Joining the Heavens: Impressions

My first semester here I was required to do "impression reports" for the Physical Settings class, and I posted most of them to kill two birds with one stone. Since I was required to write about our field studies, I figured I might as well use those to inform friends and family of what I had been doing as well. Since this is Andrew's first time in Physical Settings, now it's his turn to write impression reports. I'll be posting a few of them here too. It won't be anything especially new for those of you who have either read my blog or have been here yourself. Still, it's always good to review, and it can be helpful to get a new perspective. So, without further ado...Here are Andrew's thoughts on his first field study, supplemented with pictures from both him and me.

Impression Report, Old City Field Study

Andrew Sharp September, 9^th, 2013

We went to the garden outback where we discussed our blue books and tools and general class overview stuff.

Then off we went.

Out the gate...

Down the hill..

First we walked the watershed ridge, the high point of the mountains running north and south just west of the rift valley. The ridge was a “watershed” because it's the geographic point where water begins to go east into the valley or west towards the sea. This officially puts Jerusalem in a rain shadow, but not by much, and with the underground watershed being further west it catches much of what comes off the ridge, and funnels it into the underground springs that head east, one of which being the Gihon Spring.

On the watershed ridge, looking over to JUC and Mt. Zion

Next we got a feel for land marks and major routes through the area in Old Testament times as well as the names of the valleys. Talking of the Hinnom valley, and how the western hill was not nearly so occupied as it is now (if at all) in the times of the Patriarchs.

We discussed water conditions in light of the water park just across the valley from JUC. Mentioning how Israel has far less water than many places and how the fresh water is very valuable and shouldn't be wasted. And yet hundreds if not thousands are surely wasted at the park each year.

After that we discussed the old wall, and it's different ages, where it should be built in order to best work as a defense,

and Alana pretended Vernon was Jesus and played the part of Zacchaeus climbing a tree to see and hear him.

View from the tree

The Old City Wall has been knocked down and rebuilt in varying degrees and times leaving the wall built out of stone that looks visibly somewhat different in cut. It was also not built on the steepest part of the hill, nor around mt. Zion for which some foremen were killed. The problem this posed was fairly simple. If your enemey must climb uphill just to reach your wall, he's moving slower, more susceptible to large stones tossed down the hill from over the wall, or arrows. Not to mention it's far more difficult to use a ladder or battering ram in those conditions, and any hook and rope system used to pull the wall down would need to be very very long, to avoid pulling the rock down on top of your men.

Next into the old city and through Zion Gate, then out into the parking lot to look out towards the south and east, orienting ourselves and looking towards the city of David and the Tyropean valley between. It turns out Orienting yourself is facing east, as the east is the direction of the Orient. Which puts the mount of olives directly into our range of vision, way out past the temple mount.

Then the Cardo.

The Cardo is the name to the central street in town that runs north south, and the main street running east west was called the Decumanus. Being used to divide a city into easy disctricts, it was a Roman concept as they liked cities squared, and symmetrical. Here we stopped in the cool of the shade and imagined the many different vendors selling their wares to travelers. An image not too hard to imagine. Even these days going down the streets in the Old City is similar, many merchants and stores, all trying to get you to come take a look and purchase their wares.

Then we went off to the western wall observation point, and back above the old Cardo.

Then finally off to the church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Inside we went to the chapel of Adam under Greek Calvary where Adam is believed to have been buried according to Greek orthodox theology. And while we were there we had to wait while a ceremony was held over the stone of unction. The stone of unction being the kind of stone thought to have been used when removing Jesus body from the cross. One wonders how those large nails were removed. I'd imagine they would have been long enough that maybe they were driven through and out the back of the cross, and a hammer taken to the tip would help them come back out, if not, I can't imagine a quick easy way to do the job without damaging the body.