Owls in the City of David

Our second day in Jerusalem started out sunny, as we visited the City of David, an archaeological site located to south of the Old City. The City of David is thought to be the place where Jerusalem was founded. We were fortunate to have Joe Uziel, an archaeologist from the Israel Antiquities Authority, as our guide there. He explained archaeology to us while leading us through the water system of the ancient city.

Then we walked up to the Old City and had lunch in the Jewish Quarter. Our guide David Eisenstadt, who is going to be our tour guide throughout the week, took over again and led us through the Jewish Quarter. We saw new synagogues, the ancient Cardo, and a large excavation of the ancient “Upper City” from the time of Herod the Great (first century BCE). Next we went to the Western Wall and walked through the tunnels that run all the way underneath the Muslim Quarter from the Western Wall to the Via Dolorosa.

After a wonderful dinner in a local Jerusalem restaurant close to our hostel we welcomed our first guest speaker, Dr. Alick Isaacs, a Jerusalemite who founded an organization called Siach Shalom, or Talking Peace, that brings together people from opposite sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict in conversation.

Tomorrow we’ll be up bright and early to go up to the Temple Mount and to walk along the Via Dolorosa.