Underground Journey from the City of David to the Temple Mount Foundation Stones

hello everybody and welcome to Jerusalem once again the City of David it's amazing to have you back with us my name is Durham Spillman I'm the director of global communications in the City of David and I want to introduce you to my dear friend and partner aurilla das Burke hello Ron how are you great to see you again how are you doing I'm excellent we're back by popular demand absolutely I was so thrilled last time we had so many people watching out it was hundreds or thousands and thousands of people watching and and it was so nice from everyone was writing to us please send us more information we got so many emails so this time really if you feel like joining us again and if you want to be the first one to know just leave us your email we will be in touch all the time not just corona time and you know now last time we met we did the first part of the pilgrimage road and it was quiet there was no one here because of the corona and it's very optimistic to meet again once we see that more people like stuff people are starting to come out and I hope that in just a few weeks we're gonna have the City of David with thousands of people again and you to join us today we're gonna do another part absolutely today you're gonna join us as Ori and I take you through the pilgrimage row down to where we go underneath the ground through the ancient aqueduct which went which went beneath the road all the way to the foundation stones of the Temple Mount one of the most exciting absolutely places what probably in the world I'm definitely to say definitely in the world you know last time we discussed the fact that the City of David is the place where Jerusalem was born we spoke about the water the significance of the water and today we're going to see where this road that we spoke about last time that thousands of people used to walk on it where does it end absolutely and it's really exciting that we speak about it Neil Shevat that's right now before we take our visitors to a surprising parking lot I think it's actually an opportunity to turn around and show them that right over here is actually the Temple Mount meaning we're only a few feet from the temple menorah yes and we're actually going to be meeting very close to the Temple Mount but underneath the ground and that dark and mysterious place yes that we discovered and you know every good story starts at a parking lot so we're gonna start a story in a parking lot and but it's not just the usual park it's not just the usual parking lot I remember here Orianna in 2002 when a group of Russian scientists came to us and they said clear off our cars we're gonna do an MRI the parking lot we thought it was crazy but you know so let's see what they see what they found this used to be our parking lot come on in even they say wow really isn't this a Wow look at this Don that's incredible a parking lot this used to be a parking lot and look what we found here isn't it amazing it's incredible now you remember parking our car here and when you got out of your car little did we realize that as we got out of our car if you went down 50 or 60 feet you had 11 different civilizations going all the way back to the ancient biblical period the time period of King David and as we know Oriya we've had some real surprises in this parking lot yes let's walk a little bit sure around it and come with us so you can see different angles of this place did you bring your water it's a hot day I did then I forgot them no I'm sure you're not allowed to share that well I would be okay we're going underneath soon so it's gonna be cool and dry and nice so just as we reach over here we can see in the distance that there are three rooms and I remember we had we got an email a number of years ago from young woman from London she said I want to volunteer in the excavations her name was in the Dean and we sent her email to the other one tick was authority and they employed her and a month after Nadine came to the job now we have to understand most people when they come to an excavation they don't realize how dirty and sweaty and how difficult the work is in the Dean she was working at a large motor automotive manufacturer and planning but she got used to it and she had friends and by this point of fingernails were dirty and she had dug in and one day she was over here and a group of workers heard Nadine scream and they thought maybe she was bit by a scorpion and so they sent first aid but no Nadine is sitting in the ground and they walk up to her and then the dirt that was right in front of her she's pointing and she found this young woman from England found one of the most miraculous discoveries ever made in Jerusalem which are these gold coins treasure it's a real treasure real treasure I can only imagine what she felt when she found it and I can only imagine what you felt when you got the message it's true but this is something right again it's not fair that I wasn't here you were here I wasn't here and I can only imagine what people felt and when they saw this it was amazing what would you do if you had 264 gold coins or yeah oh we don't have enough time for me to speak about watch out man absolutely but there well let's start with opening very shops again all around the world okay so let's continue as we walk around this you know this incredible excavation where we have all these layers we've got the roman layer and we have the second upper layer and we've got the first upper layer in eleven different civilizations every day we have new things that have come out of here and you know you spoke about Nadine who was volunteering here every year we had we get many volunteers coming to work here because they want to feel part of what we're doing it's a very tough work like you said so why would people volunteer come to work in the Sun in the rain so hard they want to feel part of this story we don't pay too good really this is not the issue they want to feel part of Jerusalem they want to feel part of revealing the history of Jerusalem they want to connect to their own dynasty to the something inside and once they touch the ground they touch the stones they reveal themselves through revealing Jerusalem and we hear again and again the stories and Nadine who was so excited this is going with her for the rest of her life that her children and her grandchildren it's unbelievable and you know there was another thing we found here yes there was which is making me very gentle very very very jealous because they used to be a kid at Quin here so tell fellow friends well we know that there was a queen her name was Queen Helena of Atia bin she's acquaintance me rock and she falls in love with the Jewish people and mostly she fell in love with the idea that there was one God so that made a lot of sense to her so she decides to convert I believe in one God now most of the world believes in one God today but back then it was pretty uncommon and she converts and her entire kingdom converts and Queen Helena who was from a dia banana rock she moves to Jerusalem and she builds a palace in the City of David and while we were excavating the palace we uncovered this gorgeous earring with freshwater pearls and emeralds and true gold and you know this is really this earring is assembled not only of wealth it's the symbol of what a person can do with their wealth because Queen Helena transformed the Jewish Empire with our kindness and with their donations and she really while the Romans were oppressing the Jews Queen Elena used her money to buy food to help the Jews during the Roman oppression and so she is written about by the sages really as one of the greatest really one of the most important people ever in the history of the Second Temple period in Jerusalem you know aurilla I'm looking at this excavation and what I often hear from people is okay there's four billion people connected to Jerusalem there's eleven layers here how are they ever going to experience this Oriya at me that's your that's what you're really you bring to the table here what's your vision for this place well I must say that once we found all these excavations we understood that this is huge what we have here and I want people from all over the world to feel what we feel now I'm trying to say to them to our friends I'm trying to tell you my friends what do we feel you have to come here to understand what are we going to build here is the house that will make people connect to what we find here people will come here hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world and then we'll go through the archaeology which is something very unique you know them there are places in the world where you can see archaeology in here they're going to go through the archaeology that we're going to touch they're going to feel and they're going to be part of the excavation every person who comes to visit this place it's going to be called Kadim every person who will come here can take part of the excavation himself and find treasures and find earrings and this is what I want this place to be so they'll be very that adventure exactly they'll put on a half will be the Indiana Jones or you know whatever we want to call it and they will actually be part of the process of the revealing exactly and this is something very unique and as we spoke before about the volunteers this is what people want to feel once they touch they get connected and you know yeah l is now joining us and she is bringing me the earrings that you found what yes oh yeah how'd you manage to do that back correctly but you already took those 200 you know there were two hundred sixty four gold coins everyone always says maybe there were two hundred sixty-five and one went missing so you know we have a shop in the City of David and we make jewelry that the same as the ones that were found here and can I feel like a queen for one day DeLong well that's me we feel like your queen every day yeah I would really like to see the Queen can I put them on yes I would love to put them on and I will say that what I think musical beautiful and I will say if you remember we did have a former president who his wife I got these as a gift and she we have pictures and she wore them so there you go I can a Quinn you are quick so let's continue our journey as a Quinn and you will be my way or I'll be over your service you would be mine I'll be your servant by the way or yacht you know as we continue moving forward there's there's something here incredible that I want our our dear friends to see and you know this is this is really we speak about the Queen we speak about jewelry I will speak about treasures but when we want to feel really connected and really understand what's going on here this is the thing this is the thing they both remember because it only happened a few months ago that one of the archaeologists here in the parking lot found this clay seal but the size of my fingernail and they looked with the magnifying glass and it has a name and the name is not Tong MELAS unbelievable unbelievable servant of the king now it's even more unbelievable as you open up the Bible yes second book of Kings chapter 22 23 and you sing King Josiah who's King gave his great-great-great-great grandson a righteous King in the Bible written the Bible and his servant is not on Noah it's just incredible because we have shrew out in a few days we're gonna be reliving Ruth who was King David's grandmother great-grandmother and the Davidic dynasty and the idea of bringing the firstfruits up to the temple here we find the actual evidence David's lineage the actual dynasty in the parking lot yes and I was with you when we heard about it and it was really really exciting because everything else is telling us a story was going on here when we find a Bullock Thane the name written in the Bible it's ours we're connected it's part of me it really is part of me now just before we go down I want to remind our friends the route that we're going to take so last time though on if you remember and if you remember our friends we started here in the pool of siloam we spoke about the water about the idea of Jerusalem was born here with the water and we started walking up the pilgrimage road and we went we finished about here and we discussed the fact that our employees are working to discover all this road today we're going to the upland part the northern part of the road we will go down you will explain a few more things and we will go out just beneath the Temple Mount and this is really if we were excited here I'm sure my friends you're going to be extremely excited and I hope you will see how excited I am once we get down here underneath the wall box Antonia the wall underneath that old city wall right Oriya yes Antony's and we stop and when we show them the place and we start all right let's go down watch your step here so here we go we're heading down we're gonna be descending around 40 feet from ground level today what's fascinating is if we look around us there's pottery shards everywhere everywhere we look because we're descending back in time I can see pottery on both sides of me the on will you be so nice and you will lead the way it's okay your loyal servant I will get out this way cool and nice here I love this route mother nature's air conditioning being above the ground and just thinking that we're going all the way up now to the Temple Mount absolutely watch your head on this door here and here we are walking through a channel that is so amazing Rory out because it was built by King Herod and as we know if we head in that direction we would be back at the Ceylon pool we again yes last last time yeah and you and I are winding through this pill finished channel and above us in a minute we're gonna see remains of the actual road you can see we have construction here which is holding up pretty much the City of Jerusalem which are also in charge of Oriya in charge of flood oh did you think instruction this one city of Jerusalem yes yes and it's a it's really again it's exciting I must say so or yeah what we wanted what we want to show people now is this picture which is again this is the pilgrimage room which you and I were walking on last time and of course this is the row that that you've celebrated on this they went up to the Temple Mount we're going to be back in this road in a few minutes but what we're doing now is we're going underneath the road you know you're going through the drainage channel or the aqueduct worth of water flowed it was fresh water rainwater we're gonna climb underneath this and then we're gonna come out in the old city and come back on the road and Dhahran you were one of the you were one of the members of the first team that was here that is true I was a member of the first team that came through here I got a call at around 4:00 in the morning and yeah when I got that call I was told listen go put on some clothes you don't care about four o'clock in the morning o'clock in the morning it was so excited you couldn't wait to the morning we couldn't wait to the morning in the middle explain why and our excavation team that was working the night shift at the time one of those members actually is the one that that was the first one to realize something strange was happening here we go by the way now I'm lifting up the camera this is actually the bottom stones of the pilgrimage road it's over our heads and you and I are walking in the water channel below it I hope our viewers understand we walked last time on the road now we're walking underneath the road in the chant in the tunnel it's all connected it's all part of the same area and the ronny was so tall so you have to this tunnel wasn't made for somebody my size people did people were not supposed to walk here you know absolutely what's the water now or yeah wait there one second I want to show you or something just absolutely amazing that I want you to do because now they see on what are you doing now or yeah tell us where you're walking listen you remember when we started with we said that we're going to go underneath the walls of the ancient city of the day but the elastic at the end we all City walk it's here now I'm crossing underneath the ancient city whoa it's just above us so we have Jerusalem of up there and we have Jerusalem of down Yahoo Shalom Shalom Allah you shall I shall matter that's right the upper and lower cities and we are getting to be privileged to walk down it is available and Oriana people who used to walk down here were mostly people that were from the city that we're trying to repair the water system or people that in times of war were fighting for their for their life and as you and I both know and our viewers will not tell them 2,000 people last 2,000 people deserve to survive during the destruction of the second temple it was here it was here it was that when we crawled through here we found there the pots for remaining with the remains of food inside them and if you look at your Cephas Flavius he explains that those last two thousand people were caught many of them were killed and men and women and children inside this tunnel yes and we found this sword and found the sword exactly we found the sword right here and so there was a lot of of tragedy that happened here but there was also a lot of incredible news it was actually right here aurilla where then we got a call that morning I just want to show the opening to our viewers right here if you can see right up here there's actually a turn in the tunnel and if you look at the term you got a call for anyone there was a worker who's walking here with this pick and he put his pick and to excavate at around 3:00 in the morning and his pick went into open air his people into open air Oriya and when that happened it was absolutely incredible because he said happy they're going to open there that all happens in movies but he cleared out a little-bitty he climbed in around 3 meters and they climbed back out and we got the call I move on and once again they'll be they'll be plenty more now you run everything so it's ok we're just the moles are going to eat the ground anywhere mainly privilege to run it was at the time I was scared I'll be honest because we had to crawl on our stomachs and we were kind of like the head just crawling on maybe the deal saying it was too narrow to turn around we said well crawl so we can't crawl and and then we'll crawl backwards if we couldn't get out but as luck would have it we were able to turn around and even more than that as a nurse let's see where it goes all the way up goes ok this run all the way up underneath an ancient matrix of the old city what's incredible is this was the main drainage channel so you can imagine we're climbing underneath ancient Jerusalem right now there is the old city above us the Temple Mount is what we're nearing just a few seconds and you have waterways going to the right and left they have not even yet been discovered you have to imagine that was a city here of close to over a hundred thousand people at the time those are people they were all being fed by this water and so follow this channel that goes all the way branches off to other channels which if you have team a lot of time you can just go underneath the ground and you could really explore and uncover in the ancient city of Jerusalem I doing there Oriya great so cool it's so cool are our friends here they don't get the aerobic workout but you're all gonna join us and when you do you're gonna say this is the best aerobic ancient adventure you've ever had look at this an example right next to me of an opening block by Stone who will be the first to remove that stone who will be the first to explore where that goes our each side of me as we go back and forth each side of me and now we're actually gonna make a turn which is what we did and in this area that just took us three or four minutes when we climbed through here all those years ago took us about an hour to reach this location crawling crawling if anything if we look up there's a dome there's a Jones ceiling right above us and we realize if we look at you hurry up behind you the tomb actually curves so we siderosis why is it curving what's here what's behind this wall right over here and the archaeologists allyship run he said I know it's behind this wall what did he find he said the temple mount's Wow is right behind this wall and we're now skirting underneath the Temple Mount it's it's this it's this it's really his deep and this is the the second in the in the route that we're taking that we stop for a second this is the time when we stop for a second and we understand that we're going into something which is much bigger than us which is so strong and I always stop here when I come with a group and I tell them okay now we laughed we're saying we spoke let's be quiet for a second and connect to the minute connect to the stone and connect ourselves this is the place aurilla says we crawled through here on that first expedition number six people led by Israel Antiquities archaeologists at least sugar money here I had to be pulled into this room and know if our viewers can actually see but there is water down there yes there's a lot of water and you and I right now we're in the cistern surrounded by a cistern and you know when we reached this place or yeah it was at this point around 6:30 maybe 7:00 in the morning and we were very excited if our viewers look up do you see that light at the end of the tunnel of there that was the first light that we saw and we were down here we were clapping hands and we were so excited and at least you can say Shh and we heard voices you know the story I know the story that you had it wasn't just voices you somehow had English speaking people which is unbelievable because it really connects us to what happened here just how many years before you were here not really and we spoke about it before with our viewers about another queen that's right another queen right this is why I love where I work so tell them the other one had your ex I'm not mine but the other Toria the Queen of England and Queen Victoria was looking for treasure and in 1867 Queen Victoria mm-hmm she sends a mission led by Captain Charles Warren and she basically wanted him to find treasure captain Charles Warren is looking he's he's looking everywhere and as we walked in this direction we saw something that was absolutely unreal which is this snow bird above us this film right here they say it weighs five metric tonnes and Ellie's sugar looked at that and he said I've seen this stone before it I were all laughing Ellie no one has seen that stone before cos no one's been here in 2,000 years however reaiiy did you have something to show yeah it was right this picture is really it's it's it's like Photoshop this is what I felt when I first saw it how can it be the Charles Warren is telling us about this stone and any shu-kun dr alicia corn who learned so much about this place he realized that he's seen this done before and it's this one here it's again the same one so the stone of Charles Warren the stone that was found with you and Alicia corn and the first team that was here a few years later hundred years later saw whatever and and what's this stone this story it has a story individual a berry the founder the City of David who was also there and Allie allow me they both said wait this stone which is of course this stone this stone is a stone of the Temple Mount itself it must have fallen off the top of mount we don't know why and it ended up we know mine and give you a ranch down it's felt only the destruction right exactly it's fell down in the discussion so see how many stories we tell once we walk these roots will speak about the beginning of Tours we speak about eleven layers of excavation with mistake about the last people that last 2000 people who were here walking here hiding here and now as we spoke about Queen Victoria and now we think about the temple destruction and we see the stones that fell off from the wall of the visit Joey the destruction it's incredible it's actually anything like reading a book or twenty thirty minutes walk that's a problem this definitely you say it was for me definitely with the exception of getting married and having children this was the most exciting moment of my life and you know and to capsulate the moment is actually you're standing here in the tunnel when we actually made this turn and here or I'd actually appreciate it if you would that be honor means first thank you so much and you're gonna show our viewers something incredible that we did not know we were gonna find here you see this oh yeah what is that in front of you go on I think our viewers will know themselves even if I don't speak if I said before that let's be quiet because it's the first time when we get to the stone of the Temple Mount this wall everyone knows it they just know it from a different angle they know it from up there this is the cotton this is the western wall but it's underneath the ground usually we walk up there and we go out soon and we will walk above it but when you came here you first discovered the wall of the quarter of the western wall you discovered it underneath the ground we did and we didn't even know we actually argued you did we argued I didn't think that this I couldn't believe this was the western wall the people are the founder the projects this I'm telling you it's awesome all I said how could it be now you don't have a question or you know I moved here from the states I also did the army but it was important Israeli you're a leader of this project you're an incredible woman you served in the Israeli army you fought and you you risked your life for the this of Israel as an Israeli what was it what does it like for you to be in this in this western wall our own private western wall but I must say that at least once twice three times a year I go to the western wall with my family okay - there wasn't one that's all of us no but standing here underneath it's kind of a small car tell which is just mine and it's for me and the group that is coming here no one else is interrupting us it's not with all the people standing there walking there praying there this is like a small private cartel just for us and for me I must say that sometimes I come here when everything is really quiet no one knows I come here for a minute of myself again to connect to the place where everything has began and what more is my connection to God where is my connection to the Bible where my connection to Jerusalem and as I said before the one I think we are the most privileged people in the world working here every day in the City of David and what we are doing today is trying to give our viewers to share this excitement that we have absolutely and I want them to join us yes we want to share with you that excitement we just want to show you one more thing that these again are the stones to the western wall and this now is the bedrock of Mount Moriah so this is the bedrock of Mount Moriah were according to the Kabbalah the world began on this bedrock this is where the western wall meets that layer aurilla and i are 200 feet below the top of the Temple Mount that can be seen and our 50 feet below ground level we're gonna show them but before we do or yeah do you mind could you find perhaps something we found in this book it's somewhere near the beginning of there you go you've got to a pretty close at the very beginning we found something absolutely incredible in this book which is going to be right over here oh the belt the belt so one day again le shukran who was working near the Israel into cruise Authority archaeologist comes and he shows us this belt this is his and the bell actually has the chime inside of it and he realized this is none other than the Bella foo the high priest the Cohen Akkad all the high priest that was his Bell that somehow went through a sewage drain when he was maybe running away from the Romans ended up in the ground where we're standing it's just unbelievable to think that the high priest used to walk up this road to the Temple Mount in Shevat getting all these all the families the Jewish families coming here bringing let's go and see let's go outside okay we're gonna walk up now we're going to begin our journey elevating up to thee to the skyline so we have to leave we can still were walking along now a few the upper stones the western wall still not those that have been seen yet by the modern public though you're invited to come and now we're gonna go up a flight of stairs you can see underneath us it is that channel here we go some lights again in our face back to the Sun back to the Sun this is amazing every time this happens this is so incredible here we are the same hotel we spoke about the same western wall here's the western wall I can hear the noises this is what we spoke about the western wall is everyone's wall from all over the world people come here people celebrate well Mitzvah people come to say their own prayer people come to say thank you for what they have what we saw today is a small part of the wall underneath the ground which is only for the people that come to visit the city of David absolutely and here to point out this is now the pilgrimage wrote the same pilgrimage road that you and I saw when we began our journey down at the one at the Sheila walk pool we're back on the pilgrimage where we came up underneath the ground where Ori and I just crawled we're back up in the pilgrimage road here you can see it and what's incredible about the pilgrimage road right here you mentioned shoe out there's a powerful story here because we were in the destruction climbing through the sewer mm-hmm now we're back in the top at the time of the celebration bringing our first fruits to the temple in ancient times and here we even have a storefront right here this is an original storefront just as it would have looked 2,000 years ago you can imagine there was a table here and there was a curtain hanging down off the table like a drape and they were selling their wares and they were changing money what we're hearing now Oriya is singing in Jerusalem and the prophecy in the book of Zakaria says one day be the elderly and the children will come back to Jerusalem and sing and play in the streets it's written about the prophecy we can hear the joy of somebody having a bar mitzvah Bat Mitzvah she wrote is on its way this is the prophecy where we're standing on the road like the pressing part of the prophecy I'd start the matrix of patriarchs who came before us they lives for this they died for this and we're back here once again and to be part of it part of it Thank You Dona Curia [Music]

Channel: City of David

Views: 894,381

Keywords: Jerusalem, Israel, City of David, History

Id: FdhvksoXGvI

Length: 33min 52sec (2032 seconds)

Published: Tue May 26 2020