Day 1: Arrival & the Old City of Jerusalem

While I knew that the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem are "only" a few hundred years old, I had yet to have been on a tour where the original site David established Jerusalem upon was pointed out. Our bus took us to a part of East Jerusalem overlooking the Mount of Olives with a beautiful view of the Dome of the Rock. It is in a small valley near the foot of the Old City where David first set down roots in the city.

It was interesting to learn about this, because he picked one of the lowest geographic spots in the area. Tactically this was not good when it came to defending the city, but the location is the only natural spring the area, as Jerusalem is a water poor city.

Shortly thereafter we went to the Western Wall and toured the tunnels, which I had surprisingly not gone through on earlier visits. I was absolutely blown away by how cavernous the tunnels are in places. I knew Jerusalem had a number of layers, but the tunnels really hit home the point that Jerusalem has layers that have been built on top of each other an almost innumerable number of times.

While walking through the tunnels we arrived at a cramped point where a small number of Orthodox women were praying in front of the stone walls of the tunnel. Our guide said that that specific section of the tunnel is the closest point to the Temple Mount, and is thus to many is an extremely holy place to pray. Once I heard the explanation I was surprised to see so few women there (maybe 7 or 8 - definitely less than 10).

All together I think the day could be summed up with something my Birthright guide Tzvi Sperber said eight years ago when I first visited Israel: "In North America you measure history by the decade. The roaring 20's, dirty 30's and such. Here in Israel we measure history by centuries and millennia!" No place exemplifies this saying better than Jerusalem.