May 18th, Jerusalem (Underground continued)

I went to the Citadel today. It is basically the most Western Walls and towers of Jerusalem's Fortifications. They were pretty cool and offered some cool views of the Old City. While I was up there I happened to meet a guy named Jan from Brussels. He mentioned to me that he was meeting up with a friend of his for a private tour of the Western Wall tunnels. His friend is an archaeologist that has been working on the tunnels for several months and would give us a special tour. Technically, I had already seen the tunnels earlier that day but an archaeological tour was an opportunity I could not pass up.

I met up with them later that evening. Our guide's name was Amin and the stuff he showed us was incredible. Basically the western wall tunnels go along the Western Wall underneath all the streets and buildings of the Arab Quarter of the city that wee built there after the Romans left. Some of the stones that are found in the wall are the size of school buses. Amazing how they lifted the up 60 feet in the air with only muscle power. There are a few places where we walked on the actual pavement at the entrance where the high priest would enter the temple. Cool stuff.

Amin also showed us some ancient mikvahs where the priests would ceremonially wash themselves before entering the temple. There was even a special michvas for washing the tools for the temple. etc. These places were still unopened to the public but we got a special look. All in all, very cool stuff.