Hezekiah’s Tunnel

We did something amazing today. And a bit scary! Well, I thought it was scary. My husband, who has a higher threshold for uncomfortable situations, just thought it was cool.
We did a guided tour of Hezekiah’s tunnel in Jerusalem. It was an almost three-hour tour, at 2pm this afternoon. When we started, it was about 95 degrees out and felt hotter because of the humidity. Our guide gave a lot of detail, however he didn’t seem to realize that he had many children in the group and many more sweaty adults.
This tunnel was built by Hezekiah almost 3000 years ago to supply water to the City of David, thereby protecting the city from the attacking Assyrians. The tunnel was carved from rock by two teams of men who started from opposing sides and zigzagged their excavation so that they would meet in the middle.
In order to get in, we walked down a bunch of steps so that we were below ground level. We walked down more steps into the tunnel itself, which still has water running through it. When we first got into the tunnel, the water was very cold and quite high — it reached almost to the bottom of my shorts and our daughters were covered in water almost to their waist. Then the water level dropped a bit, to mid-calf level for the rest of the route.
This walk is not for anyone who is claustrophobic. It’s absolutely dark in the tunnel — in addition to water shoes, we were told to bring flashlights. The water was rushing at our feet. And the tunnel itself is narrow, curvy, and in a few places fairly low.
When we first entered the tunnel, the woman behind me said to her adult daughter, “What would happen if the tunnel filled with water right now?”
I quickly responded, “Can we talk about this later, after we get out of the tunnel?”
“Mom, why would you say a thing like that now?” Her daughter scolded her.
We walked through this part of the tunnel for about 15 minutes. As we walked single file through the narrow path, it was clear that the only way out was forward through the windy passages. I felt some anxiety for our safety. I kept myself calm by focusing on the fact that the tunnel had been around for thousands of years so was likely to hold up for another fifteen minutes.
Before we knew it, we were out of the tunnel and the amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience was over. In retrospect, I’m not sure I savored it enough. So many things in life are like this. Our tunnels of fear or worry take away from being present for the experience itself.

