City of David

We went to the City of David today. The City of David, the original city of Jerusalem, was a small enclosed settlement of about 15 acres. (Right - On the northern most part of the City of David looking south. It is hard to visualize such a tiny city when Jerusalem has spread and grown so much since that time). That is tiny. For those of you who have been to BYU, BYU's campus is 560 acres. Other than that, city blocks in the US range from 5-10 acres. So depending on the location, the entire City of David could have fit in 2-3 blocks. Can you imagine? And that housed about 2500-3000 people.
That was really interesting. There is a national park on part of that location, though there is still a Palestinian village there. We got to see a 3D movie about the settlement of that area that was interesting. (Left - layers of settlement on the Ophel Ridge where the City of David was located. The wall jutting out on the left is the Hasmonean period wall. The stones in the dirt are part of the Canaanite walls. The pillar standing up is part of Ahiel's house. This is thought to have been from the time just before Babylonian captivity. If this picture reached a little to the right, you would be able to better see stones from King David's time thought to be filler from under his palace). Then we walked around and saw area G where several layers of settlement are visible starting with Canaanite walls all the way to Hasmonean walls (just before Rome conquered Jerusalem).
Our next stop was Warren's Shaft. (Right - looking down into Warren's shaft. This is where the people would come and lower buckets to draw water). Warren's shaft is most likely the "gutter" that Joab and his men climbed up when King David wanted to conquer the Jebusite city that was built there. It was built as a way for the inhabitants to get water without exposing themselves. The water source, the Gihon Spring, is really low on the hill, outside of the city wall. In order to get water, they had to leave the city wall, until this shaft was carved. Then the people could walk down a tunnel and use buckets to draw the water.
Nearby we entered Hezekiah's Tunnel. Hezekiah's tunnel was carved before the Assyrians besieged Jerusalem. Hezekiah was worried that the water supply was out in the open and would be easy to poison or attack. So, he had two teams work night and day for about 7 months carving a path from the Gihon Spring to what became known as the Pool of Siloam. That is the pool where a blind man was told by the Savior to go and wash to get his sight. We walked through the tunnel. (Left - at the entrance to Hezekiah's Tunnel). At one point, the water was up to mid-thigh, but most of the way it was only up to my knees. The tunnel is very narrow. At points my shoulders were brushing the edges as I walked. Luckily, the water wasn't too cold.
At the other end, we got to sit on the steps that once led to the Pool of Siloam. Nearby were some Roman stairs that once led from the western wall of the temple to the pool. Those are stairs that most likely the Savior walked on. That was really cool. Most of the places where we walk here are several feet above the level were Christ would have walked, but in that instance we were able to walk on the stones where He would have walked.
We just had a short, half-day field trip, but I feel like I saw a lot.

Inside the narrow Hezekiah's Tunnel. Here you can see the water mark from when the water was up to mid-thigh. I was standing on my tiptoes at that point, too. Jade and me in Hezekiah's Tunnel. It is not straight, but twists and turns in the hillMe being a fountain in what was once believed to be the Pool of Siloam The real Pool of Siloam with me sitting on the steps leading into the pool The Roman steps leading up into the city