Hi,
In one of the last days of Jannaeus and Mindal summer vacation I picked them up and we went visiting Tower of David in Jerusalem (The Old city Citadel museum)
The ride there was an adventure by itself – we rode our bikes to the train station and took the train to Jerusalem. It was the first time they were riding the train and were very excited by all the tunnels and bridges we were going over and through.
Going out of Jerusalem train station is also quite a journey, as it takes 7 minutes on those escalator. Once we were outside we catch a ride on the light train to Municipality station and walk along the Old city walls to Tower of David near Jaffa gate.
Altougth it called the tower of David, it has no connection to him as the place was built 2,500 years later. The tower itself is a minaret of a Mousqe that was built even later than that.
It was fun climbing up the higher points and watch over the old city and explaining the kids about it, as well as going over the walls and tell them about who building and fighting was back then.
They really liked the models that are spread on the court. Most of the rooms are closed as the museum under renovation. One room that was open hosted stefan Illese’s 19th century model of Jerusalem. The model is very accurate (Mindal keep asking for one of the small houses in it), but the interactive screen were fascinating for them (they let them build some of the old city buildings).
The last part of tour, was going out to a recently dig Ottoman police station (Kishle) were remains dated
Later on we were visiting the West wall and wrote some notes to put in between the huge stones that are constructing the wall.
Take Care
Gad
P.S. – When we were on school visit here on elementary school, the guides were impressed from my knowledge (yes, I was nerd even back then) they gave me to leading the class final mission of writing a newspaper on the citadel.
A Chihuly glass work hanged At the gate of the citadel, just after the brigde. The museum hosted a full exhibition on 2000 and couple of works were left.
Looking South – East over the Old city of Jerusalem
Looking down on the citadel court.
Stefan Illes’s model of Jerusalem with the interactive screens.
About Stefan Illes’s and the model
The model room window
Looking on the South wall
Looking North on the court
Models of Jerusalem in different times
The citadel model
Chihuli second work in the court
We found the secret way down to the moat!
Inside the moat, you realize how high are the walls
The bridge over the Moat
on the other side is the symbol of the Ruler who built the citadel
Inside the Kishle
The Kishle roof
Looking down on today police station
The Kishle window from the wall walkway
The Jordanian military position – this stone wall built by soldiers of the Jordanian Arab Legion after 1948 combined with the Old city wall to form a communicating trench between the various military positions. The original metal roof and thick overlying layer of sand were removed after 1967
The Kishle roof
The Minart on top of the wall, reffered to as Tower of David
The old city police entrance, from the Citadel bridge