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The Church of St. Anne. 

On the Steps of the Temple Mt, looking back
over the city. to the left of this picture are
 several Mikva'ot, ritual cleansing baths for
people who wanted to ascend to the temple. 
Sunday we had another field study in Jerusalem. It was very cold, and rained the whole day! It was still worth it, though. The morning we spent looking at Old Testament related parts of the city, such as David's city and the Broad wall built by Hezekiah. We talked about the nature of the city in the time of the united monarchy, and discussed if it were possible for the city to be as large as claimed in the Old testament. It seems like Jerusalem was a pretty thriving city, even as far back as Saul, David and Solomon. After lunch we shifted focus to New Testament period remains. We saw the pool of Siloam, and the pools of Bethesda. We also stopped in the Church of St. Anne, near the pools of Bethesda. It is the best preserved Crusader church in the whole city, (I think he said all of Israel, but I might be mistaken). The Monk there was from England, and he was very kind, showing us around and letting us go up behind the altar. We sang several hymns, the acoustics were fantastic! there was an 8sec echo when you spoke. We also explored the base of the temple mt. looking at Herod's constructions. The wall was massive! Some of the ashlar stones weighed up to 500 tons! Absolutely incredible. We walked the road from Siloam to the temple, which would have been the same street Jesus would have taken, and also the man he sent to be healed there. Pretty crazy to think about! We also went through part of the sewer system, which would have been there during Jesus' day, but which he would not have traversed ;) I really enjoyed going to the steps of the temple Mt, it was a huge staircase, and would have been supper busy. Jerusalem must have been really magnificent during that time. At the end of the day we went to the top of the Austrian Hospice, to get a final look over the city. It is the best spot to see the central valley, which would have been much deeper in the Bible times. It's mostly filled in now. It was a full day, and a wet one, but it was full of great things also.

Looking out over the Central Valley.

Just a tiny bit of sunlight before sunset



The City walls, walking back to JUC after sunset.

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