Hezekiah's Tunnel

Well, I suppose now is a good time to post again. It's been a while since the last one. I went to Hezekiah's Tunnel yesterday morning. The tunnel was built by order of king Hezekiah to give the city of Jerusalem a water supply when it was under siege by Assyria. The tunnel runs from near David's palace (outside the city walls) to under the Temple Mount. I just walked the part that is outside the city walls (because the rest of it is closed to the public). The water is still running in it, although the water doesn't look too clean (little wonder, since hundreds of tourists are walking through it each day). Here are some photos:


This is near the entrance of Hezekiah's Tunnel. We saw a family harvesting their olives. I thought it was cool, so I took a picture.


This i an excavation being done right next to David's palace that my archaeology teacher is in charge of (hopefully I'll be able to go to the site...)


This is looking up to the Temple Mount from over Hezekiah's Tunnel.


Some of the ruins of what they believe was David's Palace


The entrance to the tunnel. To my right, you can see the 'Canaanite tunnel', or the dry route. Behind me, you can see the actual tunnel with the water in it.


This is a closeup of the entrance to the tunnel.


Here I am in the tunnel. Notice how the water goes to mid-thigh in this part of the tunnel. This is the deepest part of the tunnel. In the rest of the tunnel, the water goes to about mid-calf or knee deep.


This is a replica of the 'Shiloah Inscription', which was found here. It was written 2700 years ago during the reign of King Hezekiah.


This is the exit from the tunnel. The water runs above ground for about 100 yards, and then goes into another tunnel (which is not open to tourists).


This is the Pool of Shiloah (Siloam). This is just one edge of it. You can see the stairs leading down to where the water would have been. Where all the dirt and trees are is where excavation stopped. The pool was originally a large square.
Jesus healed a blind man by spitting in the sand to make clay, putting it on the man's eyes, and then having him wash in the pool of Siloam (John 9:1-12).


There is a shop outside the exit of the tunnel that sells some of the artifacts of the digs. I am holding here some 'widow's mites' some of which are from around the time of Jesus.

OK. So, after last year's pathetic attempt at beginning a blog, and after many moons of the family seeing no photos, I have been called to repentance by Sarah and am going to make yet another attempt at keeping a blog.
I am going to give a quick summary of my summer:
I went to Vienna for a week and a half, and then went to Frankfurt, where I did genealogy, and met a lot of new friends.
Anna flew into Munich the beginning of July, and we stayed for a week in a little town near the Austrian border. We had the opportunity of singing a catholic mass in the Alps! That was pretty cool.
Anna had her 17th birthday while we were in Germany. Of course, she dressed up really cute, and I got some good pics of her.
After Munich, we went to a few other German cities, visiting archives and doing genealogy. It was a pretty great month.
I am now in Jerusalem, studying Hebrew for 5+ hours each day.
Well, that was the summer in a nutshell. I will try to post fairly often. I don't have any pics of Israel yet--I'll put them up on my next post.