City of David

• Far older than the Roman water tunnel (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/haas-and-goldman-promenades.html ) is the tunnel Hezekiah had built to divert the Gihon Spring -- back when Rome was a recently-founded Italian town.
• Diversion of the spring denied the invading Assyrians a water source and ensued one for Jerusalem.
• This Jerusalem, The City of David (http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/index.html is a beautiful, but a bit annoying, Website), lies downhill from the current city and outside its walls ((http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/on-walls.html ) and is more than a thousand years older. It predates David, though its claim to fame is the connection with him and his descendents. That his descendents ruled there is clear from the inscription in Hezekiah's tunnel and from bulae -- the impresions of seals. Archaeologists date parts of the city to David's more ancient time, and parts to before that.
• A wood-on-metal-mesh walkway took me over the excavations of Phonecian style walls. Hiram, says the Bible, sent supplies and experts to build for David. Hiram was a Phoenecian -- not proof, but a bit of possibly supporting evidence.
• Down the stairways go, past courtiers' apartments, down to a tunnel the Jebusites used.
• That tunnel leads to Hezekiah's water tunnel (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-09/huoj-dok090903.php ). If you have a flashlight and water shoes, you can go through it to the Siloam Pool.
• The inscription that identified the engineering marvel is now in Istanbul.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Haas and Goldman Promenades

• The Peace Forest adds oxygen to Jerusalem below Armon HaNatziv (the UN headquarters in the building that once housed the British High Commissioner http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_sys/picture/atarim/site_form_atar_eng.asp?site_id=16&pic_cat=4&icon_cat=6&york_cat=9 ) down to Gai ben Hinnom and the Kidron Valley.
• The Sherover (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/sherover-promenade.html )is the walled walk with a good view.
• Down from it to the left, the Haas continues as a path towards Aub Tor, a walk on my schedule for Sunday.
• The Goldman goes to the east of the Sherover, around Armon HaNatziv. The Goldman family gets my gratitude not only for the beautifully-landscaped promenade but also for pressuring the municipality not to allow develpers to build along the ridge. So far, the view belongs to everyone.
• It would fit the Bible story if it was somewhere along this ridge that Abraham saw the mountain on which he was to set up the sacrifice of Isaac.
• Across the street from Armon HaNatziv, stepped plazas provide an excellent view of Herodion (http://www.abu.nb.ca/courses/NTIntro/images/Herodifortress.htm ). It's the hill that looks like a volcano. The shape is Artificial. Herod wanted it to stand out.
• In the top plaza a modern mosaic depicts the water system built by the Romans. A guided tour took me here, down steps and more steps, and more and more to the locked entrance to a tunnel that is partof the system. I gather that the water came by aqueduct from near Gush Etsion. The drop is 20 meters over 20 kilometers through the Judean hills. Aqueducts meandered to this point, gravity moving the water along a 1:1000 slope.
• Here Roman engineers had their slaves (I assume) tunnel through. A guard saw us in. We walked the 200-meter distance, sometimes sideways, sometimes bent over a bitThe Ottomans did some maintenance on the tunnel and added a supplementary water channel, but eventually the system fell into disuse.
• You can only get in with a licensed guide. Women more than five-months pregnant would have a hard time getting through, and it is not for claustrophobes. An acrophobe on the city wall can find ways down at intervals (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/on-walls.html ), but once in this tunnel, you can go back only if everyone behind you does, and there are no other exits. There are regular signs saying how far to the end. The kids in the group liked it. One of the adults was not happy with another adult's questions about whether anyone had every been left in the tunnel. It'd have to have been the last in the group.
• At the other end, another guard sat in the shade. We climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed, back to the parking lot next to Armon HaNatsiv. The last natsiv left over 60 years ago, but in this part of the world that is a very short period of time indeed.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox