I finally went to the Israel Museum! It was amazing. I have been there once before but only saw the model of the 2nd Temple period (I actually spent two hours there with a professor... I think he discussed every single house. And we were only supposed to be studying the 1st Temple period. Oh well, it was still incredibly interesting. ...For the first hour, then I might have zoned out.) This time, I went to the Shrine of the Book. The Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran are housed here. (The white dome... thing below is the roof.) Talk about amazing! The various scrolls have been dated between the 2nd cent BC and the 1st cent AD except the Isaiah scroll which is between the 3rd and 1st cent BC. Over 2000 years old. Wow. And in case that's not quite awesome enough, the Aleppo Codex is also here! This codex was the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible until 1947 (written in 10th cent) when parts of it went missing. I think this manuscript has traveled more than I! If you have a copy of the Hebrew Bible, it is quite possible that this was the source!
Random fact (thank you, Wikipedia!): Because of the weird design of this dome, it has been used in the scenery for science fiction movies!
The white dome and this black wall are taken from one of the Dead Sea Scrolls which talks about the Sons of Light fighting against the Sons of Darkness. Chelsea is modeling the "Light" and I'm showing off the "Darkness."
And this is the model of what Jerusalem would have looked like in 66AD (right before the Jewish Revolt which led to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD). Check out the people on the other side - it's big! The Temple is on the top of the big structure (built on the Temple Mount to expand the hill) on the right of the picture. You are standing at the southeast corner.
