City of David Field Trip

 First of all, congratulations, the US makes the front page of the Jerusalem newspaper everyday. What is it with this storm I keep hearing about? I still don't know much, but after reading this article it sounds dramatic. I hope everyone is ok!

 Alright, the City of David. This is the original Jerusalem (the city/ruins on the right). When the current wall was built around Jerusalem, they forgot to include this portion. It is outside the current wall right under the Temple Mount. It is very famous in the scriptures. It is first the area of the Jebusites, then it is called Salem, then The City of David, and Then Jerusalem. David saw Bathsheba on a rooftop here, Christ came here, and Nephi and his family lived here. Laban most likely lived very close to where this picture was taken. 

 During Nephi's time, the portion in the picture above was a hill full of tombs. If you look closely, you can see some of the tombs with houses build on top. When Nephi and his brothers return to the city to obtain the brass plates, they hide from laban in a "cavity of rock." They most likely hid inside one of these tombs. 

We then saw ruins of the city. there was a large retaining wall that could have been the foundation for David's palace. Other homes were built along the wall. One of the homes had a toilet! In the second space from the right, right under the fence line there is a white square ish round toilet.

My favorite part of the day was Hezekiah's tunnel!! This tunnel was built in the ancient city to bring water from the Gihon spring to the other side of the city. (p.s, all these places are totally in the bible! It's really cool. I linked them to lds.org so if you click on the words you can read more about them) The tunnel was hand carved and pitch black. We used headlamps to see. My camera flash makes it look a lot brighter than it was.

 I led the way with just a short view ahead of me. It was dark, wet, and tight. The water level was usually mid calf, but got mid thigh.

 This got my adrenaline pumping. Some parts were tight! We turned off all our lamps and felt our way through in the dark at one point! It was so much fun! I want to go back again.

The tunnel ended at the Pool of Siloam. Christ heals a blind man here by putting spit and clay into his eyes and then having him wash his eyes here.