Hezekiah's Tunnel After Hours

The second we flew in to Jerusalem, we hurried to find a bus to get us to the Western Wall before sundown so we could see the Jewish celebrate the beginning of shabbat (the Sabbath). We found a shuttle bus, jumped in, sat while keeping an eye on our luggage visible to passersby through the open trunk, and waited. And waited. And WAITED. We had to wait until all of the seats on the shuttle were full, but soon we were off. It felt like we were anywhere but Jerusalem. It just didn't sink in, couldn't sink in yet. Some days it unsinks . . . sinks out? It's like your feelings negate themselves, and you forget where you are. But then you let yourself think deeper again, and you're back. Back to Jerusalem.

After watching the Jewish men sing and dance, and after joining the Jewish women on their side of the wall (Strangely they don't sing and dance! It seemed like church on our side and a fiesta on the men's side. What do you expect?), we went in search of Hezekiah's Tunnel and the Pool of Siloam. Dusk turned to dark as we walked the streets of the Arab side of town. Good thing we learned Arabic in Egypt! Salamo alecum. Is mac ey. Shukran. Afwan. Ashara. Quais. Soon we came to the end of the road and spotted some cool looking archways and ruins, and headed up a little hill to take a look. Then a group of little boys came running to tell us we'd found the right place!

Shaddi soon came out, one of the pool's tour guides, and offered to take us through the tunnel even though it'd closed an hour before. He said the gates would be locked, but he knew how we could "get down inside easily." Super! We'd brought clothes we could get wet in, so we headed back up the hill to the pool entrance we'd passed on our way down the street.

Then there was the 20 foot gate we needed to climb to then easily drop down in, as Shaddi had promised. We laughed in disbelief, especially because the other side drops down even farther onto stairs going down, but we climbed it no problem! Mandy was our scout and tried it out first to make sure Lori and I could handle it. Thanks, Mandy. :) Once we got into the Pool of Siloam, I felt like the hard part for me was over, but Lori gets claustrophobic really easily so her challenge had just begun. Luckily, just knowing that there was no other group of people behind us helped her know she wouldn't be trapped. Until Shaddi told us the story about when a man got stuck inside and died. Nice, Shaddi.

We had so much fun in there! The water was up to our shins—much lower than we'd expected—so we really didn't get that wet. Once we reached the locked gate at the end of the tunnel, we turned around and headed back to the entrance in the dark. Very cool experience to feel like your world could be upside down and you wouldn't even know. It reminded me of being underwater in the ocean after getting smashed by a wave.