Herodian

Since we never made it to David's Citadel on Friday, we went back Saturday morning before our half day field study. The Citadel 's first wall was built by Hezekiah and then new parts were added by Herod the Great, Arab conquestors in 638, and many other people up until 1948. Now it houses a museum of Jerusalem history. View into the citadel from one of the wallsView out into the city. Beautiful day!

Inside there was this very accurate model of the old city of Jerusalem that was made in 1878. The red arrow in the bottom right corner is pointing to my school (JUC). The empty, tree spotted land at the bottom of the picture is the Hinnom Valley and is now filled with buildings as part of the new city of Jerusalem.

After the citadel, we went back to school for lunch and then left on our half day field study to the West Bank. First stop- the Herodian.

View of the Herodian from the window of the bus.

A look into the Herodian- the Herodian was one of the fortresses built by Herod the Great. He built the fortress as an escape from the watchful eye of the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem and as a place to entertain. It was his "mini Rome."

Jesse, Ashleigh, Me, and Matt (Matthew David-yep, check it mom!)

Amy, Ashleigh, Alana, Kaitlyn, Matt, and Me chillin on the pillars

"AH! Help me!!!" I almost didn't make it...

Beautiful view from above

Rolling stones...you know, to kill people

After a few hours at the Herodian we headed to Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity

The "exact" (-; place where Jesus was born

Pretty "almost" sunset on our last stop, Ramat Rachel, believed by archaeologist to be the remains of Hezekiah's palace.