"Ir David" or the "City of David”, is the actual location of the biblical city of Jerusalem captured by King David over 3,000 years ago. The Ir David Foundation (Amutat EL-AD), a non-profit organization established in 1986, is dedicated to the preservation and development of the Biblical City of David and its environs.
(This leads to the theatre where we saw a 3D movie and also to an observation deck.)The story of the City of David began over 3,000 years ago, when King David left the city of Hebron for a small hilltop city known as Jerusalem, establishing it as the unified capital of the tribes of Israel. Years later, David's son, King Solomon, built the First Temple next to the City of David on top of Mount Moriah, the site of the binding of Isaac, and with it, this hilltop became one of the most important sites in the world.
The inhabitants of ancient Jerusalem once built their homes on this hillside. The earliest structures unearthed here was part of an enormous Stepped Stone Structure that supported King David's Palace and the Canaanite fortress that preceded it.
Hebrew University professor Yigal Shiloh uncovered a house in the City of David opposite the Kidron Valley. It is the most complete house excavated to date within the city. It is known as the House of Ahiel because it contained a pottery sherd with the name Ahiel scratched on it.
This is a four-room house, the typical Israelite residence of the First Temple period. Characteristically, it has three rooms set around a central courtyard and two rows of square monolithic pillars that supported a roof. An unusual feature of the house was that it contained a toilet. Ahiel's house was burnt during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.The Zion Gate
Located in the south, this gate was used by the Israel Defense Forces in 1967 to enter and capture the Old City. The stones surrounding the gate are still pockmarked by weapons fire.
A 25 second video to put you in the moment! I like taking you with me! :)
My favorite part of the Jewish Quarter was not just the sights/sites but the sounds. It was full of life and the sounds of children, birds and a general sense of well-being. I loved being there and I tried to capture it by walking through it with my iphone recording it. The result of walking over the stones, carrying my gear, watching my step and recording with the iphone was a video that looked like it was done by a drunken sailor!! So, the video above is just one minute where the guide is explaining Cardo Maximus but I think you can get a sense of what I described above!
One of the Judaic shop windows.
This is an important archaeological site, since it remapped the Biblical period city, whose boundaries were not known prior to these excavations.
The sign at the bottom indicates the street level during the first temple period and the sign at the top indicates the estimated height of the wall. The blue vertical stripes are 1M each.
The name of the wall was used in a later time in the history of the city, when Nehemiah returns from the Babylonia exile and rebuilds the wall and the first phase of the second temple. He built the city in a smaller scale, but on the west section he reuses the Hezekiah "broad wall", as written in the Bible (Nehemiah 3 8): "...and they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall". According to most scholars, this broad wall is at this site - what remained from the first temple era.
The Southern Steps
The southern steps, which have been excavated in recent years, served as the main entrance and exit to the entire Temple Mount complex. And we know from Scripture that Jesus went to the Temple several times throughout His life. The Temple itself has since been destroyed, and the Temple Courts are buried under years of civilization and rebuilding. But the southern steps can still be walked upon today. So if you want to walk where Jesus walked this is the place. Below is an artists rendition of what the steps looked like in relation to the temple.
The worn steps cut into the bedrock of Mount Moriah.
A view looking east-southeast down the steps over the Kidron Valley toward the southern summit of the Mount of Olives. At the foot of these stairs are numerous mikvah (ritual baths) used by the Jews for purification. These mikvah were likely used by the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 for baptizing the 3,000 new Jewish believers in the name of Jesus.
In this group picture if you count Kay's row as row #2 then you can find Pat and I on row #5. More importantly, if you look at where Kay is sitting you can see just to her left the original steps cut out of the bedrock of Mount Moriah. Also the wall to Kay's right is a part of the tower of the Knights Templar that was built right up against the Double Gate by the Crusaders to protect the city from Muslim invaders.
Located in the south, this gate was used by the Israel Defense Forces in 1967 to enter and capture the Old City. The stones surrounding the gate are still pockmarked by weapons fire.A 25 second video to put you in the moment! I like taking you with me! :)
The Jewish Quarter
My favorite part of the Jewish Quarter was not just the sights/sites but the sounds. It was full of life and the sounds of children, birds and a general sense of well-being. I loved being there and I tried to capture it by walking through it with my iphone recording it. The result of walking over the stones, carrying my gear, watching my step and recording with the iphone was a video that looked like it was done by a drunken sailor!! So, the video above is just one minute where the guide is explaining Cardo Maximus but I think you can get a sense of what I described above!
One of the Judaic shop windows.The Broad Wall
Excavations in the Jewish quarter in the old city of Jerusalem unearthed a section of the 1st temple wall, built by Hezekiah, during the 8th C BC. The wall was intended to protect the city against the Assyrians (Ashur). The impressive wall, almost 8M thick and 8M high, strengthened the defense of the city.
This is an important archaeological site, since it remapped the Biblical period city, whose boundaries were not known prior to these excavations. The sign at the bottom indicates the street level during the first temple period and the sign at the top indicates the estimated height of the wall. The blue vertical stripes are 1M each.The name of the wall was used in a later time in the history of the city, when Nehemiah returns from the Babylonia exile and rebuilds the wall and the first phase of the second temple. He built the city in a smaller scale, but on the west section he reuses the Hezekiah "broad wall", as written in the Bible (Nehemiah 3 8): "...and they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall". According to most scholars, this broad wall is at this site - what remained from the first temple era.The Southern Steps
The southern steps, which have been excavated in recent years, served as the main entrance and exit to the entire Temple Mount complex. And we know from Scripture that Jesus went to the Temple several times throughout His life. The Temple itself has since been destroyed, and the Temple Courts are buried under years of civilization and rebuilding. But the southern steps can still be walked upon today. So if you want to walk where Jesus walked this is the place. Below is an artists rendition of what the steps looked like in relation to the temple.
Again, I can't help but be reminded of all the wonderful Bible stories I have shared with the children through the 29 years Tony and I have taught.
The Bible says that Jesus first visited the Temple as a child, when Mary and Joseph brought Him here to be consecrated to the Lord (see Luke 2:21-40). The family then came back to Jerusalem year after year, as was their custom, for the yearly Feast of the Passover (Luke 2:41).
It was on these trips that Mary and Joseph lost Jesus as they were traveling back home, thinking that he was traveling back with relatives or friends. After searching for Him for three days, they finally found Him, back in Jerusalem in the Temple Courts. He was sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions. Upon hearing that His parents had been anxiously searching for Him, Jesus replied:
"Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49).
The worn steps cut into the bedrock of Mount Moriah.
A view looking east-southeast down the steps over the Kidron Valley toward the southern summit of the Mount of Olives. At the foot of these stairs are numerous mikvah (ritual baths) used by the Jews for purification. These mikvah were likely used by the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 for baptizing the 3,000 new Jewish believers in the name of Jesus.In this group picture if you count Kay's row as row #2 then you can find Pat and I on row #5. More importantly, if you look at where Kay is sitting you can see just to her left the original steps cut out of the bedrock of Mount Moriah. Also the wall to Kay's right is a part of the tower of the Knights Templar that was built right up against the Double Gate by the Crusaders to protect the city from Muslim invaders.In the corner where the two walls meet a lintel from the Umayyad Period (661-750 AD) can be seen over the Double Gate. Part of the lintel was covered up by the Knights Templar when they built their fortification in about 1129 AD.
The above video is of Kay teaching on the Southern Steps. It is just the last 10 minutes but it is a powerful 10 minutes and as always I wanted to give whoever was interested an opportunity to experience sitting on the Southern Steps and looking out across the City of David, beyond the Kidron Valley to the community of Silwan. And this is how we ended our first full day in Jerusalem!! Wow!
The above video is of Kay teaching on the Southern Steps. It is just the last 10 minutes but it is a powerful 10 minutes and as always I wanted to give whoever was interested an opportunity to experience sitting on the Southern Steps and looking out across the City of David, beyond the Kidron Valley to the community of Silwan. And this is how we ended our first full day in Jerusalem!! Wow!
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