Tuesday February 26

The Old City of Jerusalem

By Linna Ettinger

Today we continued our travel back in time by visiting the old city in Jerusalem.  We started by walking the ramparts, along the top of the wall, entering from the Jaffa Gate and descending at Zion Gate. We were overlooking the Armenian Quarter on the inside of the wall, and looking through the lookouts we could see the windmill of Yemin Moshe, the first settlement outside of the walled city.

We then went to visit the remains of the extensive Herodian Mansions in the Jewish Quarter. The Herodian Mansions are underground, under the old city and span an area of approximately .7 acres.  Because of the prevalence of mikvahs, pottery and stoneware, it is believed to be where the high priests lived. Several beautiful mosaics are preserved.  Discovered after the Six-Day war in 1967, the Herodian Mansion remains were covered in the ashes of a great fire that took place about a month after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The splendor of these remains was conspicuously different from the spartan remains we saw yesterday at the Qumran site. Seeing the elaborate remains of the Herodian Mansions helped me understand some of the corruption that Yachad sect members wrote about.

We then took a walk to the Jerusalem Cardo, the "heart" of the marketplace. After some shopping, we went to the Kotel to leave some prayers written by some of the children back home.  Soon our time in Jerusalem was over, and it was time to head to Tel Aviv.

A view of Yemin Moshe, and the famous Montefiore windmill. Yemen Moshe was the first neighborhood established outside of the walls. It was established in the late 19th century.

Kayla Ship stops to explain the surrounding neighborhoods.

Sara Sinai, Rachel Raz, and Deborah Gardner posed for a quick photo before we  continued on our way.

There were a lot of steps.

The view across the Armenian Quarter.

Some of the Herodian Mansion remains.

A lot of potter and stoneware was found.

Intricate mosaics adorned the floors.

Here we are at the Western Wall.

Andrea had a little friend, Shooali, help with inserting notes from the kids.

The women's section of the Kotel.

The Cardo marketplace.