The City of David & Hezekiah's Tunnel

Yesterday we were able to take a partial tour of the City of David. I live here, and I didn't even realize what the "City of David" was; so I'll explain for you. The "Old City" of Jerusalem is not as old as most people think. The walls as we see them today were actually built in 1538 by Suleiman the Magnificent. But long before this, King David conquered the Jebusites and built the City of David, which was actually not even inside the current walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Later, his son, Solomon, extended the walls to include the temple mount, which is located inside the current Old City walls. Over the centuries, the many enemies of Israel have destroyed the city and its walls, but over the past several decades, archaeologists have unearthed the remains of this once great city. Here's a picture of modern Jerusalem, with a depiction of what the original City of David would have looked like, and where it was located. Notice the temple mount as a reference point (the Dome of the Rock is setting on the temple mount today).... [click to enlarge]
There is an enormous amount of history and information about this place, and I could not begin to accurately account for it all. I'll stick to showing you pictures of what I saw, and if you'd like to learn any more, you can visit the City of David website... it's really well done, and has lots of info and pictures!

These stones make up part of the original city walls...
They've uncovered the remains of houses within the city and found cosmetics and housewares from 586 B.C. They've even found toilets.... yes, I said toilets. Do you see the hole in one of the stones? Don't ask me how they know for sure, but they insist that it is a toilet....

Here are two tombs; which some believe include David's burial place. 1Kings 2:10 does say that he was buried in the city of David, but this does seem like a rather humble burial place for a king....
This area was used as a quarry after it became uninhabited, so the top of the tomb is gone. I suppose if this was his tomb, it could have looked more grand at one time. Here's another view where you can see the entrance better....

Next, we walked through Hezekiah's Tunnel. 2Kings 20:20 & 2Chron 32:2-4,30 tell about Hezekiah and how he built a tunnel system to bring water from the Gihon spring, into the city. The tunnel is 1750 feet long and still has (cold) water that can at times be thigh high on an adult. It was hewn by two groups of workers, starting on opposite ends and meeting each other in the middle. At this meeting place, an inscription was found carved in the wall to tell what had taken place there. Here is a replica of the inscription. If you click to enlarge, you can read the translation of what was written there....
With our flashlights in hand, we all ventured into the dark, wet tunnels... FUN!
Here is a picture of me and my children. Don't let the brightness of the picture fool you... that's only the work of the camera's flash. It was pitch-black inside; the flashlights were a necessity....
You can tell that I'm able to stand up straight in this portion of the tunnel, but it wasn't that way the whole time. Part of the time we also had to bend down to fit through.... definitely not the place you want to go if you are claustrophobic!
Some areas had very high ceilings and we found out that these were because of miscalculations on the part of the hewers. They had originally cut through much higher, but then realized that the water wouldn't flow that direction, and had to cut lower. That would be very frustrating work. Look how much of a difference there is; you can see the tops of heads at the bottom of the picture....
The entire time through the tunnel (about 40 minutes) we were walking in cold water. It started out coming thigh high on me, but the majority of the time, it only reached mid-calf. But, not so for my poor little boy....
Honestly, it was not miserable at all. We had lots of fun, and we all felt like it was a good adventure.
Originally this water system would have fed into the pool of Siloam. John 9:6-7 gives an account of Jesus healing a blind man by spitting on the ground and rubbing the clay on the man's eyes, then having him wash in the pool of Siloam. The archaeologists believe they have found this original pool, although they are still doing excavation on it and believe that the shape has been changed from the original. It's dry at the moment, but maybe eventually they'll discover how to get the water flowing again.... [sorry for the funny angle]
We had a great time. I hope you enjoy the pictures!