Trek & his buddies woke up on day 5 & ran 5 miles around the city of Jerusalem. They enjoyed learning the area & figuring out what was near our hotel in the Jewish Quarter of the city.
We hopped on the bus after breakfast & headed toward the Old City of Jerusalem. I couldn't wait to see everything in the Old City. As we passed the many city gates, I felt my anticipation grow even more. I still can't believe I got to see this all in person.
The bus let us off in front of one of the gates & we walked around the giant walls of the city.
As we came close to the gate, we happened upon a Bar Mitzvah in front of the city. There was music, dancing, cheers, & a whole lot of fun. They invited our group to join in on the celebration so we hung out with them for about 10 minutes. We had a fabulous time celebrating this young man & his coming of age in the Jewish community.
Our first stop of the day was the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall). The Western Wall is a portion of ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem that forms part of the larger retaining wall of the hill known as the Temple Mount. This wall was built by Herod the Great during his reign during the 2nd temple period of Jerusalem. The wall is the holiest place where the Jews are permitted to pray outside of the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is Muslim so the Western Wall is the closest place the Jewish people can go to the original site of Solomon's Temple & the original "Holy of Holies." To this day, the Jewish people come here to mourn the destruction of the temple & the loss of national freedom it symbolized. That is why it earned the name "The Wailing Wall."
You can see the Dome on the Rock towering above the Western Wall. There is a lot of tensions on the Temple Mount so it gets harder to visit even for tourists these days. We had planned on visiting it today, but there were some incidences that made it so it was unsafe. Our guide told us he'd try each day to see if we could get up there to see it, but was uncertain if we could. He hadn't been able to take anyone up there for 3 previous tours because of hostility & unsafe situations.
We got to spend some time at the wall. It is split up by gender. The women offer prayers on the right side of the wall, while the men pray on the left. The women's side was surprisingly silent. They silently prayed, touched the wall, & read their scriptures. It was quite beautiful & I'll admit I cried. Though I belong to a different religion than them, I felt a strong spiritual presence there & I respected their love & devotion to their beliefs.
Trek & the boys visited the men's side. That side was one big party. There was music, dancing, & a LOT going on. All the men had to have their heads covered so the boys got to wear a kippah/yamaka when visiting the wall. The men were tying prayers to their arms as well as putting written prayers into little boxes that they would tie to their foreheads. It was really fascinating to see. It was a very special place to be & I'm glad they allowed us to be there with them.
After visiting the Western Wall, we got a special tour that just opened. These tunnels were discovered in 1864, but weren't really excavated fully until the late 80's. They've been digging out these tunnels for 30 years using their bare hands & buckets! NO EQUIPMENT AT ALL so they didn't disrupt the spiritual worship happening directly above them at the exposed part of the Western Wall. That alone is impressive from an archeological standpoint. SO MUCH WORK went into making these tunnels what they are today.
Not many people have been through this archeological find. It was open for a few years & was shut down during COVID. It had just opened up one week before we arrived. We were SO lucky to get to explore them. These tunnels are directly underneath the Western Wall Plaza & the Western Wall itself. They have uncovered many pools of water (Mikvahs) for spiritual washing, a bridge built by King Herod, & many arches for storing things under the Temple Mount.
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| One of the many Mikvahs found under the temple mount |
The highlight of exploring the underground tunnels was that 300 meters of the Western Wall has been exposed underneath the Western Wall Plaza above. We could touch the Western Wall without anyone else around because we were UNDERNEATH it. Directly above us was the Western Wall Plaza where everyone met to pray at the Wailing Wall. These were newly exposed pieces of the original Western Wall buried several feet underground. It was INCREDIBLE to see.
There is a small Jewish Synagogue built inside these tunnels. Supposedly this is the closest place you can get to the original Holy of Holies for worship & prayer. It is very special to the Jewish faith.
Once we made it out of the tunnels & back to the main ground again, we explored the open aired portion of the Western Wall one more time.
This was one of the highlights of this trip. Now, we were on our way to the City of David & Hezekiah's Tunnel.
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