1. City of David
We will start the tour at the top of the City of David. We will look at the city of Jerusalem from its inception, from its founding thousands of years ago, and visit the excavations below the visitor center. We will then go under the road in an underground passage and enter the excavations of the Givati parking lot.
2. Givati parking Lot Excavations
Excavations The Givati parking lot is the largest active excavation area in Jerusalem. Since the area is still under excavation we will not be able to descend into the parking lot, but we will be able to look at the excavations from above, and see the latest finds in the parking lot area. After the excavations we will walk in a mysterious (dry) canal that will lead us directly to the archeological garden.
3. The Archeological Garden
In the Archeological Garden we will tour within three different periods: the glory of the days of the Second Temple, the Byzantine period, and the heyday of ancient Islam. Inside the museum we can see coins, stamps, tools and many other finds from these three periods that were uncovered in the garden.
4. Westen Wall Tunnels
In recent years, massive excavations have been conducted by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation near the Western Wall stones. We will visit the renovated site where a theater building, a nymphaeum and more have been unveiled, and we will even arrive in front of the temple site.
5. Old City’s Excavations
From there we will ascend to the old city for a tour of about an hour and a half, visit the excavations of a German Christian church from the time of the Crusaders, a wall from the days of King Hezekiah, a main Byzantine street called Cardo, see Mamluk architecture, and more.