posted by Victor Vejil

Jude and Vienna Flurry in front of the Treasury, along with some camels

Declared to be one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, Petra sits quiescently in a basin surrounded by the dry desert mountains of Jordan. Its hundreds of empty caves and rock-hewn structures are remnants of an abandoned ancient city now turned major tourist attraction.

Brent Nagetgaal and I had the opportunity to return to Petra during the first weekend of August. We made the short trip with the Flurry family and the Jerusalem project’s latest addition, Richard Palmer. Arriving at Petra on a Friday afternoon, we hurriedly checked into a hotel close to the entrance of the park, dropped off our luggage, and headed into Petra.

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posted by Brent Nagtegaal

JERUSALEM—During the last days of the kingdom of Judah, the Prophet Jeremiah warned the residents of Jerusalem of their impending captivity at the hands of the Babylonian army. But instead of heeding that warning message, the princes of King Zedekiah’s administration attacked the messenger and plunged him into the depths of a miry dungeon (Jeremiah 38:1-6).

One of these princes was Gedaliah the son of Pashur. It was this man’s own seal that we unearthed this year in the excavations in the City of David, specifically in Dr. Eilat Mazar’s Area G.

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posted by Richard Palmer

JERUSALEM—“What does peegooah mean?” I asked, though I’d already guessed the answer. A few moments earlier a journalist burst into Media Central, proclaiming there had been a peegooah on King David Street. Everyone immediately gathered around the computer, checking the Israeli news sites. Something big had obviously just happened.

“Peegooah, it means bomb, explosion,” came the reply. “There’s been an explosion outside the King David Hotel.”

Melissa, the other intern here at Media Central, and I grabbed a camera, notebook, pens and a wad of Media Central business cards and headed out the door. I didn’t know if there’d be much to see—I’d never been at the scene of a terrorist attack before—but it was worth checking out.

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posted by Victor Vejil

You have been heard! In response to the feedback given at PYC, the True Education staff has created the Jerusalem Dig category to let you know what’s going on in Jerusalem. You can expect the Jerusalem team to post articles and videos about their travels, major news events, and various other things they may encounter.

Our first post is the video we made for the PYC 2008 Work Party. It will give you a quick summary of what we’ve been doing this summer. So enjoy and be on the lookout for more videos from the 2007-2008 excavation season that we will be posting shortly!