Rope
Well, the Canadians bought some rope. I believe they got 40ft of ½ inch climbing rope at a camping store in the New City. So, on the eve of Shabbat when all good Jews are coming back from the Synagogue and spending time with their families, the Canadians (Jeremy and Chad), Matthew, and I went and had a little fun.

We left campus around 9:30pm which meant it had been dark for about 2hrs. Our first destination was the 15ft deep hole I had written about earlier. The inside of the hole was large and we were hoping that there would be a tunnel or something else of interest inside. We tied the rope to a metal pole and Chad climbed on down after tying knots every 4ft in the rope. As he was going down he missed a knot and slid down the rope about 5ft which gave him a nice little rope burn on one hand.

I was the next to go.

I leaned my back up against the side of the hole and pushed with my legs on the other side while I held the rope. While in this position I continued to say, “I don’t know about this guys.” When I finally mustered up the courage, I then let my feet drop and I slowly lowered myself down. While dangling in the air, I swung my right leg around the rope to take some pressure off of my arms and to slow down my descent. I reached bottom in one piece and my hands where throbbing. It turned out that there indeed was a doorway, but it had been completely filled in. The hole itself just had a lot of trash in it. We were somewhat disappointed, but the climbing part made it all worth while.

Jeremy came down next (the guy climbs like an ape) and took some pictures. The Canadians came up with the very intelligent idea of tying loops in the rope about every three feet. This was very helpful when it came to climbing back up. We decided to always leave one person above the hole, so Matthew hadn’t been down yet. Chad was the first to go back up and I followed. It was pretty intense climbing back up. It is at times like these, that I wish I never would have stopped exercising. I reached the top and Matthew went down. Jeremy came back up which left Matthew at the bottom by himself. Matthew had some trouble getting back up, so the three of just pulled him up.

Our next destination was far more mentally challenging than the first…

What we did next was probably not the most intelligent thing I’ve ever done, but hey I’m alive and it’s a good story.

We climbed up the Kidron, tied the rope down, and then threw the end over the edge of a 50-60ft cliff. About 15ft down the side of this cliff was an entrance that we wanted to investigate. Chad went down first, Matthew second, and then I was up. Once again, I am laying on my stomach with my legs hanging off the cliff, hands on the rope saying over and over, “I don’t know about this” followed by, “this is really stupid”. I begin to go down with one hand thru a loop, hanging onto the rope, while the next hand reaches down and searches for the next. So, I’m hanging off this 50ft cliff holding on to this rope with one arm and I’m dangling like Sylvester Stallone on Cliffhanger. Ok, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic, but still it was rather intense.

I reached the ledge of the hole and Jeremy came down. Then when we all peered into the hole we all realized that what we were looking at was well worth the climb.

No, we didn’t find the Ark of the Covenant…yet. But, we were in an ancient burial room. There were two large rooms with smaller rooms attached to each that had burial slots. There were about 10 of these slots altogether. There were stone columns at the entrance to this site, so it was rather obvious that these tombs were for the upper class.

Our exit was a gap above an iron gate down some stone steps. I was the first to squeeze through followed by the others.

We made it home in one piece and made some memories. It was a great time filled with an exertion of testosterone, adrenaline, and stupidity.

“The only thing that ever consoles man for the stupid things he does is the praise he always gives himself for doing them.”-Oscar Wilde