Today was another amazing day. A friend and I trekked out to the City of david and walked up the steep slopes leading to the Royal Acropolis, which is in the process of being uncovered now.
As we walked up we passed by the Pool of Siloam where Jesus healed the crippled man, and sat and had some Turkish coffee, it is brewed three times and they add diferent things to it each time the brew it so it is very strong and very thick, with two of the men, Ishmael and Adam, responsible for digging up the pool and parts of the exit from Hezekiah's tunnel. We heard the stories of how the pool was found by accident as the city was digging up a sewage line that had ruptured and they came across the pavment stones around the pool.
We continued up the steep slopes to the City of David Visitors Center and bought our tickets to walk through Hezekiah's Tunnel from the Gihon spring all the way back to the pool.
As we climbed down the spiral staircases to the bottom were the rushing waters of the spring flow out into the tunnel I was amazed at how much work this would have been to dig out with the hand chisels and hammers that they had at the time it was dug. Also that they dug the entire 300 meter tunnel with the same chisels and small oil lamps about the size of a hockey puck.
Walking down into the tunnel it was very cool. the tunnel is about a foot to a foot and a half wide on average with an average hieght of about 5 1/2 feet, but ranged from under 5 feet to maybe 15 feet in places. The water was generally just above the ankles but got up to mid thigh level in several places. As we walked through the tunnel it was amazing to think of how many hours it would have taken to finish this passage. Even with them digging in from either side, which is amazing that they actually met doing it that way, it would have taken an incredible amount of time.
We went on for a while trying to find our way in the dark until I hit my head for the third time. It was really an awesome experience to see the lengths that they went to to protect their water supply during times of war.
As we walked up we passed by the Pool of Siloam where Jesus healed the crippled man, and sat and had some Turkish coffee, it is brewed three times and they add diferent things to it each time the brew it so it is very strong and very thick, with two of the men, Ishmael and Adam, responsible for digging up the pool and parts of the exit from Hezekiah's tunnel. We heard the stories of how the pool was found by accident as the city was digging up a sewage line that had ruptured and they came across the pavment stones around the pool.
We continued up the steep slopes to the City of David Visitors Center and bought our tickets to walk through Hezekiah's Tunnel from the Gihon spring all the way back to the pool.
As we climbed down the spiral staircases to the bottom were the rushing waters of the spring flow out into the tunnel I was amazed at how much work this would have been to dig out with the hand chisels and hammers that they had at the time it was dug. Also that they dug the entire 300 meter tunnel with the same chisels and small oil lamps about the size of a hockey puck.
Walking down into the tunnel it was very cool. the tunnel is about a foot to a foot and a half wide on average with an average hieght of about 5 1/2 feet, but ranged from under 5 feet to maybe 15 feet in places. The water was generally just above the ankles but got up to mid thigh level in several places. As we walked through the tunnel it was amazing to think of how many hours it would have taken to finish this passage. Even with them digging in from either side, which is amazing that they actually met doing it that way, it would have taken an incredible amount of time.
We went on for a while trying to find our way in the dark until I hit my head for the third time. It was really an awesome experience to see the lengths that they went to to protect their water supply during times of war.
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