Tag: First Temple

April 29, 2013

Jerusalem: First Temple and Second Temple Periods

We have a whole day dedicated to Jerusalem in the First Temple period, and a whole day dedicated to Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period, but it’s still not enough time to cover the vast amount of material, so this week’s trip was about filling in some of the gaps.

Roman Kiln at the Jerusalem ICC

We began in Binyanei Hauma, also known as Jerusalem International Conventions Center. This venue more normally hosts concerts and conferences than tour groups; I was somewhat surprised then when we entered and stopped in front of a display case showing artefacts from the Roman period, which I had never noticed previously. It turns out there was a big camp here for the 10th Legion of the Roman Army, we then headed downstairs and saw the remains of a kiln; it seems that it was quite a big centre for the manufacture of clay pots, roof tiles, bricks etc, all with the 10th Legion’s imprint. There was even an imprint of a sandal in one of the cases, a reminder of a sloppy soldier around 2000 years ago. I will be back in the Convention Center next month for the President’s Conference and will look forward to sharing my knowledge with the other delegates!

King David’s Tomb

We continued to David’s Tomb on Mount Zion. Here we discussed the history of the site and why it is considered to be the location of the tomb of King David (and also why some argue it is elsewhere). The site also houses the room which is considered to be the location of the Last Supper, but we shall return to visit that on our trip to Christian Jerusalem later in the course.

We moved on by foot into the Old City to the Western Wall Tunnels. The famous image of the Western Wall that is exposed above ground is actually only a small section of the wall’s full length and height. Through the tunnels it is possible to walk much further along the wall, to get a greater idea of the grandeur of the building that was – the Western Wall of today is only an outer foundation wall for the podium on which the temple was built.

Inside the Western Wall Tunnels

It was an incredible feat of engineering exemplified by the quite frankly massive stones that were involved in its construction. The largest that has been found is 14m long and the experts at the Technion have calculated its weight at 570 tonnes. And it is about half way up the wall, so they would have had to have lifted it there. There was a short and very illuminating film illustrating how they would have put these stones into place.

The Western Wall (the Kotel)

We continued down the tunnels, past the closest point to the Holy of Holies, walking along an original 2nd Temple period street and into a Hasmonean period water channel, before exiting into the Muslim Quarter. We returned to the Western Wall, known as the Kotel, where our guide told us about some of the legends associated with it explaining why it was not entirely destroyed like the rest of the temple.

Excavations in the Western Wall Plaza

Afterwards, a small treat. Facing the Kotel are some archaeological excavations which are complete and ready for the public but for some reason not yet open to them. But somehow our guide had obtained a key and we went down to see what was the Eastern Cardo (a shopping street) in the 2nd Temple period and also the remains of a First Temple home. It was nice to get this advance preview (although the excavations are visible from above, you can see more up close).

Mausoleum in Nachal Kidron (Valley of the King)

We then exited the Old City and walked down into Nachal Kidron, also known as the King’s Valley. Here are three ancient and imposing mausolea, two of which are often attributed to Avshalom (King David’s son) and Zechariah respectively, but in fact they are from the Second Temple period, i.e. a very long time after these personages would have lived. The architecture is interesting due to the unusual mishmash of Doric and Ionic columns together in the same structure; you can tell we’ve been learning about classical architecture in class!

Our next stop was at the Menachem Begin Center, located on Ketef Hinnom. I was wondering what Menachem Begin had to do with the ancient temples as we breezed through the centre, exiting out of the back, going up some stairs, and being confronted with a First Temple period burial site. As with the morning, it was fascinating to find this juxtaposition of ancient and modern at a venue which I had visited several times previously for various events, completely unaware of what lay just a few meters away.

First Temple Period Tomb at Ketef Hinnom

It was interesting to look at the excavated tombs and learn about the burial methods; even more fascinating was to learn that in one of the tombs excavators had unearthed some tiny rolls of silver. Written on them was the priestly blessing of the Cohanim, the oldest existing example of biblical text found outside the bible. The scrolls are now in the Israel Museum.

We exited the Begin Center and walked down the nearby valley, referred to as Gei Ben Hinnom. Here we heard about the Judaean King Achaz’s worship of the god Moloch; part of the ritual involved sacrifice of first born baby sons and would have happened in this valley. Somewhat unsavoury stuff.

View into Gei Ben Hinnom

We then branched off a bit from the ancient period, looking at the cable going from across our heads over to Mount Zion opposite us. In the 1948 war this was a secret way of getting supplies over to troops isolated in the mountain – a replica cable car was above our heads. As we wondered down further into the valley more surprises were in store – a Karaite cemetery where we paused to briefly learn about this religious group who only keep the laws of the first five books of the Bible without the later exegesis. We enjoyed the view down the valley leading to Nachal Kidron (whence we had come) and returned to our bus for the return home.

February 12, 2013

Jerusalem in the First Temple Period

“If I forget thee, o Jerusalem…”

So reads the famous psalm, but you might think that we had forgotten Jerusalem, given that here we were over three months into the course and yet to visit the country’s capital; holy city for three of the world’s largest religions; a place which apparently 3.5 billion people (I imagine the figure has been extrapolated from a statistically appropriate sample) would like to visit at least once in their lifetime.

Finally, however, the day was here, and it was with a certain amount of excitement that we ascended route 1 into the Judean mountains and entered the city limits. This is a city with so much historical and religious significance that I think around 13 of our 80 field trips will be spent here. It is certainly a place which we will have to become very familiar with in our future lives as tour guides. And here it all begins.

View north over Jerusalem from the Haas Promenade

This excitement was supplemented by a certain amount of nostalgia as we began the day looking over the city from the Haas Promenade viewpoint in East Talpiot. Many years ago, I spent four months living next to this promenade in a place called Kiriat Moriah (I was excited to note that our guide even pointed it out!) while a participant on the Jewish Agency’s leadership training programme for youth leaders from the Diaspora. I have many fond memories of philosophical conversations shared on this promenade while gazing over the tranquil landscape of Jerusalem. Indeed, from this vantage point, the city is extremely calm, belying the many religious, political and economic tensions that are ever-present here.

With our guide’s assistance we surveyed the view before us and identified key points of interest; some we would visit today, many we would visit in the future.

View from the top of the City of David over South and East Jerusalem

From the promenade we journeyed to the limits of the Old City and circled the walls before descending into the City of David. This site (Ir David, in Hebrew) showcases the archaeological remains of the city of Jerusalem at the time of the First Temple, which mostly was outside what are now the Old City walls. The ruins are on a slope running down from the Temple Mount which was the ritual and probably also governmental centre.

Our guide had assured us that this would be the most complex field trip of the course and he fulfilled his promise by taking us through the historiography of the many archaeological digs on the site; with each new dig more was uncovered, shattering previous theories and establishing new ones.

After a short break with a rather cheesy but cute and certainly informative 3D film about the site we continued down past various sites of significance (and their historiography). We noted signs of the Babylonian destruction and heard the story of the discovery of around 50 bullae in one of the digs. These bullae are clay seals for documents; two of them contained names of senior officials mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. It was one of the most significant finds in the whole of the country; corroborating some of the biblical narrative.

Inside the water tunnels in the City of David

We continued into a tunnel in the rock leading to an ancient reservoir watched over by a large guard tower. The current thinking is that these structures are from the pre-Judean rule over Jerusalem and were used to channel water from a nearby spring closer to the city where it could be protected and used for its inhabitants. We wandered through a further tunnel which was probably used to take the water to irrigate crops before heading out of the site. As this field trip was focused only on the First Temple period, we left some of the site for a return visit.

“The Broad Wall”: remains of Hezekiah’s 7 meter wide northern defensive wall in Jerusalem

After a lunch stop in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City we continued our exploration of the First Temple period, stopping to see part of the large 7 metre wide ‘broad wall‘ that was built (according to the bible, by the King Hezekiah) to fortify the city against eastern imperial advances. It was at this time that the city walls expanded to include areas which are now the Jewish and Armenian quarters; prior to this archaeologists believe this area was inhabited by refugees from the northern Kingdom of Israel which had been laid waste by the Babylonians and indeed one can see remains of buildings which lie outside the wall.

Remains of the gate tower from Hezekiah’s wall around Jerusalem

We continued, entering a building which contains in its basement the unearthed remains of a gate tower from this northern wall; this was the cities most vulnerable point and indeed it seems that it may have been where the Babylonian’s made their eventual breach as Babylonian arrow heads were found in the excavations.

Model of Jerusalem in First Temple times at the Ariel Center

From this Israelite gate tower we popped across the street to the Ariel Centre which has a few small exhibits related to the First Temple period together with an engaging film giving an overall summary and a model envisaging what the city looked like in this early time. The visit to the centre takes about an hour, is guided by its in house team and I think provides a very good overview of the period, for those interested.

With the First Temple era now witnessed in the flesh (or rather, the stone), and delightfully summarised, we returned home, with many more visits to Jerusalem to look forward to in the future.

January 14, 2013

The Ancient Sea Road (Via Maris)

It is the day before our weekly field trip and Israel is in the midst of its worst storms for ten years. The main motorway in Tel Aviv is flooded and closed. The trains aren’t running. Snow is forecast in the Golan and in Jerusalem. Amongst these fierce winds and torrential rain, some of the course members contact our coordinator. Surely tomorrow’s field trip is cancelled? It seems that it is not. Disbelief. And the beginnings of a mutiny. But in our night class, our coordinator makes it clear: “the tour guide course goes out into the field, even through fire and through water” (I think it sounds better in Hebrew). He was almost seeming to relish it. The rebellion was quashed.

So it was that we assembled, as usual, at 6.30am at Arlozorov bus station. Except this time we were all looking somewhat larger due to the multiple layers of clothing and waterproofs. Spirits were surprisingly high. We were in this together, “through fire and through water”. And off we set.

Our trip was to be connected to the Via Maris, the ancient Sea Road connecting the two great regional empires of Egypt and Mesopotamia. In the end, only some of the sites were connected to this road, but the majority of the day dealt with those that were. Remarkably, as we headed north the skies began to clear. A miracle?

El Ahwat

Nonetheless, the ground was extremely muddy at our first stop at El Ahwat. An archeological site dating from the Bronze age, some believe that this is the home town of the biblical character Sisera who famously met his end when Yael bashed a tent peg into his head. There seems to be a connection in the architecture with the Nuragic culture of Sardinia, and a theory is that the people who lived here came across the sea bringing their culture with them. Unfortunately the site was rather inaccessible as it was effectively a very large bog. But we got a bit of an idea. Sadly the bus driver was not so appreciative of the mud adorning our boots.

Katzir Viewpoint

We carried on a short drive to the small town of Katzir where we enjoyed a viewpoint over to the Carmel. Our guide pointed out key sites including the route of the Via Maris and the topographical features of the area. With this overview we moved on to the site that was to form the largest part of the day’s itinerary, Tel Megiddo.

A Tel is an archaeological mound. At some point in ancient history a group decided that point x was a good point to settle. Perhaps it was close to water, had good fields for agriculture, was easy to defend etc. Over the years the settlement might be destroyed, or deserted, and then later rebuilt, each time over the previous ruins, rising up and up to form a Tel. Israel is full of these Tels, each of which is an archaeological treasure trove of different periods of history. And one of the richest is Tel Meggido.

Model of the Israelite city at Tel Meggido

The site was made a UNESCO world heritage site in 2005 and has been under excavation since the beginning of the 19th century. And they’re still finding more and more. It had a prime location at a key junction on the Via Maris, close to arable land and a constant water supply, leading to many battles for its control. Eventually the Israelites wrestled control of it from the resident Canaanites and most of what is visible in the excavations is a mixture of the Canaanite and Israelite periods. Most impressive are the series of Canaanite temples on the east side of the Tel (facing the sun).

Sadly our excursion on the Tel was somewhat hampered by the darkening skies followed by hail. Yes, hail. Despite this, we gallantly continued around the site through bouts of being pelted by ice pellets. And our brave guide managed to impart to us a great deal of useful information. I think though, it will be worth a return visit in better weather.

View from the east side of Tel Meggido

Also of note is that Tel Meggido has been identified with the end of days vision of John at Armageddon. Har is Hebrew for mountain/hill; Har + Megiddo and the connection makes sense. Furthermore, a few hundred metres away has been unearthed a mosaic floor containing an inscription with the earliest known reference to the Christian religion. Hence there were a few groups of Christian tourists also braving the weather with us, and they have my full respect for doing so!

View from Tel Jezreel

From Meggido we moved on to Tel Jezreel, another archaeological mound along the Via Maris. Our guide took us through the generations of occupancy of the mound from the Israelite period through to the Romans, Crusaders (the ruins of a church have been uncovered here) and the Arab village that was here for 100 years prior to 1948. We learned about the battle that took place here between the Israelites and the Philistines as recounted in the Book of Samuel, and then the later battles that took place here in the Israeli War of Independence. On the way out of the Tel we passed the monument for the soldiers who died in the battles to control the mound in the modern era.

Ancient Beit Alfa Synagogue

It was time to leave the Via Maris and our next port of call was at the ancient synagogue at Beit Alfa (somewhat confusingly located not in Kibbutz Beit Alfa, but in Kibbutz Heftziba, next door). The ruins of this ancient synagogue from the time of the Second Temple have been loving restored including a stunningly impressive floor mosaic. Interestingly, the mosaic includes the signs of the zodiac and an image of a foreign god. I doubt they would be allowed in synagogues today but it seems that in these ancient times they were just perceived as decoration (and indeed something that the people who made the mosaics knew how to do). Inside the synagogue you can watch a rather cute film which acts out the hypothetical story of the mosaic’s creation. It is a cute and creative way to explain what is before you and makes the site much more engaging, certainly for children but for adults alike.

View from Mt Barkan on the Gilboa

We concluded the day by driving up to the Mt Gilboa ridge at the edge of the Samarian hills. As we went up the steep ascent we were treated to stunning views of the valleys below bathed in sun with the streams running full of water (many of the streams in Israel are dry most of the year) and the fields rich colours of green and brown. We arrived at our first lookout point at Mt Barkan, the highest point on the ridge, but sadly the explanation of what we were seeing was curtailed by another hailstorm, this time the hail was around half a centimetre in diameter and it really hurt! Our guide bravely struggled on but eventually had to concede that our exposed position on the mountain top was not perhaps so wise in the current conditions. Still, we briefly enjoyed the view.

View from Mt Shaul on the Gilboa

We carried on a little further along the Gilboa scenic road to Mt Shaul. The hail had turned to light rain so we alighted and enjoyed the stunning views while our guide read to us the sad story of the first Israelite king, Saul. He is said to have fallen on his sword at this point. It is also apparently a very good spot for paragliding. The clouds parted so we took advantage to walk a short trail around the peak before returning to the bus, homeward bound.