Study Abroad at BYU-Jerusalem: Tunnels, Water, Ancient City, and Roamin’ the Streets

The Shuk is amazing! I went to it on our free day and we got to try many interesting foods. For those that don’t know, the Shuk is basically a Jewish market place on the west side of Jerusalem. The Shuk is composed of multiple streets with shopkeepers on either side. It is crowded, full of unique smells, and full of friendly people. I was in a group of girls that spit 10 freshly baked pitas for 5 shekels. They have haavlaa (I think that’s what it’s called) – which is just like Middle Eastern candy) and samples of food throughout the market. The locals love blonds so this guy gave me a date for free (see picture below). Also, every Sunday night the Jerusalem Center has a musical concert for the locals featuring well-known and well-established artists. Usually the students can’t go unless they’re ushering. Anyways, I just happened to be an usher the night that there was a flute and harp concert. It was fun to hear harp music again since I haven’t in so long. I talked to the harpist after and I can’t remember her name but she plays in the orchestra over here. She told me she started when she was around 7 years old and so she must of played for more than a few decades.

For our field trip on Monday, we walked to the CITY OF DAVID! It was really cool because throughout growing up, I’ve always read about it in the scriptures but to actually go there was such a cool experience. They are still in the process of uncovering the city of David right now. The logo for the City of David was the harp, so the symbol was everywhere. Also, the land by the City of David has brought up much controversy and has been frequently fought over between the Israeli’s and the Palestinians. Many Palestinians won’t sell their homes, while their on the City of David, so the Israeli’s will excavate tunnels on their properties to uncover much of the ancient city. This causes a lot of problems, such as causing the Palestinians homes’ foundations to fall apart, which forces them to move. All I can say is it’s a never-ending fight.

I think walking through the water system was the funnest part of the trip though… which may sound weird but it’s HEZEKIAH’S TUNNEL! In some parts of the tunnel, the water level almost reached our hips. The tunnel was very narrow and some parts we had to duck down for a while while walking through the water (that was up to our shins). It’s crazy to think that the people of David chiseled by hand that long of a tunnel system to get water to the city from the spring. It probably took them years and years to do it. Anyways, we were able to see complete darkness when we turned off all of our headlamps too. NOTE TO READER: If you ever want to feel like you’re in the movie Indiana Jones when you’re in Jerusalem, do Hezekiah’s Tunnel. It will make your adventurous dreams come true.

Right after we came out of the tunnel, we saw the step from the pool of Siloam. For those who don’t know, the pool of Siloam is the Biblical story where Christ puts mud on a poor blind man’s eyes and then tells him to go wash at the pool of Siloam. They couldn’t uncover much of the pool since many landowners won’t sell their property but it was really neat to see the steps of the pool. Also, this is a place where we know that the Savior most definitely walked. I believe you can find the story in John 9. There, we had our Old Testament class on the steps of Siloam, learning and reading in the scriptures about where we sat.