Day 3 Jerusalem, I went to meet the others at the Temple Mount at 8:00 am. The line to enter the Temple Mount was already at two hundred deep. My comrades were late so I stood in line hoping they would show before it was my turn to enter. All of a sudden I heard something that sounded like a mortar round but not quite as loud and didn’t think much of it until armed soldiers showed up and they closed the entrance to the mount. Some Arabs were throwing rocks over the wall at the Jews praying at the wailing wall. Immediate response was to shut down tourist and sweep of the mount for the instigators. I asked a couple of the soldiers if it was going to open back up and they said maybe after 1:30, it finally opened at 2:00 pm but they wouldn’t let us really walk around once we were up there I got a few pictures from a distance but I will have to go back tomorrow to maybe have another chance. When any thing goes down a fight or a situation like rock throwing the Israeli Army immediately bring in overwhelming force, today it looked like a couple hundred armed soldiers at the ready to squash any attempt to act up. Very interesting to see and I didn’t really feel unsafe at all.

Today the group decided to go on the underground tour of the west wall which was 25-45 feet below the wall and the tour guide gave us the historical outline of the different temple era’s of rebuilding and destruction the two main ones were the Babylon conquest during Jeremiah’s time and the Roman destruction in 70 AD. it was fascinating to see the size of the stones used for the foundation and the different levels of earlier walls and structure. After that tour and some lunch we were able to go back up on the temple mount like I said but, couldn’t get in very close as they had closed off the area with military guards keeping people out, Then we ventured down to Hezekiah’s tunnel that was actually a water passage to underground cistrines  for bathing and drinking water for the city. Hezekiah honed out rock tunnel for several hundred yards to make a safe and secure place for water and hiding men and moving equipment. So all in all a good day of history and walking.