City of David

I feel like I say this about a lot of the field trips...but the field trip to the City of David was definitely a winner! And you are about to find out why...

We walked over to the City of David in the early morn...stopping for a little devotional on the way in the Orsen Hyde Memorial Park. But as soon as we arrived...I just knew I was going to love the City of David.

Ok. So mostly we were excited about Hezekiah's tunnel that was part of the day's agenda. But before we could go to the tunnel, we had a few other things on our day's agenda.

We watched a 3-D movie that gave us a brief rundown on the history of the City of David, which we mostly already knew from our classes...but it was still a fun movie. Basically, King David conquered the Canaanite city of Jebus and he made it the capital where he and Solomon ruled.  Over the years though, the city of Jerusalem grew to the northwest (the Temple Mount is to the north), and the City of David remained an important section of the city until the Babylonian destruction.

There is a brief rundown for you.

We then walked around the excavations that they have made. One excavation is believed to be David's Palace. We don't know how accurate that is...but it sounds cool. It is really easy to see how David would have looked down onto Bathsheba because the City is right next to the valley, and the palace is at one of the highest points of the City of David.

We then made our way to the tunnel...woohoo! We were pumped! Many had their head lamps ready to go...I didn't have one, but it was fine because so many others were providing light.

The tunnel was engineered by Hezekiah in 700 BC to safeguard Jerusalem's water supply in preparation for the Assyrian seige. So, the tunnel connects the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam.

Without light though...it is pitch black. At certain points people decided to turn off their lights and it was almost freaky how dark it was. But the water felt so good. It was so surreal that I was finally in Hezekiah's tunnel. This was something that I had been excited about for a long time, so it was hard for my to realize that I was here...walking through the water that was past my knees.

I was obviously really happy.

Look how high it was. Also, try not to be completely jealous of my aqua socks. I actually love those guys. They have done me good.

This is where the tunnel pops you out.

We are being fountains. Obviously.

We then went to stairs that had been recently excavated that lead to the Temple Mount for the Pool of Siloam. There is only a portion of them excavated. But it was surreal when my teacher told us that Christ would have definitely walked on these steps from the Pool of Siloam. For how much uncertainty everyone normally has about these sites and whether or not Christ was really there...that was amazing to hear.

We sat by the Pool of Siloam for a minute while our teacher talked to us. I love going to the sites that are Christ related.

 John 9:11 He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.

It was a good day! It was our last field trip with Bro. Harper, which was sad, but we were getting more and more excited to study the New Testament and the life of Christ.