Day two in Israel.

Day two: In the morning we were up and about at 7:30 am. Today was our Old Testament Jerusalem walk in the morning, then class in the afternoon. We went to the pools of Bethesda and Hezekiah's Tunnel. Hezekiah's Tunnel is a tunnel that King Hezekiah dug for a water way and later used to escape from the Babylonians. Here is an inscription they found in the Tunnel.

The tunneling has been completed. And this was the way the breach was made. While the masons were wielding their picks, one gang towards another, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, a mans voice was heard calling to his mate; for their was a fissure in the rock running from south to north. So on the day the breach was made, the masons struck, one gang towards the other, pick against pick; and the water flowed from the spring to the pool, a distance of 1,200 cubits. 100 cubits was the height of the rock above the head of the masons.

The tunnel is open to the public to go through but it is filled with water. Most of our group went through the tunnel, but Dad and I went through a different tunnel called the Canaanite Tunnel. This was dry but very, very narrow.

Me at the Pools of Bethesda.

Dad and I with the ruins of the Pools of Bethesda in the background.


Looking down on the Pools of Bethesda.


Dad and I at the mouth of Hezekiah's Tunnel.

Our group waiting to go down to the entrance to Hezekiah's Tunnel.

Me, my roommate, and another lady from our group sitting on the ruins of the steps of the Pool of Siloam where Jesus healed the crippled man.

These steps are not open to the public yet, but our guide knew the man in charge so we got to go. These are the actual steps leading from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple.