Jerusalem: The Caves, the Ruins, the Narrow Streets

One of the most amazing things about Jerusalem's Old City is that you can walk truly ancient streets and touch the structures that are thousands years old.

Here is the Cardo, a shopping street (then and now) that was built by the Romans nearly two millennia ago:

The Cardo is by far the widest street in the Old City; others are a lot narrower -- some are only eight steps wide:

This is in the Christian Quarter, one of the quietest if you get away from the Way of the Cross and the Golgotha. Armenians, by the way, although also Christians have a Quarter of their own. They were among the first ones to adopt Christianity en masse and acquire real estate in the Old City. The Jewish Quarter, while the oldest in the Old City (it was part of King David's Jerusalem as far back as 1,000 BCE) has the newest buildings and the widest streets as most of it had been destroyed on many occasions and was finally rebuilt after reunification of Jerusalem in 1967. But even its relatively wide streets are pretty narrow:


Just outside of the Old City, you can rest by burial tombs that are between 2,100 and 3,000 years old:




And here is where residents of ancient Jerusalem got their water and building stone from:

The way to the 2,700-year-old water tunnel (above) and King Solomon's Quarry, the source of building stone for the First Temple from around 950 BCE (below).


But all of it just a few steps away from the pleasures and comforts of modern life, like a drink and a -- rare! -- cigarette at the legendary and luxurious King David Hotel:

And of course, there was plenty of coffee consumed to keep us going on this adventure:

Beverages make us happy!