Tuesday, 24 February

Wow, has it really been four days since I wrote in my blog?  We are just so tired when we come in at night that I often forget to write.  On Saturday we drove west to Beth Shemesh, Lachish, and the Ela Valley.  This is the valley where David had his battle with Goliath.  We had an interesting lecture about the battle and saw the valley where it likely took place.  We went to a place called Azeka and from there we had a good view of the valley.  We then drove around and had a good look at the city from mountainous overlooks on all sides.

On Sunday we visited Gibea and what was to have been King Hussein of Jordan's palace but that idea got stymied by the 1967 war.  He was sure he would have Jerusalem for his capital, but things didn't work out that way.  We then went to the Israel Museum and saw the huge model of the old city, followed by a visit to the Shrine of the Book.  We saw some other antiquities then were asked to leave the museuym since it was closing time.  That night we took a walk along the south wall of the city to a place outside Herod's poalace.  Our leader thinks that this is more likely the spot where Jesus was taken for his trial by Pontius Pilate and makes a compelling case for this, more than I want to include in the blog.  He says that people have it all wrong as to where the trial took place.

On Monday we went to the First Temple Museum where we had an interesting hostess who told us a little about the first temple.  Then we went to the Western Wall where there were several young meh having their Bar Mitzvah.  Then we went down to the City of David, took a look at some diggings, saw a movie about the place, then most of us went through either Hezekiah's tunnel or a Canaanite tunnel where we met at the pool of Siloam.  We had a late lunch at the Hurva synagogue, then the ladies went shopping and I came back to the hotel to rest.

This morning we went first to the Davidson Museum, which is dedicated to the southern wall of the temple mount and we had an interesting lecture about the architecture and the engineering that went into building up the temple mount.  We then went up on the temple mount where the Shrine of Omar (Golden Dome) and the El Aqsa mosque are located.  The Golden Dome is located probably on the spot where the Holy of Holies used to stand in the first temple.   We had to leave the mount about ten o'clock so we went from there to a church where they had a lot of artifacts from Jesus day and older and then to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  From what our guide said, if either of the two grave sites is correct, it would be this one because it is the right period.  That ended our day until tonight when we go into the tunnels under the temple mount.  We have been there before, but are eager to go again.

We only have one more day left of our study tour then it is back to Nazareth, so next blog will be from there.