Dung Gate Plus a Few Extra Photos

Posted by Colleen specifically for her sister, Kathleen

See, you can special order blogs. Cool, uh? The Dung Gate is so named because this is the gate through which the refuse would be thrown. It would then flow down into the Kidron Valley and meet up with the Hinnom Valley, yes the very valley we climb down into then up again every time we go to JUC. You might remember from an earlier post that Jesus would use this valley as a reference to Hell mainly because of the bad association it came to have.

The Dung Gate is one of the gates that cars travel through but another gate just a few feet away has been reopened to allow pedestrians through.

So here you go Kathleen, I hope it is all you imagined it being! By the way, this is the gate that most will enter and exit on their way to the Western Wall or the non-Moslem tourists to the Dome of the Rock —life has a way of arranging things in a way that was never intended.

	Here is a sign pointing you to the Dung Gate and the restrooms. Hopefully, people understand that (for the last few hundred years at least) they are 2 different places.
	The Dung Gate from inside Old City. You can see a Jewish couple leaving after praying at the Western Wall. If you click on it and see it larger, you can see the large round hat on the young Jewish man. Eric’s favorite hat … he keeps threatening to buy one for himself.
	Another view of the Dung Gate as Jewish families enter to go to the Western Wall.
	The Dome of the Rock with the Western Wall in the foreground. If I were to pan to the right you would see the Dung Gate.
	This is bread that we buy at the Dung Gate (they sell it all over Arab parts of Jerusalem). They also give you a bag with “spice” in it to dip the bread in. Lillian LOVES this bread. She often asks, “Can we get bread with spice?” The bread is covered in sesame seeds. Why she picks them off of hamburger buns but not this bread is beyond me.
	Eric and the girls playing on the columns that were part of the main road (“Cardo”, i.e. “heart”)  through Old City built by the Romans in the Byzantine period (300s).
	A Roman period map, discussed in an earlier blog. This shows the road that Eric and the girls are playing on in the above picture.
	At the entrance of restaurants, shops and homes these Mezuzas (boxes containing scripture) are hung. This one is iron and located on the Zion Gate. What I have observed is a Jewish person will touch the Mezuza then kiss that hand. Both apartments we have lived in have them at every door with the exception of the bathroom door. They range from very basic to very ornate. They aren’t all as big as the one shown here.
	This is specifically for the Dean boys. They were kind enough to blow their shofars for us as we skyped. While we enjoyed it very much and appreciated their effort, we thought they might want to see the shofars here in Israel. Sorry guys, don’t want  you to have shofar envy.
	This is just a cool picture. The Israeli soldiers are given a tour of Jerusalem as part of their training. It is important they know what and why they are defending this land rich with history.
	Don’t miss the ladies with their firearms. I always wonder if they are loaded.

Shalom!