Jerusalem Kidron Valley steep hills

Jerusalem’s Old City is bordered on its southern and eastern sides by two valleys. The Hinnom is  on the south and the Kidron is on the east. The Kidron separates the Temple Mount from the  Mount of Olives. David had to cross the Kidron when he was fleeing from Absalom. (2 Samuel  15:23). At the beginning of this video, the archaeological work being done at the “City of David” archaeological park is visible. Josiah desecrated pagan altars in the Hinnom and threw pagan  items from the Temple Mount into the Kidron (2 Kings 23:4-7, 10). This view of the steep hills  makes it clear how destructive that action would have been. Jesus crossed the Kidron on his way  to Gethsemane (John 18:1). He prayed in a garden that no doubt had many olive trees. Ezekiel’s  vision of dry bones may well have had its founding in the disaster Jerusalem had known when  the Babylonians had destroyed the city and killed many of its inhabitants. Dead bodies may well  have been tossed in either this valley or the nearby Hinnom Valley. Tombs mark the hills in both  valleys, especially on the Mt. of Olives just east of the Kidron. Nehemiah surveyed the broken  walls of Jerusalem by walking the Kidron and the Central valleys. The Central Valley no longer  exists, but it lay between the Kidron and Hinnom in ancient times. A few years before Jesus was  born, Herod the Great had the valley filled in as he carried out an extensive remodeling of  Jerusalem. Flash floods during the rainy season have kept people from building in both valleys.  They are one of the few areas where we can clearly see what people in the Bible saw.