Tomb of the Kings

On our free day last Sunday I went out with Andrew Wilcox, Abi Gunn, and Mackenzie Pay to our Palestinian neighbor's house. We talked with their family (well mostly Andrew talked to them because he's the only who speaks fluent Arabic) and then took their 11-year-old daughter, Roghat, to hang out with us in the city! We were able to get into Tomb of the Kings which had been on my list of things to do this whole time!! It's in a Palestinian family's backyard on Saladin Street in East Jerusalem. The lady who owns the place kept saying "It's too dangerous, you can't go down there. It's been closed for a few years" but we knew that wasn't true because some other BYUJC students had gotten in that very morning! With Roghat's convincing (and our 50 shekel offer) we were able to get in. We climbed down the scaffolding and into the pitch-black darkness and explored the awesome tombs! We didn't have any lights besides the mini flashlight on Abi's and Kenzi's iPhones, but that made it all the more adventurous. We had to crawl on our hands and knees through certain parts...good thing I was wearing a skirt! Not. We took pictures, sang "Call Me Maybe" for Roghat, and had a mini dance party. After we went I did some research on the Tomb of the Kings and it turns out that the kings of Judah were not really buried there--it was the tomb of Queen Helena of Adiabene, a queen of Assyria. Still pretty cool though!

Andrew and Roghat at the sketchy green door

Abi, Mackenzie, Roghat, and me