Israel Day 2

Day 2 began with a short session in the gym downstairs – one of the reasons I had chosen to stay at the YMCA (apart from the price - £45 per night B&B, single room en suite). Walked down the Hinnom valley to the City of David, formerly just a small crowded Arab suburb, now becoming steadily more Israeli, but also more accessible and a lot of archaeology on going. Bought a 2 NIS (about 25p) key-fob led bulb and a ticket for Hezekiah’s tunnel.
As I went down Warren’s shaft to the Gihon spring, I caught up with a tour group of French High School girls and their teacher. They had stopped at the mouth of the tunnel and, I discovered, weren’t going further because of the water. I spoke briefly in French to their guide, who warned me the stream was cold. When I explained I came from Scotland, she said I wouldn’t have any difficulties…
She was right. At the start the stream came up to my thighs (had to hitch up the shorts) but after 20 yards it got to mid-calf and stayed there. It was a long wade through the tunnel: just wide enough to not need to go sideways on, mostly just over my head for height.
About half-way through there was a double dog-leg with short dead-ends, as the tunnel builders tried to find each other. They were within about 3 feet of each other. The tunnel itself is about 1/3 of a mile long, following an S-shaped route through the rock, with only a 2 metre fall (0.4% gradient) – King Hezekiah ordered its construction about 700 bc in order to bring the water supply within the city walls as the Assyrian menace grew. There are no intermediate vertical tunnels, making this quite a feat of engineering.
Some scholars wanted to date this tunnel to much later, but radio-carbon dating done in the 1990s of the lime-mortar used to line the tunnel confirms the dating to Hezekiah.
Despite the length and being constantly immersed, my feet didn’t get cold. I came out into what was originally believed to be a Byzantine reworking of the pool of Siloam:

In fact, recent archaeological digs nearby have found steps dating from Herod’s time which Jesus would have stood on – a much bigger pool is indicated by them.

At the exit the retail opportunity sold me a t-shirt (“I survived Hezekiah’s tunnel”), a pottery lamp from C1-3 and a couple of coins from Jesus’ time, one Roman (whose head is on this? “Render unto Caesar…”) and one Jewish (no head or image of Minerva on the obverse – marked for Herod Agrippa. This would have been acceptable for the Temple Tax).
Walked through the Dung Gate and into the Jewish Quarter, and into St Anne’s, the Church of the Upper Room near the Lion Gate. The Upper Room is downstairs – but this is not surprising after all these centuries. A woman there started telling me her life-story: she was from Nineveh, and had taught Maths at a High School during Saddam’s rule. It got too long, however, and I had to excuse myself.

Back at the YMCA I climbed the tower. To be allowed up I had to go with someone else, and the door-keeper got his friend the taxi driver to go with me. I booked him for later (another blog), which I thought was fair.