The City of Our Great King

So us IBEXers didn’t have much of a weekend for our first weekend here. We actually had a class field trip today into where else but…Jerusalem! This time our focus was on the Old Testament (although we went to some New Testament sites) and the City of David where we were able to go through Hezekiah’s Tunnel underneath the city of David.

Again, we began our expedition entering the Jaffa Gate and quickly scuffled over to the middle of the Jewish Quarter, where our first stop was looking at a remnant of Hezekiah’s wall that was excavated in the 17th century.

It is known as the “Broad wall” for such heights and widths that it stood at. The building of the “Broad Wall” is accounted in 2 Chronicles 32:1-5, as Hezekiah was preparing for an attack from the Assyrians from the North of Israel. I didn't get a very good picture of it, but even if I could it wouldn't do it much justice....It was pretty tall i guess, although I missed a lot of the information about it.

We then moved to a Museum looking at a model of the 1st temple period. We went through basically all the history from when David conquered Jerusalem to Herod expanding the walls of the Kingdom in the North. We even got to look at a replica of the inscription found within Hezekiah's tunnel that told how they formed the tunnel underneath the City of David (which we would go through later) and also looked at some of the oldest artifacts that hold Biblical accounts (scripture, names) on them that were found within some tombs.

It was stop to stop to stop all day, writing as much information as I could on all I was hearing. We went to so many places I wouldn’t even know where to begin…“Briefly” listing some of the places we went today:


we went to an Ancient Byzantine-Roman Cardo street from 300-640 AD; the Church of the Last Supper that commemorates just that, where we reenacted the last supper;a Catholic graveyard that overlooked the Hinnon Valleyand stopped at Schindler’s grave; the southwestern side of the Temple mount where we saw Robinson’s arch, remnants of the fallen temple, and a portion of Herod’s temple on the Southern side where we recited some Psalms of Ascent, as we Ascended up the Herodian steps; we then finally made it to the City of David where welooked at remnants that may have served as David’s palace and bedrocks from the Canaanite period, went through Hezekiah’s tunnel to end at the Siloam Pool, where Jesus would have healed the man born blind; and finally ended our day at the location where David’s tomb may be.


I do have to say as jampacked as this day was and as cold as I was at the end of it, it was super exciting and I feel as if my mind is going to implode from all the information I’m getting in one day. It definitely was a very packed and exciting day with too much to talk about and with tons to describe as we saw the many remnants and archeological finds that connect so much to our faith found within the Bible. In fact there’s so much information I’m going to have to split this post in half…half general and one post just dedicated to our journey through Hezekiah’s tunnel, because I have to admit…that was definitely the coolest (both figuratively and literally) part of the day. But for now I’ll just let some pictures do some summarizing of the day. Enjoy.


a student walking through the Cardo Street

The Lion Gate

a class reenacting the Last Supper

Women praying at the site that commemorates David’s tombs underneath the Church of the Last Supper

A Jewish man just outside of the men’s prayer section

Oskar Schindler’s grave

The Temple Mount

The Western Wall of the Temple on the Southern Side

students stopping for a break after the uphill tread to David’s tomb

Overlooking an Arab Community in the Kidron Valley from the City of David

Yelling "Long live King Solomon" into the valley reenacting 1 Kings 6 (photo by Cassia VanDyke)

Friends, Katrina and Cassia, pose for a photo

The sun setting behind the City of David From Old Testament Jerusalem Walk