Why is this Gate closed on the Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount?

The great thing about walking along the Mount of Olives is that there is an incredible view no matter where you look—and so many amazing things to see!

If you can tear your gaze away from the Garden of Gethsemane, the Jewish cemetery, and everything else that's going on and look to your left, you'll see something amazing:

The Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount and the Golden Gate.

But that's not all.

In the past year, some vines have started growing out of openings in the city walls, which date almost 500 years.... and they are forming an interesting design. Naturally, my friends and I had to get closer. That's when you discovered that you can walk through the Muslim cemetery directly in front of the wall as well. I'd had no idea! 

Anyway... can you see it?

That's right, directly across the Mount of Olives, on the Eastern Wall, vines are growing that—almost—spell out the Hebrew name of God: yod, hei, vav.... It's only missing 1 letter.

Wow.

The cemetery is interesting, as it is so different from the one on the Mount of Olives directly across from it.

But my favorite part is halfway across: the closed-in Golden Gate.

Why is this important?

The Golden Gate (Eastern Gate) of the Temple complex is where Jesus entered in John 12 and Luke 19. He left Bethany, asked His disciples to bring Him a young, unbroken donkey, and entered the city riding down the Mount of Olives with the crowd yelling, singing praises, and placing their cloaks and palm branches on the road before Him. He was welcomed as a king.

Within the next week, He would be crucified and raised back to life.

But that's not all.

In prophecy in Zechariah 14 says the Messiah will return to the Mount of Olives. The mountain will split in two and water will run to the east and west. He, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, will enter Jerusalem on a white horse.

Being aware of this prophecy, whenever Muslims were in power during Jerusalem's history, the gate was sealed, most recently in 1541 under Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent. For good measure, a cemetery was posted as well in front of the gate, because, according to Jewish Law, for the Jewish Messiah to enter a cemetery on the way to the (not currently present) Temple would make Him unclean. Both these things together should make it impossible, according to man's logic.

And yet, there's something incredible at sitting there, tracing the path of Palm Sunday Road on the Mount of Olives, visualizing Jesus' procession into the city, and then imagining it again, this time in His second coming. Something tells me that no plan, design, or trap of man will be able to stop the Messiah. Right now, we are in the waiting. 

I have to say, sitting right below that gate is an incredible place to sit with God, read your Bible, and pray. 

And then, if you keep walking past the Golden Gate and turn left to enter into the city, you'll pass the Pool of Bethesda at St. Anne's Church and start down the Via Dolorosa. I highly recommend it!

What and Where is the Kidron Valley?

The Kidron Valley, which separates the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives is one of those historical places you can just walk past without even knowing you did.

You'll walk along it along the eastern side of the Temple Mount, and have to cross it in order to get to the Garden of Gethsemane and Dominus Flevit, among other things. But the sign explaining it is down in the cemetery.

Back in the day of David, the upper part of this valley was known as the King's Garden, or the King's Valley, and David ran through it when he fled Absolam. 

It's also believed that King Jehoshaphat overthrew Israel's enemies in 2 Chronicles 26 there, and in 2 Chronicles 29-31, as the Levites carried out Hezekiah's instructions to purify the Temple and tossed unclean items into the valley.

Jesus and His disciples would have crossed this valley whenever they entered or left Jerusalem and travelled to Bethany, and of course, when going to/from the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18). 

It's also mentioned one more time in the Old Testament the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the word "Jehoshaphat" means "God has Judged", and according to Joel 3:

“In those days and at that time,

    when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 

I will gather all nations

    and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.[b]

There I will put them on trial

    for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel,

because they scattered my people among the nations

    and divided up my land" (verses 1-2)

In the spring, the Kidron river runs through here, and the grass is green. It's beautiful to see! But this is how it looks in the heat of July:

It also holds Jerusalem's oldest cemetery. You can see Absolam's pillar in the distance. Further down there are caves dating to the 9th and 7th centuries B.C. 

Until it connects with the Hinnom Valley and travels out to the Dead Sea. But that's a post for another day!

Here's my question for now: In Zechariah 14, the prophecy of Jesus' second coming is that His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which will split in two. Water will flow towards the east and west, into the Mediterranean and into the Dead Sea, which will come back to life. 

If this is a river valley (though very dry when I took these pictures), and it leads to the Dead Sea, is this the route the eastbound river will take?

Whitewashed Tombs along the Mount of Olives

One of the many things I recommend doing while in Jerusalem is walking along the Mount of Olives. It's an incredible view of so many historic places that your mind will be continually blown. So much history in such a concentrated to area!

If you are coming from the City of David, you'll turn the corner and cross the street. The Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount will be on your left and the Mount of Olives on your right. Walking along the low stone wall, you'll be able to see the Mount in its entirety while seeking shade from the—you guessed it—olive trees.

A large portion of the Mount of Olives is a Jewish cemetery that faces the Temple Mount. From a distance, most of the graves look similar except for two. These stick out and can be seen from a distance. Do you know what they are?

The pillar above is Absolam's pillar, as spoken of in 2 Samuel 18. The one below is the prophet Zechariah's tomb.

You can actually walk right up to these pillars. They are HUGE! First, you cross over the Kidron Valley and start walking along it (we'll talk about this more in a future post). 

On the wall are signs with Bible verses specifically mentioning the Kidron Valley:

And then, there you are:

It's always cool to see something dating back millennia that is from the Bible. Nothing compares to that feeling. But a friend pointed something out to me that I want to share here:

While the architecture and the Land have changed, it's easy to accept that these pillars, as well as the cemetery, could be seen by people at the Temple when Jesus said in Matthew 23: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."

Wow!!! 

That adds so much meaning and context to this verse!

Can you see it?

Exploring Hezekiah's Tunnel: How in the world did they do that?

In 2022, I described my visit to the City of David and standing outside of Hezekiah's Tunnel. My first visit there was an unusually cold weekend in March—gray, raining, and hovering in the 30-40 degrees Fahrenheit. Even though the water in the tunnel stays the same temperature year-round, I didn't feel like getting my jeans wet up to above my knees and just walking around in the cold.

No, this was an adventure for summer.

So, in July, I went back, and this time walked through the Hezekiah's Tunnel.

The water felt amazing, even when it briefly flowed over my knees. At first, all I could hear was the roar of the water and people yelling/laughing... and I couldn't see anything. That stayed the same the whole time, haha. There is no light without a flashlight in there (the picture above is the view when you finally emerge from the tunnel).

This 535 meter tunnel is not straight; it winds through the rock just like the dry one.

Unfortunately, there was a middle school group of the UK behind me, and the boys, who were directly behind me were constantly yelling crude things in the dark. When we finally got to the end of the tunnel, there was a small gift shop by the Pool of Siloam that had t-shirts saying, "I survived Hezekiah's tunnel". When of the boys read it out look and I looked him dead in the eyes, "You almost didn't". 

But I digress. 

Wow, being in that tunnel in complete darkness was an experience that I'll never forget. It makes the miracle of how this tunnel was created that more incredible! 

King Hezekiah commissioned this tunnel in 2 Chronicles 32:30 (2 Kings 20:20 and Isaiah 22:9) so that Jerusalem could channel its water supply from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam. This way when the Assyrians and anyone else came to lay seige, the inhabitants still had water. 

But in order to do this quickly, as the Assyrians were already advancing towards Jerusalem, the tunnel was dug from both ends and met in the middle with only a small distance between the levels. How in the world did they do that: 2 groups of men digging in rock towards each other while underground, with varying levels of terrain, and find each other within 30 centimeters (1 foot) of each other?

Amazing!

Finally, after exiting the tunnel and putting my tennis shoes back on, we passed the pool of Siloam and entered the Promenade and the Western Stepped (Pilgrim) Road.

The promenade itself has a mural depicting what life likely looked at at the time of Herod. From that, a dating back to 1st century AD leads north and up—straight up to the Southern Steps.

Below this road was a water drainage channel. Both are about 650 meters long (almost half a mile). In the channel, artifacts like coins from the 2nd Temple period, a gold bell ornament like what was on the High Priest's robe, a Roman sword, and a clay seal. According to the brochure the park gives you, this is channel was also likely a refuge for those who felt the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

All those finds prove the every day use of this road, as it was when it was above the earth (and wider) in the time of Jesus. People walked back and forth. This is likely the road the blind man took when he descended from the Temple steps to the Pool of Siloam with mud on his eyes. 

Can you see it?

Besides the fact that it is SO COOL to walk where you know Jesus and His disciples did, there was one other perk from taking this tunnel back up to the entrance of the City of David: with it being underground, we were in the shade, in the cool of the earth, getting a break from the intense July sun. That's not to mention the earlier relief of walking through water, and dipping my hat in it before putting it back on.

I definitely recommend taking the time to visit the entirety of the City of David. I'd love to go back with a tour guide, as I'm sure there's much I didn't see. It's one of my favorite places in all of Jerusalem, just because of the treasure of history that it is.

OH, and did you hear the big news? 

The Pool of Siloam is going to be fully excavated! WOW! I can't wait to go back and see it for myself!