Next we headed to the city of David for a walk through Hezekiah’s tunnel. This amazing structure was built by Hezekiah in 700 - 701 BC to protect the Gihon spring - a key water source for Jerusalem. The tunnel directs the water into the city and its protective walls and into the Pool of Siloam in preparation for the coming siege by Assyria. Two teams from opposite ends carved the channel and met in the middle and achieved the necessary gradient. The water was cold and pretty high at first - up to our thighs! But for some reason it is very exciting to walk through the tunnel and imagine the ingenuity that it took to achieve this in 700 BC. At the end, the tunnel comes out to the Pool of Siloam - and wow has that changed in 6 years! Much much more has been exposed and there are many questions yet about this important part of the Jerusalem water system. From here we walked a 1st c road that went up to the temple - trending on many original paving stones.
Our final stop was a tour at Temple Mount of the great bridge connected with Wilson’s arch. We had an excellent guide who was able to explain all of the various historical time periods and what happened to this area and this bridge / aqueduct structure, especially in the roman era. We were able to see ancient mikveh, including one for the washing of the curtain of the holy of holy’s from the temple. The areas that Romans turned into fountains and baths and have also been excavated.
Sukkot has 2 more days to go, and the western wall plaza gets fuller and more raucous every day! So many Jewish families with little children all over the place! Craig asked for a photo of two gentleman in orthodox Jewish dress. They agreed readily and said to Craig “do you know why we wear these hats?” To which Craig eagerly said “no I don’t” thinking he was about to learn something… they replied “so you’ll want to take our picture” LOL.
Another incredible day being immersed in the physical / geographic context of Biblical times! God Bless every one at home and good night, PB and Margery.
Excavation of an incomplete Roman odeion found beneath the Western Wall area - workman’s tools were still on site.
