Israel Day 2 - Mount of Olives, City of David & Jerusalem

We started the day at the top of the Mount of Olives to get acquainted with the context of various physical locations during a vast span of time. The view of Jerusalem from the Mt. of Olives is incredible, so it was fairly easy to follow along with the changing city landscapes from 4000 BC to present day.

The above picture was the best I could get, but I think it shows the majority of what we were looking at. The bottom portion of the picture shows the largest Jewish cemetery in the world and is still active! Many Jewish people believe Jesus will return to the gates of Jerusalem along the Eastern Wall and that the people closest to the wall will be taken up first. Our guide compared them to the early adopters of the iPhone waiting outside the Apple store before it opened. In the picture just above the cemetery, you can see the valley that cuts between the city of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives and the terraces that are used to get up to the city walls. Above the city wall, a little off center, is a Temple with a golden dome. It's believed that under that Temple is the rock on which Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac until he was stopped at the last second. When King David was deciding where to put his capital city, that location had great significance as it was where God had made a covenant with Abraham and was intricately woven into the identity of the Jewish people. 

After the orientation, we headed to the Garden of Gethsemane by walking along the Palm Sunday road. At the time of Jesus, the Mount of Olives was covered in olive trees, but not so much today. The Garden had a few olive trees gated off and several beautiful places of worship to remember the agony and surrender of Jesus just before His death. In one place of worship, they used luminescent stone instead of traditional stained glass to create a somber ambiance. We learned that Gethsemane means "oil press" and would've been a significant meeting point for the community. That's why Jesus leaves three apostles and goes off on His own - they'd meet back up by the oil press when He was finished. 

Next, we were off to see the Palace of King David. For many years, archaeologists couldn't find the House of David because as we've learned, Jerusalem is the city that has been rebuilt on top of itself over and over for thousands of years. That means that current Jerusalem is sitting on top of the remains of the previous 39 Jerusalems. It wasn't until 1994 when someone alerted archaeologists that she believed she was living on top of the House of David. Excavation is a tediously slow process in order to preserve every bit of history possible, so even after 25 years, only the top layer has been exposed. 

The remains of a room in the House of David

We also got to see the remains of homes from the upper class (a phrase which came about because the wealthy people in ancient civilizations literally lived on higher ground than the poor). They were lower than the House of David but built into the Palace's protective wall so that David (or whoever was king) could look out on the roofs of the people. Is that where he saw Bathsheba? We don't know but maybe! The protective wall that's been excavated up to this point had stones from both King David's reign and the time of Nehemiah (example of Jerusalems built on top of each other!). 

Before lunch, we made a quick stop at the Pool of Siloam where Jesus told the blind man to wash his eyes after healing him (John 9:1-12). Because that's what you do in Israel - make quick stops to see where Jesus healed people. 

After lunch, we got to try our hand at archaeology! Spoiler alert: we're going to leave that to the professionals. But it was really fun! The city is currently working on a project to expose a road that led from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple before the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD. That road is now underground because of the rebuilding, but they are creating archways to hold up the city and also open this ancient road to the public. That means they're doing a lot of digging. All of that earth is collected and must be sorted through - which is where we come in. We basically took buckets of earth and rubble and dumped them on giant sifting trays. After washing everything off, we sorted out the pottery fragments, special stones, bones, mosaics, metals, and coins. 

Some of the coolest stuff we found:

The top of a Herodian oil lamp used to hold the wick as it burned

An animal tooth

A Hasmonean Coin

Fresca - painted plaster which revealed that we were likely sorting through rubble from a wealthier area of Jerusalem

A mosaic tile often used for intricate flooring patterns

Our last stop of the day was a first century tomb built by King Herod for his family. It allowed us to see what a tomb looked like with a rolling stone! They were usually built into the ground and had a heavy stone to seal the doorway. The picture below shows a perfectly round stone, but more commonly, a large heavy stone was pushed into the entrance. Since this was a King's family tomb, they have the fancy stone.

Whew, if you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with me! I hope you learned something! Today was like drinking from a fire hose in the absolute best way, so I'm only able to share a fraction of what we learned. I can't wait to see what else this trip holds!