Day 7 – More Jerusalem and tunnels

Our last full day in Jerusalem didn’t start out so great – well at least for some of us.
 Micah (who had previously been sick the day we went to the Dead Sea) was eating his breakfast at the table when he suddenly vomited between bites of corn flakes. So we decided that perhaps he needed a bit of a rest. Susan stayed home with him and Alma for the morning, and the rest of us headed off for our daily adventure.

We first headed towards a church called Saint Peter in Gallicantu.  Gallicantu is from the latin Gallus cantat – literally the rooster crows  – as it is built on what is believed to be the site of the palace of Caiaphas the Roman appointed Jewish high priest.

This would have then also been the place where Jesus’ follower Peter had followed at a distance, out of fear that the same thing which was happening to his rabbi would happen to him.  Jesus had told Peter he would deny even knowing him three times before morning – before the rooster crowed. He did – and that’s where this place gets its name from

The palace of Joseph Caiphas would have been the place where Jesus was taken  after his arrest, and where he was beaten and held overnight before being sent to the Roman prefect Pilate for execution.

After St Peter’s we walked along the old city walls toward the ‘real’ old city – an area called ‘the city of David’ as it contains a dig site that dates back to the time of King David (~1000 BC) – many centuries before the ‘old city’ – which only dates to the first century BC.

The City of David archaelogical dig is a very impressive site that has uncovered remains that span from the remains of a house from the time the Byzantines (all the way up to ~1100AD) all the way back to pottery fragments dated to before the Early Bronze Age (prior to ~3500BC).  So this one site alone has discoveries that cover in excess of 5000 years.

One of the main reasons we wanted to go to the City of David was to walk through Hezekiah’s tunnel.

Hezekiah’s tunnel also know as Siloam tunnel   (נִקְבַּת השילוח‎, if you written Hebrew is good) is an ancient subterranean aqueduct, that runs from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam

We walked back to the house – where Micah was now feeling better – so all 12 of us headed back to the old city for lunch.  We made our way to the Jewish quarter and found ourselves a bagel shop.

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We found a place that delivered pizza – and so that was our last meal in Jerusalem.

And, just in case you were wondering where the 12 of us stayed, here are a few shots of the house we had in Jerusalem.

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