I don’t know about you but I love discovering treasure. I met a woman last week who picked up a silver beaded charm after a Sunday morning service and after attempting to find the owner and could not, was tickled to tuck it into her collection.
Quite a number of years ago, a young archeologist dug under my guesthouse bedroom and found a silver necklace in a grave site. On it was inscribed the blessing in ancient Hebrew from the book of numbers and is dated around 3000 BCE.
“The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord smile on you and gift you. The Lord look you full in the face and make you prosper.” Numbers 6:24-26 (The Message)
It was the treasure of a lifetime.
Though somewhat less dramatic, today we were on the hunt for treasure of another kind; the discovery of an underground aqueduct..
The old City of David sits between two valleys outside the walls of the Old City and is an archeological dig of importance. It is also the place where King Solomon beat Adonijah for the kingship and the mitvah, called the Gihon Spring was immortalized in Hebrew scripture. In the time of King Hezekiah, under threat of Assyrian attack, a tunnel for water transport under David’s City was chiselled out between the valleys. It’s true that many others have waded through the waters before us but it felt like discovering treasure as we made our way from one side to the other along the winding limestone enclosure, knee deep in cool, clear, running water.
Next, we hooked up with a Western Wall Underground tour where scientists have uncovered the entire Western Wall of the First Temple Period deep enough to reveal original natural dressed stone from Solomon’s day. Parts of these tunnels were also waterways and the cisterns still serve to store water in the Old City. In the Jewish world, the hidden sections of the Wall discovered brings the Holy of Holies that much closer.
On our way back to the Scottish Church Guesthouse we popped in at the Austria Hospice House for strudel and cappacino, then wandered through the King David Hotel and arrived to find our laundry done, our room windows open to the terraced rose garden, and the Jerusalem Post awaiting us in the lounge.
It’s been another satisfying day in Jerusalem.
