Thursday, January 25, 2007

Tunnel tour

Although the headlines in the newspapers are about the pending indictment of President Moshe Katsav for sexual and other offenses, I'm going to ignore that situation for now in favor of something eternal. On Wednesday we spent a day in Jerusalem touring the tunnels under the Kotel, the Western Wall, and under the City of David.
If you have not been on the Kotel tunnel tour, you must make it a goal of your life, since it is a remarkable experience. We went many years ago, but since our AACI group was going on this tour and to the City of David (Ir David) that we had never seen we decided to go along. You descend into the tunnel area from the Plaza in front of the Western Wall (ha'kotel ma'aravi). Small groups (ca. 26) go in at a time (if you have trouble walking or with stairs or are claustrophobic don't go on this tour).
The first thing you are shown in maps and models is how small the First Temple (ca. 1000-600 bce) built by Solomon was compared to the Second Temple (ca 500 bce-70 ce). There were in fact only 70 years between the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians and the building of the Second by those who returned from exile in Babylon.
But, the period that we are now most familiar with is that of Herod, when he renovated the Second Temple in 20 bce and flattened the tops of the mountains in the vicinity and filled some areas in to make what is now the huge Temple Mount area (Har habayit) that is as big as ten football fields. He expanded the Temple itself, and surrounded the Temple with other buildings built for various groups and purposes. He built separate areas for Jewish men and women, accomodations for the priests and an area for sacrifices. He also built a small palace for non-Jewish visitors, who were not allowed into the Temple area itself. On the southern side he built a palace to accomodate his many wives and concubines, while on the northern end he built the four towers of the Antonia Fortress, named after one of his wives, to protect the whole Temple area. Overall, the Temple in Jerusalem was the most magnificent building complex outside Rome, and as such rivaled Rome, which was not a wise thing to do.
The tunnel tour includes an automated model showing where the tunnel is along the side of the massive retaining wall that was the Western side of the Temple Mount, now largely covered up by later Arab buildings. During the walk along the tunnel one sees massive stones, one weighing 500 hundred tons, that it is hard to believe were quarried and then moved into place in those times. One sees doors and vaulted tunnels that supported entrances into the Temple from the city that was on the Western side (the city never developed towards the east).
Although not given permission to excavate inside the Temple Mount area by the Turkish Muslim authorities (Wakf), many British engineers and archeologists (some supported by the British Palestine Exploration Society) spent much time investigating areas around the Temple Mount, including Warren, Parker, and Robinson, who found significant structures that are named after them. One walks almost half a kilometer along the tunnel at the base of the Wall, sometimes in very restricted spaces. The massive power of the wall, its extent and significance are almost overwhelming.
About half way along the wall is the most holy area for Jews since it is thought to be the closest to where the actual Holy of Holies of the Temple stood. This raises a very curious situation, if this place and the Western Wall are considered "holy", why not actually go on the Temple Mount where the Temple itself stood and pray there. But, because noone really knows where the Holy of Holies was located and it is forbidden for Jews to enter this area (even though its enclosure no longer physically exists), the Rabbis have ruled that no Jew may enter or pray on the Temple Mount. This raises the strange situation that Jews pray at a wall that itself has no real holy significance. How did this come about?
After the destruction of the Temple in 70 ce, and especially after the Bar Kochba revolt was suppressed in 135 ce, Jews were expelled by the Romans from Jerusalem, it was totally destroyed and rebuilt and was renamed Aelia Capitolina. But, over the centuries Jews drifted back, and began to pray at the eastern wall of the Temple mount closest to the Temple, where that wall coincides with the wall around Jerusalem and there were no building obstructions. This is on the side nearest to the so-called "Lion Gate." However, around 1500 ce the Turks acceded to Jewish requests and assigned the only area where the wall was still visible for ca. 500 m in an alley on the Western side where the Jews could pray. Therefore, it is ironical that the "Western Wall" gradually came to be seen as holy by the Jews, even though it was merely the only remaining site granted by the Turks for Jewish prayer. In a sense, praying at the Western wall (not praying to the wall) has not made it "holy" since it is only the Temple itself that was considered sacred by Jews.
From the Western Wall Plaza we then made our way south out of the Dung Gate (really the Trash Gate) into the Arab village of Silwan. A short distance down the main street we entered the site of David's City. This is one of the major areas of excavation, since here there are no Mosques and no problem of Muslim interference. It is interesting to note that Abraham came from Ur in Chaldea, and the Hebrew word for city is "Ir." Also note that this site is outside the walls of the old city and has been so since the Ottoman Turks rebuilt the city walls partly following the Roman walls. Another interesting fact is that this city was originally inhabited by other peoples, and was controlled by the Jebusites when David conquered it around 1000 bce. Its main fortification was called the Zion fortress, so the name Zion preceded Jewish involvement. After David conquered the city he named it Jerusalem (Ir shalom or city of peace) and a synonym for it was Zion, that later became associated with Mt. Zion and hence Zionism.
David's city was not an overly impressive site from the outside, resembling a huge jumble of stones, which we saw by descending very steep metal stairs. But, when the guide started pointing out some features it became clearer. They found and excavated many rooms and buildings, that revealed that the huge structure of stones was the foundation for the palace that David built behind the Zion tower. The chief topological feature of the site is that it is a promontory protected on two sides by deep ravines, but in the eastern one, the Kidron Valley, there was a natural spring. Since it was outside the city walls, in order to protect it, David built four towers with high walls around it. But, around 700 bce the Assyrian army was approaching, after having destroyed the Kingdom of Israel to the north. King Hezekiah then realised that this was not sufficient protection for their water source and began to cut tunnels in the rock to divert the spring water into the city area. Since the southern part of the city was the lowest the tunnels went from east to south.
We went through these tunnels. The first attempt by Hezekiah was unsuccessful when it opened up into a huge deep shaft, that was rediscovered in the 19th century by Warren, and is known as Warren's Shaft. Warren thought that it was man-made and that the Israelites had dug it in order to access the water. But, in fact it was later discovered to be a natural formation, and prevented further digging there because it was too deep, so that it prevented ready access to the water. So Hezekiah dug another tunnel that still exists and is named after him, although we did not enter it as it still contains water (but you can go thru it).
An interesting corollary of this is that the diverted water formed a pool in the south of the city that was called in Hebrew, Shiloach, from the Hebrew verb lishloach, to send or divert (still used for sending packages today). Later on, at the time of Jesus, this pool was known in Greek as the Pool of Siloam. When the Arabs conquered the area, in Arabic it became Silwan, that gave its name to the Arab village.
We traversed a recently discovered connection from this aborted tunnel and Warren's Shaft into a tunnel dug around 900 bce in order to divert part of the spring water to the terraces along the side of the Kidron Valley. In this they found an inscription by one of the diggers that dates its origin. But, once we were in this tunnel we found that it was very narrow, and at one point so narrow that you really had to squeeze thru a small hole. Several of our group (consisting mostly of older people) had great difficulty getting thru and some got stuck and had to be pushed thru and one man banged his head and got a gash. Then there was a very long narrow tunnel in the dark, not a pleasant experience. But, we all made it thru and we all survived.
These tunnels show the incredible complexity of the archaeological sites, and they emphasize the concrete connection that the ancestors of the Jews had with these sites. It is worthwhile remembering that the name of the Southern Kingdom, not destroyed by the Assyrians, then reestablished after the Babylonian exile and finally destroyed by the Romans, was the Kingdom of Judah, that later was called Judea and that gave its name to the Jews.

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