Tunneling through time

An early start today - we headed to the Western Wall at 7am to go under the wall on a tunnel tour. There were different scenes at the Wall this morning with many of the men wearing white prayer shawls and the tefillin - special boxes containing the words of the Shema which they strap to their heads and arms as instructed in the Torah. There were also large boxes or arks containing the scrolls of the Torah.
Inside the tunnels we learnt about the history of the Temple mount - a sacred mountain for Jews, Christians and Muslims. We also walked along the underground part of the Western Wall and passed some women praying at the part closest to where the Holy of Holies would have been - the most sacred site for the Jewish people.
We then walked outside the walls to the city of David, part of the ancient city of Jerusalem. Here we saw ancient excavations and walked on old roman roads but the highlight was walking through a water tunnel created by hezekiah to protect the water supply in case of an invasion. We also stood on a Roman street where there was a marketplace next to the temple - which could be the place where Jesus got angry with the people.
After the tour we went up the hill to the church of St. Peter in Gallicantu - believed to be the site of Caiphas' house where Peter denied Jesus and the cock crew. The crypt was beautiful and below that was the dungeon where Peter was probably held.
In the evening we went on a tour of the basement of our own home here in Jerusalem. "Ecce Homo" means here is the man and the basement is believed to be where Pilate presented Jesus to the Jews after being crowned with thorns. There is an original Roman road under us which was likely to have been where this occurred - just amazing!
This was another wonderful day - a walk into the depths of the Jerusalem in the time of Jesus and before. It is so hard to take in all the history - there is so much to learn!