A Day of Sides, Not Corners or Angles

9th Grade geometry was my worst year of math, and probably in spite of it, some stuck. Try to find a corner in this run around (excluding pictures):

Today the Archaeology of Jerusalem class toured a mountain with a wonderful view (except today because it was foggy and rained pelts of water) of the Old City, called Armon Hanatziv. How do you tour a mountain? By walking through it; that is, through a water system created at least a hundred years before the common era, and then used and renovated until about a hundred years ago. Clearly the water problem in Jerusalem has a history of its own.

There were two aqueducts established to carry water in the city of Jerusalem,  before or during the Roman Period. Water, and great amounts of it, were necessary for the animal sacrifices which took place at the Jewish Temple, for the civilians and tourism as it increased with King Herod's revamping of the Temple Mount, as well as for Jewish Ritual Baths. However, in order to schlep water from a far distance, you need the aid of gravity, and Jerusalem was already in the mountains. South of the city the ridges are higher, but not by much, and water is still hard to come by. An area was chosen a little south of Bethlehem, and a site now known as Solomon's Pools was created (it bears no relation to Solomon). From there, water was channeled to various areas, including Herod's retreat and self-erected memorial known as Herodion, and Jerusalem. There was an upper and a lower aqueduct that ran to the city. The upper went directly to the Jaffa Gate, where Herod's Palace, as well as cisterns and pools were located. The lower one though wound around the Jerusalem hills, eventually feeding right into the Temple Mount for use with sacrifices. Timing is uncertain, plaster colors different between the two trackes. Therefore, the lower aquaduct may have been from the Hasmonean period (167-63BCE) before Herod's time (37-4BCE). We took the lower one for a spin, walking along a very narrow path, which the Turks had dug a few meters deeper during the Ottoman Period. This allowed for us to fit through without crawling, and also demonstrated how long this system was used for bringing water into Jerusalem. There were six shafts along the way which were cut through to the top of the mountain, allowing for air and light.

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Thankfully we didn't need to round any curves, but some people got stuck.

Then in the evening, for a change of pace, I joined school organized trip to the National Paraplegic Basketball Championship between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. This was an amazing experience, not only by admiring the tremendous upper body strength and physical play on the court, but also by seeing the fans shouting and cheering. The game was honored with the attendance of the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, and the Knesset speaker, Reuven Rivlin, who gave the speech at the Har Herzl Independence Day Ceremony. Jerusalem never led, and while they brought the lead down from 11 to 6 in the 3rd quarter, they never caught up to Tel Aviv. Regardless, it was a fast paced and very exciting game, with kosher hot dogs and halftime entertainment!