Tour of Israel, Feb. 16th

Bethlehem – City

Our first stop today was to downtown Bethlehem of Israel, not Pennsylvania. Interestingly enough, Bethlehem (which is in Israel) is off-limits to Jews since it is under Palestinian control. There's even a wall and security checkpoints before you can go in and out.

Here's an example of the wall with an Israeli guard tower.

Knockoff coffee shop in downtown Bethlehem.

The field in the distance is referred to as the Shepherd's Field, and is the place where Ruth met Boaz.

Sometimes Joanna thinks I have too much fun with the camera.

Bethlehem – Church of the Nativity

The Church of the Nativity is said to be built over the actual birthplace of Christ, although this was claimed 350 years after it happened, so who can be sure. Since Christ had a humble birth, the church was built as a “humble church” outside and in.

All must enter the church through the “humble door” which was about 4 ½ feet tall.

The interior of the church. It's actually still a very active church – there are 6 masses each day.

This door descends down into a room marking the supposed location of the actual place of birth and the manger. We were shuffled in and out of here pretty quickly since a fairly long line had formed. Apparently cruise ships stop here sometimes too, so this church fills up quick.

The church had many antique-looking chandeliers and other artifacts.

Bethlehem – Olive Wood Shop

We stopped at a large olive wood shop in Bethlehem and saw this massive hand-carved nativity set. It turns out you could buy a brand new car for less (going price is $37,000).

Underneath the shop we got to see how it's all made.

Israel Museum

After departing Bethlehem and passing through Israeli security, we ventured over to the Israel Museum. Many famous artifacts and archeological discoveries are displayed inside, but outside...

...there is a replica scale model of ancient Jerusalem! Extremely impressive. The model recreates Jerusalem in 66 AD, the time of the 2^nd temple. It is a snapshot of the city just before the Great Revolt against the Romans erupted, which resulted in the destruction of the city and the Temple.

Here is a close-up of the recreation of the South wall of the temple mount, with the temple on top. We were sitting on the actual southern steps you see, just yesterday!

This football-shaped small section of the city encompasses all of the original Jerusalem as built by King David.

Lunch at the museum - a tuna salad and pizza.

Hezekiah Tunnel in the City of David

Our next stop was to see and actually walk through the tunnel built by King Hezekiah, which was built around 700 BC to bring water within the walls of Jerusalem. The original tunnel, which is mentioned in 2 Kings 20, is still perfectly intact after 2,700 years! Today the water in the tunnel doesn't go above waist high, so here we are ready to go. What is not obvious from the picture is that it was quite cold, and with the wind-chill felt like it was in the 40's. Our group had the option to go through a dry tunnel (built later by the Caananites), or through Hezekiah's “wet” tunnel. It was cold enough that we were the only 2 crazies to venture in. We were glad we did.

A view from within the tunnel. The flash of the camera makes it seem nice and light – however there was no light at all, we needed a flashlight in order to see anything. You'll also notice that the tunnel wasn't carved as a straight line...something very interesting about this tunnel is that Hezekiah had 2 teams of diggers start at opposite ends of the mountain and the 2 tunnels met in the middle! In order to ensure success, each team did some zig-zagging as they excavated.

Another view of the tunnel – the height varied from 15 feet high to 5 feet high in some places. The water was mostly less than knee deep throughout the tunnel, which was about 6 football fields long.

We made it!