October 22, Sunday:
We returned to the Western Wall this morning to visit the Western Wall tunnels. This is the place where one can really see for themselves the history of Jerusalem and Jewish history. The Temple Mount was home to two temples; King Solomon's during 825 BCE and Ezra's during 352 BCE. King Herod renovated, reinforced and expanded the temple area in 18 BCE by leveling the plateau and building a higher wall that the Romans destroyed in 70 CE.
During the subsequent centuries, most of the wall was eventually covered over by homes and rubble. Most of the Western Wall was hidden until the 1967 Six Day War when Israel retook the Old City including the Temple Mount when the government opened up the entire length of the Western Wall as a religious site and for archaeological study.
The tunnels allow a peek into the history, and for those that has no problem with claustrophobia, it's an interesting trek to the other side where there is a cistern.
After our tour of the tunnel, we were able to visit the Temple Mount for about 20 minutes. Just enough time to take some pictures.
At about 9:30 AM, we left for our visit to the Holocaust Memorial. It has many pictures and artifacts from that period including films. One of the donors to the memorial is Steven Spielberg. A Holocaust survivor talked to us about his experiences, and how he was able to come out alive. He told us about his experience in trading urine to drink with another prisoner to survive.
About half in our group took the optional Jerusalem by Night tour that included dinner at a local restaurant, the Olive and Fish. We went inside the Kind David Hotel and the YMCA, and learned about those two establishments. The YMCA was designed by the same architect, Arthur Loomis Harmon, that designed the Empire State Building in New York City. It's interesting to note that they promote and encourage interfaith, Judaism, Islam and Christian, dialogue, and the design of the building has symbols for all three faiths.
October 23, Monday:
Our first stop today was the Israel Museum where they house some of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a volcano shaped building, some impressionist paintings by the masters including Van Gogh, and the bread museum.
We departed Jerusalem, and toured the area of the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.
Our next stop was our visit to the famous Ahava Dead Sea Mineral Cosmetics Factory where I purchased four tubes of foot cream. (4 large tubes @ $7 ea - supposedly at a 50% discount.)
We arrived at Kibbutz Ein Gedi at about 5:30 PM for a two night stay.
The Western (Wailing) Wall.
The Western Wall tunnel near the entrance.
Deeper into the tunnel.
Temple Mount.
The YMCA on our optional night tour.
