The Real Old City

 A week after our first visit to the Old City, we were headed back on a bus again to study the sites found in the Old Testament. On the ride there, our guide John spoke of his love for the city and enjoyment in seeing the hills and valleys over and over again. “I can’t believe it,” he said, “It’s like living in a dream that doesn’t stop.”

Jerusalem is an ancient city. But the oldest part of the city is not actually within the walls of the modern-day “Old City”. Rather, the original Jerusalem is in a place called the City of David, just south of the relatively modern Turkish walls. This is where our group spent the day, exploring some of the oldest, and most impressive archaeological sites of Jerusalem.

Before we descended to the South side of the Eastern Hill, the location of the city of David, our guide took us to the top of a hill called Bible Hill. This mound rose over Jerusalem on the Watershed Ridge. To our east, we could see the Western Hill and the Mount of Olives beyond. But the Eastern hill, what the Bible calls Mount Zion was hidden since it’s significantly shorter than the Western Hill. Directly underneath us lay the Hinnom Valley. To the south, a plane spread out, speckled with houses and tall buildings. It leads to the Valley of Rephaim.

The hill we stood on wasn’t much to look at. Grass from the winter rains covered its surface. Some rubble was piled up at the top in front of a short wall with Hebrew and English graffiti sprayed on it. There were some black pieces of wood where someone had made a fire. To me, it seemed like any other hill.

Then our guide read Joshua 15 to us as we sat on the stones. This passage sets out the land divisions for the tribe of Judah. Verse 8 says that the northern border goes up to the valley of Hinnom and stops right before Jerusalem. Then, “the border went up to the top of the mountain which is before the valley of Hinnom to the west, which is at the end of the valley of Rephaim towards the north.” This hill, said John, is the mountain mentioned in that verse.

As he explained the geography, the ordinary piece of land suddenly changed. No longer was it just an empty hill, this land I stood on was the ancient border between Benjamin and Judah. This was the country Joshua divided up between the tribes of Israel thousands of years ago.

Bible hill doesn't seem like much today, but it lies on the ancient border of Judah and Benjamin

But even before that, this ridge appears in the bible. The Watershed ridge was likely the route that Abraham and Jacob took when they traveled North and South between Haran and Beersheba. Thus, the route we stood on was called the Way of the Patriarchs. What would Abraham have thought as he journeyed through this area and considered God’s promise to give him the land? Could he have possibly envisioned what it would look like now? In the distance, the tan-colored houses of Jerusalem, row after row look somewhat like the sand of the seashore, endlessly stretching away.

As we walked East into the valley of Hinnom, we stopped by some ancient tombs, excavated from the iron age. This is the place where the earliest texts of scripture we have were found. The priestly blessing from Numbers 6 was found on a tiny silver scroll. It dates from the 6^th or 7^th century B.C.

The Hinnom valley is the place where Judean king Manasseh burnt his sons, offering them to foreign gods (2 Chronicles 33). It was also the place that Jeremiah prophesied would be called the valley of death when the Babylonians came to attack it (Jeremiah 7:30-34). It was hard to imagine such a lovely, green valley as a place of death and idolatry. I felt as if such abominations should permanently cause the place to be desolate. But the grass and trees still grew. It reminded me of God’s grace and steadfast love. As Jesus said many years after the atrocities in the Hinnom valley, “He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).

The stepped stone structure

After climbing up the Western hill and looking at a few more sites in the old city, including the Broad wall that Hezekiah constructed to defend the city on the North, we walked down to the city of David. Among private residences and busy streets, we found the City of David Museum. Below the ticket stand and gift shop we came to a platform and discovered some excavations. One of the first ruins was in a place called area G. We climbed stairs to the bottom of a huge pile of stones fitted together to form a receding wall-like structure of large stones. It rose about 30 feet above us and had irregular contours. Archaeologists call this the stepped stone structure. Because of its location and nearby discoveries of clay bullae—seals used by officials to secure important documents—many people think that this structure supported David’s palace. At the bottom of the site, the remains of a house built into its side still stand. There are ruins of pillars and even a stone carved out for a toilet. This house is called the Achiel house, named after its owner.

Bottom of the stepped stone structure, including the house of Achiel

We continued to explore other archaeological discoveries. At the base of the hill, looking over the Kidron valley, there was a wall thought to be made by the Canaanites, long before David’s time. Next to it, was another one from the iron age, probably made during David’s reign. As we went on to see different ruins it amazed me how much Archaeologists have found and how much they are able to put pieces together to match the historical record found in the Bible and other ancient texts. There is a lot of guesswork, but we can still discover much about what life was like with fair certainty.

Then we went underground. As we made our way down, we saw Warren’s shaft, a deep sinkhole that Joab most likely climbed up to attack the city when David wanted to take it from the Jebusites (2 Sam 5:6-10). We went lower still and at last we entered Hezekiah’s tunnel. This is the channel he had carved to divert water from the Gihon spring to a pool inside the city walls. We entered near the Gihon spring and made our way through the thin passage single file, following the flow of the water. At most, the water was about two feet deep. The tunnel itself became rather short at times, so we had to crouch down to squeeze through.

It was much longer than I anticipated. It probably took us about twenty minutes to travel through. Near the end, we found a replica of the Siloam inscription where it was found. This writing recorded the meeting of the miners when they were hollowing out the cavern from both sides. At last, we made it out and took in the sun and fresh air at the Byzantine pool.

There was much to see in the City of David, and a lot to think about. I think of all the names represented by the places we saw: names like Joshua, Jeremiah, Hezekiah, David. There were countless names we will never know. Each stone was somehow hauled by workers to its spot. Each inch of the tunnel was carved out by a worker. Each of these builders had a name but now each one of them has died. Their work alone memorializes them.

When I think about how these sites and stories relate to the Bible, I realize that it was God who was working through each of these people. In the midst of their successes and failures, as they walked by faith and fell into fear, He was using each one of them to accomplish his purpose and we can read about how He did so. But Yahweh is not just a God of the ancients, to be studied like the rocks of old buildings. He is actively working in the lives of people here and now. The deeds He does are worth remembering.

Hezekia's tunnel travels deep under the city of David. Tourists can now
walk through it. Make sure to bring shoes that can get wet.