“While waiting for the opening of the Garden Tomb, I strolled about the area. I crossed the street and bought a ticket to visit the archeological area. I entered there. A few ruins were scattered here and there. Then I arrived at the entrance to a cave. There was also a group of tourists guided by an English-speaking guide at the entrance. A lady from Australia came close to me and asked me to join the group. How strange! Whenever I was in need, someone appeared and helped me. I joined them and listened to the guide. ‘We’ll cover a distance along a narrow underground tunnel with shallow water, which can sometimes rise up to the height of your trouser pockets.’
“Actually, at the entrance the water was high up to the pelvis. Then, it shallowed. The tunnel was narrow and low. Sometimes we had to bend ourselves forward. If I had suffered from anxiety and claustrophobia as before, I couldn’t have walked through the tunnel. I was happy that I could walk underground without fear. The tunnel was long and seemed to be never ending. How many laborers left the marks of their pickaxes on this tunnel! Three thousand years ago they were alive and worked to dig the tunnel. But they disappeared like a dream. Did they vanish into thin air? Were they reborn? Did they go to heaven or to hell? Nobody knows, and maybe we will never have an answer to such questions. Only saints and enlightened ones can know the truth.
“Walking through the tunnel, I compared it to the tunnel of my life. I had spent my life without seeing the light of joy, like a fish swimming in the water of a dark cave. I didn’t know that the tunnel was connected to the stairs of the Temple of Solomon, a place where Jesus had been definitely, but, to my surprise, it led me there! How mysterious it was! After about ten minutes, the tunnel ended. We kept walking underground and gathered in a place with several stairs. I sat on one of those steps and listened to the guide. ‘According to more than one archeologist, these are the stairs of the Temple of Solomon. As you can see, the stairs are neither too distant from each other nor too close. So at that time, people could go up to the temple easily, and in the meantime, the sacrificial animals could walk up without difficulty.’
“Were these the real stairs of the Temple of Solomon on which Jesus had walked? I can say only one thing: I was attracted to these stairs by a mysterious energy. When I came to Israel, I didn’t know about this place, nor had I a map to locate this spot. I arrived there naturally. I think those were the real stairs of the Temple of Solomon.
“Beyond the stairs was an open space with a pool that could be the Pool of Siloam where Jesus performed the miracle of healing a blind man, according to John’s Gospel. At the Siloam Pool I left the group. It was almost three-thirty in the afternoon, and I had to hurry to get to Gordon’s Calvary in time…

This is an excerpt from The Vibrations of Words: second edition

Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo