Grade 9 Israel Experience Day 7: A Photo Blog – Caves, More Caves, and the Desert!

By Zoe E. and Batya H.

Here’s us at Ir David- an archeological site with ruins from Jerusalem during biblical times- about to go caving through tunnels built by Hezekiah when Assyrians tried to capture Jerusalem.

Here’s us about to start walking through the tight tunnels under Ir David. In ancient times, they were used to give the city water and Jerusalem wouldn’t have survived without them.

The tunnels were filled with water and we trudged our way through the dark and damp trail. It was very squishy and hard to see what was in front of us… it must have taken a ton of effort and skill to build the tunnels in the first place.

At Beit Govrin, we were digging to find ancient history estimated to be around 2000 years ago.

We were working very hard to find lovely artifacts, for example pieces of charcoal, pottery, and even bones.

The biggest find of the day! The top of a jug of oil. Archaeologists use these artifacts to learn about life in ancient times.

After our dig we travelled through the Barcouva tunnels and saw multiple pigeon holes that in ancient times were used to get carrier pigeons to come though the walls and they used pigeon poop as fertilizer.

Once we reached the end of the tunnels we saw many coffin shaped holes that we decided to lay down in. It was super neat to be able to explore these ancient caves.

We ended off our day at Metzukei Dragot in the Judean desert. We saw the sunset and had a little bonfire to welcome us into the desert!