From the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, we stopped for a bit in the Christian Quarter for an early lunch and a little bit of shopping. If I haven’t mentioned it before, the weather for our entire trip was spectacular – warm and sunny every day. Today was no exception and it was so nice to sit at a little outdoor cafe and eat some shwarma and just people watch for awhile. Also got another look at the outside of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.
The Temple Mount
Soon enough, Adina herded her 19 ‘sheep’ towards the Temple Mount. This is another place with layers of history spanning millennia. The first temple, built by King Solomon in 957 BC was destroyed by the Babylonians (leading to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews) in 586 BC. The second temple was completed in 516 BC. Then in 19 BC, Herod the Great expanded the mount, nearly doubling its size, and rebuilt the temple. This is the temple that was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The walls that Herod had built were so massive (stones were 40 ft. long, 9 ft. high and 12 ft. deep), that the Romans couldn’t tear the walls down (though they tried).
Following destruction of the Temple in 70, AD, the Romans renamed Jerusalem “Aelia Capitolina” (Capital City), dedicated to Jupiter. A temple to Jupiter was built on the site of the former Jewish temple. Then during the Byzantine period, when Christianity became a dominant religion in Rome, there is some evidence that a Byzantine church or public building of some sort was built on the temple site. In 610 AD, the Sassanid Empire drove the Byzantine Empire out of the middle east and gave Jews control of Jerusalem, who began to rebuild the temple yet again. However, 5 years later, control of the city shifted back to the Christians, and they tore down the beginnings of the Jewish temple and turned the site into a garbage dump. In 637 Arabs conquered the city and during this period built the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. The gold cladding of the Dome of the Rock began in 1920 and has been updated through the 1990’s. What is the “rock” in the Dome of the Rock? Well, it is believed by Jews to be the site of the rock altar where Abraham was prepared to offer his son Issac as a sacrifice. The Muslims believe the rock is where Mohammed ascended into heaven.
The walls of the 2nd temple go deep, and over the years, much has been covered up/built up with homes and other buildings in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem.
We began our exploration of the Temple Mount at the southern wall (nearest the Dung Gate) where some recent excavations are underway. We stopped in a museum to see a film (watched in Hebrew and in English) about what the temple would have looked like in Jesus’ time and what a Jew needed to do to prepare himself and bring an offering (animal) to the Temple for sacrifice. Over and over again in our exploration of Jesus’ time, the issue of ritual baths (mikveh) came up. Sure enough, in the ruins near the south end of the temple mount are even more mikveh.
Excavations near the South Wall of the Temple Mount
We also got to climb on the remains of the steps at the south end of the temple complex. These steps led up to an entrance to the temple mount (double arches) that were bricked in during Islamic control of the city. Our guide, Adina, said these steps date back to Jesus time and could have been part of the steps Jesus sat on, discussing with the rabbis, when he was 12 (“After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” Luke 2:46).
Clockwise from top right: view from steps on the southern wall of the temple; Anne C. (me) on the steps on the south wall of the temple; the south wall temple steps
We also saw a presentation about the first 2 temples, and how the landscape of the temple mount changed over the centuries, with build up of neighborhoods along the west wall of the Temple Mount.
The Western Wall Tunnel
From the south wall of the temple, we walked to enter the Western Wall Tunnel. This tunnel starts perpendicular to the Western Wall of the Temple. When King Herod expanded the Temple Mount in 19 BC, he built 4 retaining walls and the Temple Mount was expanded on top of them. After the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 AD, the retaining walls and the mount platform remained. Over the centuries, much of the area next to the walls have been covered and built upon. Only a small portion of the Western wall remains visible/accessible above ground, and that part of it is referred to as the Western (Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem, where the Jews go to pray.
Views of the Western Wall Tunnel
British researchers started excavating the Western Wall in the mid 19th century. They were followed by Sir Charles Warren.
The various excavations have revealed an additional 1590 ft. of the western wall (below current ground level). The excavations have also revealed many archaeological finds, including streets and other structures from the Hasmonean Period. The tunnel begins perpendicular to the Western Wall where it makes a sharp turn to the North and then travels along the length of the Western Wall to the north. We were able to say prayers and place our prayers in crevices of the Western Wall, closer to the north end (where the 2nd Temple would have stood).
Adina talking about the underground excavated portions of the Western Wall; prayer notes placed in the underground portion of the Western Wall (close to the north end of the Temple Mount)
Near the end of the tunnel are the remains of a large cistern (pool). A portion of this cistern is located under the Convent of the Sisters of Zion (blocked off from the Western Wall tunnel).
Remains of the cistern at the north end of the Western Wall tunnel
Adina told us the story of how the northern exit from the tunnel into the Muslim Quarter came about. Originally, people had to make a U-turn at the cistern and come all the way back to the beginning of the tunnel to exit (no mean feat, considering how narrow the tunnel is). Originally Israel proposed to create an exit that would come up in the Muslim Quarter. They even got a shop owner in the Muslim Quarter to agree to sell his shop where the exit would be built. But after protests and riots they abandoned that approach. Then, the Israelis thought they could tunnel under the bedrock and come out near the north end of the Temple Mount. But again, the Muslims objected, thinking the Israelis might actually tunnel under/into the Temple Mount. Finally, in 1996, with no public agreement, Israel built their tunnel exit on the north end of the Western Wall and the Muslims built a second mosque inside the Temple Mount.
Once we exited the tunnel, we retraced our steps and exited the Old City via the Dung Gate and met up with our bus for the ride back to our hotel.
Since we were back at the hotel with plenty of time to spare before dinner, Carenda suggested we all meet in the park (Harry Wilf Park) a few blocks from our hotel at 4:30 p.m. for a communion service. Before joining them, Carl and I walked down to the Mamilla Mall looking for a place where I could get US currency to replace the money I thought I had lost (money to pay for tips to Adina and Amnon at the end of our trip). Someone at the desk in the Prima Kings hotel had told us there was a place to get US currency in the mall. Well, there was an exchange office, but that’s all it was – an exchange place for currency. They couldn’t take my bank card and give me cash. The woman said I had to have (Israeli) currency first, and then she could change it into dollars. So we found an Israeli ATM in the mall, but every time I tried to get Israeli shekels from the ATM, I got a notice that my card wasn’t authorized for such transactions (grrrr!). I was in tears by the time we left the mall empty-handed and trudged back up to the Park for the communion service. After the service, Pat D. said he knew of an ATM nearer our hotel that would take my bank card. He walked Carl and I to the ATM (across the street from our hotel) and I was able to withdraw enough money (in shekels) to cover needed tips and any additional spending money for the rest of the trip.
So – here’s the rest of the story concerning my money woes. Our first night in Tel Aviv when I opened my suitcase, I noticed that my TSA lock was missing and I thought I had put my extra cash inside a cross body bag inside the suitcase. Of course when I checked the suitcase and the body bag I couldn’t find my extra cash and thought perhaps it had been taken by TSA or maybe other baggage handlers at the Newark Airport. I fumed (mostly inwardly) about this the whole trip (beating myself up for being so stupid to pack my extra cash in my main suitcase). When we finally got home on November 15 and I was emptying all the compartments of my carry-on bag (not my checked suitcase), lo and behold I found my envelope with my extra cash – I’d had it with me the whole time – tucked in a zippered compartment that I hadn’t checked before!
Trinity Pilgrimage to Israel - Nov 2017 