Jerusalem - The Israel Museum

The Israel Museum is so vast and fascinating that we actually went there together one day and then I returned on another day to see the exhibit on Hasidism (fascinating!) and the Archaeological section (since Jeremy had been there before).  The archaeological section houses some of the most important artifacts of the region, some of which support or correct events in the Torah and Bible.  The archaeological section chronologically tells the story of all the people that have inhabited the land since the Early Bronze Age, which also tells the narrative of the Jewish people.  "The earliest definite reference to the Israelites outside the Bible is an Egyptian inscription dating from about 1220 BCE, commemorating the victory of the Egyptian Pharaoh Marniptah over them and several other peoples in the land of Canaan," (Source: A Short History of the Jewish People, Scheindlin).  

The Israel Museum houses the Tel Dan stele, a piece of stone with an Aramaic inscription found in Tel Dan (Northern Israel) and dating back to the 9th Century BCE.  The inscription mentions the "house of David" which is the only archaeological evidence outside of the Bible mentioning the Kingdom of David.  (There is also the Mesha Stele, but the inscription is incomplete, so the evidence is debatable.)  I was in awe to see such a significant archaeological artifact!  So cool!  I wanted to take a picture (without the flash of course), but the security people are everywhere and watch you like hawks!  There are pictures on Wikipedia though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Dan_Stele

I also saw the oldest known reference to biblical texts, which is written on two silver amulets and date back to 6th/7th Century BCE.  I didn't take a picture of the amulets, but I got a picture of the museum's description of the amulets.

Here's a link to a picture, if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ketef_hinom_scrolls.JPG

One of the most amazing things we saw together at the Israel Museum (and what took up majority of the first day) was seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest known biblical documents, which date back to 408-318 BCE.  These are full-fledged documents, not just partial texts like the amulets above.  These documents were found on mostly parchment, but also papyrus and Bronze.  40% of the documents are texts known to the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible).  30% of the scrolls were manuscripts not canonized into the Tanakh, but were Jewish documents from the Second Temple Period.  30% of the scrolls documented the rules and beliefs of the Jewish community who owned these scrolls.  The scrolls were discovered in caves in Qumran, preserved in huge clay pots. The story of their discovery and the significance of the discovery is just incredible! 

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls)

Housed below where I'm sitting are the Dead Sea Scrolls, in a cave-like room meant to represent the cave where the scrolls were discovered.  This sculpture is supposed to look like the top of the clay pots which the scrolls were discovered in.  

This basalt wall accompanies the white fountain across from it and represents the Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, one of the scrolls found in Qumran.  Behind the wall is the entrance to what the Israel Museum calls The Shrine of the Book. 

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Museum)

All this archaeological stuff was very serious, but Jeremy and I still had our fun with this crazy funhouse mirror sculpture thing!

I was excited to see this famous picture in person.  It's an untitled picture by an Israeli photographer, Adi Nes.  Reminiscent of the Last Supper, the IDF soldiers eat in the cafeteria, their fate unknown.

The Israel Museum has this awesome, huge model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period, around 63-66 CE.  Check out our video:

Here we are next to the massive Second Temple model!  So cool! 

It maybe be a little tough to see, but on the model there's a little red arrow pointing at the Western Wall, the retaining wall which is the remnant of the Second Temple and is the holiest Jewish site.

The Israel Museum is such an amazing museum because it has some of the most fascinating and significant archaeological finds in the world, mixed with exhibits about Jewish life and culture over the centuries.  It also has international art exhibits, with Monet, etc.  It was such a wonderful experience to see the journey we've taken - the historical sites we've visited in person - documented in the museum and with a wealth of information that we're so eager to learn.

Jerusalem - History & Archaeology II - City of David, Temple Mount, Rockefeller Museum, Zedekiah's Cave, Mahane Yehuda Shuk

After hiking down from the Mount of Olives and going on an adventure through the valley, we climbed up the other side of the valley, towards the Southern wall of Jerusalem's Old City.  Here, we visited the ruins of the City of David - the ancient city of King David.  The ruins are South of today's Old City, South of the Temple Mount where Abraham climbed to the Rock and where King David's son, Solomon, built the first temple.  First we viewed the ruins of what archaeologists believe is a palace because there is evidence to suggest the people who lived there lived in luxury.  They're still working on the excavations.  Next, we hiked through Hezekiah's tunnel.

Jeremy and Elisha heading down to the tunnel.

Here's the Wikipedia blurb:

Hezekiah's Tunnel, or the Siloam Tunnel (Hebrew: נִקְבַּת השילוח‎, Nikbat HaShiloah) is a tunnel that was dug underneath the City of David in Jerusalem before 701 BC during the reign of Hezekiah of Judah. The tunnel is mentioned in 2 Kings 20:20 in the Bible. The Bible also tells us that King Hezekiah prepared Jerusalem for an impending siege by the Assyrians, by "blocking the source of the waters of the upper Gihon, and leading them straight down on the west to the City of David" (2 Chronicles 32). The tunnel has been securely dated both by the written inscription found on its wall (Siloam Inscription), and by dating organic matter contained in the original plastering. It is one of the few intact, 8th century BC structures in the world that the public can not only visit, but enter and walk through.

The tunnel, leading from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam, was designed as an aqueduct to provide Jerusalem with water during an impending siege by the Assyrians, led by Sennacherib. The curving tunnel is 533 m long, and by using a 30 cm (0.6‰) gradient altitude difference between each end, conveyed water along its length from the spring to the pool.

According to the Siloam inscription, the tunnel was excavated by two teams, one starting at each end of the tunnel and then meeting in the middle. The inscription is partly unreadable at present, and may originally have conveyed more information than this. It is clear from the tunnel itself that several directional errors were made during its construction. Recent scholarship has discredited the idea that the tunnel may have been formed by substantially widening a pre-existing natural karst.

The difficult feat of making two teams digging from opposite ends meet far underground is now understood to have been accomplished by directing the two teams from above using sounds generated by hammering on the solid karst through which the tunnelers were digging.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezekiah's_Tunnel)

There's also a Middle Bronze Age tunnel which was constructed much before Hezekiah's tunnel, around 1800 BCE.  This tunnel was also used to divert the Gihon Spring water to be used, presumably for drinking water and irrigation, however it could be very easily captured by an invading army.  We first walked through this tunnel, which nowadays is completely dry.  Can you believe we walked through a tunnel that was carved almost 4,000 years ago?!  Crazy!

Next we head into Hezekiah's tunnel, where we'll wade through up to thigh deep spring water for 533 meters!  Thats over half a kilometer.  We put on our head-lamps and were ready to rock and roll!

Jeremy in about knee deep water, but it's easy to tell how deep he got by looking at his shorts.

The water was cold which was a perfect respite on a very hot summer day in Jerusalem!  It was probably over 90 degrees outside but pretty chilly in the tunnel.

It was so dark that your head would just start scraping on the ceiling and that's when you knew it was time to duck low.

Famous inscription at the end of the tunnel.

Here's a video of our adventure - 

We also visited the Temple Mount.  There are several entrances onto the Temple Mount, but only one entrance for non-Muslims - it's a wooden bridge right next to the Western Wall.  There's an entrance/exit right in Jerusalem's Old City and we saw a crazy tourist trying to enter through that gate and say she was Muslim, but unfortunately for her, she looked way too much like a tourist.  They were threatening to arrest her and Jeremy took her aside and said, "Look, you really can't go in this way.  Go in over by the Western Wall," and the lady finally took the hint to back off, but she still just floated around that entrance for awhile. 

Here's a picture of the wooden walkway to the right of the Western Wall that allows non-Muslims to enter the Temple Mount after going through very tight security.

Entrance is only permitted on certain days during certain times, between the 5 prayer times, and even then you can get rejected.  Jeremy and I got rejected one morning, but the next morning we were able to get in.

This is the other side of the Western Wall, where rocks have sometimes been thrown over the wall to hurt the Jews praying on the other side.  There was an IDF soldier guarding the area when we were there.

The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, which is considered a shrine, not a mosque.  The floor is the exposed bedrock that is believed to have been the rock where Abraham brought his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God.  It is also believed to be the site where Muhammad ascended into Heaven.  Jeremy went inside the Dome of the Rock about 14 years ago, but now non-Muslims are not allowed to enter.

The al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount

Looking down at the Mt. of Olives cemetery, Tomb of Zechariah, and the Grotto of St. James from the East wall of the Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount seems so vast when you're wandering through Jerusalem's Old City and tracing the perimeter over to the Mt. of Olives.  Once you get on top the grounds don't seem so huge, but imagining the First and Second Temples here - they must have been massive!

The Dome of the Rock is beautiful, with its mosaic tile exterior and of course the golden dome.

Looking down at the unique onion domes of the Church of Mary Magdalene, behind Jeremy.

I admire the respect Israel has given this Muslim holy site - allowing Muslims to have access to their site, administer on religious issues and giving them the control of who can enter the grounds.  The IDF soldiers that guard all the entrances/exits and the grounds are usually Muslim, to make things less complicated.  Israel could've desecrated this site and not given access to Muslims, in return for how the Jewish holy sites were treated by Muslims prior to the 1967 border change.  Israel could've said this is the land of the Jewish people, the land where the First and Second Temples stood previously.  But Israel didn't do that, perhaps partially because the Torah doesn't say man should build a Third Temple in this place and perhaps also because the country strives for a Westernised society which gives equal treatment to all races and religions.  Israel strives to be a shining light of democracy in the Middle East.

North of the Old City, we visited the Rockefeller Museum, which was also a stronghold during the 1967 war, called the Six Day War.  The Rockefeller Museum is an accompaniment to the Israel Museum, which is across town and holds all the "important" ancient artifacts, but the artifacts at the Rockefeller Museum are still incredibly amazing.  The Rockefeller Museum's main exhibits are broken up into sections mostly dating back to the Early Bronze Age up to the 1700's CE, however, they do have some fascinating artifacts dating back thousands of years to the Stone Age.

This very large room, has Mamluk decor and archaeologists tried to piece the room back together again, even though they didn't have all the pieces.  The intricacy of the design is amazing!

Beautiful Mamluk or Ottoman mosaic work.

This is a mosaic floor from a synagogue from around 500 CE near the Dead Sea!  If you're interested, the detailed information is below.

This menorah is from a synagogue in the Southern Hebron Hill region around 200-300 CE!  The description is below.  Hebron is currently part of the West Bank and is highly disputed land between Israelis and Palestinians.  It is the only city in the West Bank where both Jews and Palestinians live side by side - albeit with lots of security to keep everything peaceful.

Cool courtyard in the center of the building.

Ever wonder what people did 233,000 years ago?  See below...

Below is a picture of the 233,000-year-old female figurine the above mentions.

 

Below is more information about what we showed in the video above.

Above are the oldest human remains from the Levant - basically the entire Eastern Mediterranean region - Googlize it.  Below is more information.

Above is a skeleton dating back to 100,000 years ago!  Incredible!  More information is below.

After the Rockefeller Museum, we crossed the street to Zedekiah's Cave, hidden below the Old City of Jerusalem.

Jeremy going and exploring, as usual!

Nearby, we also explored an area where the original Damascus Gate was rebuilt over by Suleiman the Magnificent, who built the current Old City walls.  So, we went inside and explored the insides of the wall, which has remnants of the pre-existing gate,

This famous old map of Jerusalem shows the main courtyard in the Old City being right inside the Damascus Gate and it depicts how the gate used to look (the left of the circle in the middle).  We're guessing this isn't the original mosaic map, since it's not protected at all, though it does look old.

The real Damascus Gate where we were standing!  Looks pretty similar to the pictures from the 1800s except its all paved now and in the pictures there were just dirt roads in front of the walls.

Oh no!  It's Friday and we've been so caught up in site-seeing that we need to race to The Shuk (outdoor market) to get food before everything closes down for Shabbat!  In Jerusalem, everyone knows The Shuk is the Mahane Yehuda Market and it has the best prices (less than $1 for 3 cucumbers!  Awesome!).  Come with us as we fight the crowds and haggle with produce vendors.  I'm hungry, so I think I'll grab some falafel there too!

Naturally we would see a young boy in rollerblades driving a pallet truck.  Totally normal.

This orange bombshell is a traditional Arab pastry called knafeh and is made out of shredded phyllo dough, melted goat cheese, and drenched in a sugary syrup of rosewater.  Wowy!

On top of the case to the right of the orange knafeh, in front of the shop keeper, you can see huge chunks of halva - a sweet treat that comes in many varieties of flavors and is made from sesame seeds.  I have not been able to find halva like this in Seattle.  The halva in Israel is out of this world!