Jerusalem's 2,000-Year-Old Pilgrimage Road Just Opened to the World | Ze'ev Orenstein

What lies beneath Jerusalem has waited 2,000 years to be seen. Ze'ev Orenstein of the City of David reveals the Pilgrimage Road — a half-mile of ancient limestone steps buried since the destruction of -- just opened to the public for the first time.

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Transcript

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 0:00

Why does Jerusalem still capture billions of hearts in 2025?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 0:06

And they widen the excavation and they discover what has been called the most significant archaeological discovery of the last 100 years. And that is the pilgrimage road. That is the road that your ancestors, my ancestors, for Jews and for Christians, 2,000 years ago, this is the actual literal road that we are uncovering in the city of David, the same stones, the same roads that led from the pool up to the Temple Mount. And in just a little bit more time, people will be able to literally walk in the footsteps of their ancestors in the city of David along the pilgrimage road. There really is no other explanation. This just happens to match up pretty much word for word with the biblical account from thousands of years ago. That's pretty special because there are not a lot of places in the world where you could find things that match the ancient accounts so exactly.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 1:06

Israelis are incredibly misunderstood. I'm your host, Jennifer Weisman. The purpose of this show is to share all the things that Israelis do to help mankind. My topic today is Jerusalem. Just saying the name stirs something deep inside Christians, Muslims, and Jews all over the world. Wherever you live on the planet, Jerusalem calls to you. And today we're diving into why Jerusalem matters, not in the history books, but in our lives right now. My guest is Zev Orenstein, the Director of International Affairs for the City of David Foundation. And Zev spends his days and nights helping the world connect with the place where faith, history, and identity all meet. And it's called Jerusalem. Welcome, Zev. How are you?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 1:58

Thanks for having me.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 1:59

Thanks for being here. Let's just jump right in. You work specifically for the City of David Foundation. Why is the City of David so important in the story of Jerusalem?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 2:12

I think what it comes down to is why does Jerusalem matter today in 2025? And the answer to that will connect to the basically it's the source of meaning for billions of people around the world. And that's coming out of the ground in Jerusalem in the city of David every day. That's the short of it. And so I think uh one of the things we'll talk about is that there's no place in the world that matters more to more people for billions, not millions, than Jerusalem. And that's what we're giving.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 2:34

Let's break it down a little bit. For Christians, Jerusalem is where Jesus lived and taught and etc. For Jews, King David and the temple, it's one of the holiest, the holiest place. Muslims have a deep, deep meaning with Alaska Mox and the Dome of the Rock. So when these different faiths walk through the streets and the stones in Jerusalem, what do you feel they get from the purpose of being in Jerusalem? What is it that calls to them when you see people visiting, walking through the ancient streets?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 3:09

I think it's a feeling that there's more to life than just the here and now and just ourselves. But that we're all in some way part of a story that is much bigger than ourselves, that has been going on for thousands of years, and that is going to continue long after we're no longer here. And Jerusalem is the place, in many ways, the center for all those hopes and aspirations that we all have to help make the world a better place. And so many of the people that have uh cast visions and dreams uh that continue to inspire us to this day, they did so from Jerusalem.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 3:41

People feel the history. You're excavating like crazy. Take me through what are some of the most interesting items and places that have been unearthed in the last decade or two? And then I want to drill down to today because I know there's some exciting stuff happening with 2026 launching a new opportunity for Jerusalem. So what are some of the most exciting discoveries made in the last decade in Jerusalem?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 4:08

Well, the most exciting discovery really goes back more than a decade, but up until 150 years ago, everyone was looking for Jerusalem in the wrong place. When people think of lost cities, they may think of Atlantis, but no one really knows where it is. But there's a more famous lost city, and that's the lost city of Jerusalem. Because up until about 150 years ago, when people thought of where is the original biblical city of Jerusalem, everyone thought it was the old city, surrounded by the iconic old city walls. Now, the old city walls, they're about 500 years old. And so for those uh viewers and listeners to this podcast, you might say, well, America's only 250 years old, so that's a long time ago. But Jerusalem, which is about 4,000 years old, we don't get overly excited by 500-year-old anything. But until 1867, everyone was looking for Jerusalem in the wrong place. And that changed when Queen Victoria of England, she wants to discover the treasures of the Bible, like the Ark of the Covenant, and she sends a man by the name of Captain Charles Warren to Jerusalem to find those treasures. And he wants to search the Temple Mount, the biblical Mount Moriah, but he's not able to. And so he says, if I can't dig on the Temple Mount due to political and religious reasons, I'll dig near it. And he comes down the slopes of Mount Moriah, walks down, finds the Gihon Spring, and ends up discovering that the source of the biblical, life-giving waters of Jerusalem, going back thousands of years, the Gihon Spring, was an integral part of the city of David, the place where the kings of the Bible ruled and the prophets of the Bible preached. And he realized that he had found the lost city of Jerusalem, the city of David, which today is one of the most archaeologically excavated sites in the world. And in recent times, going back to 2004, the discovery of the pool of Siloam with deep significance to Christians and Jews alike, the discovery in 2005 of what could have been King David's palace, the discovery of inscriptions and seals that allow a person to, on the one hand, open the Bible, on the other hand, see what's being unearthed being pulled out of the ground and see that so much of Jerusalem's biblical heritage is not simply a matter of faith, but a matter of fact that the people who march through the pages of the Bible are people who can be affirmed, archaeologically speaking, some of the most significant events that happened in Jerusalem in the Bible are things that have been affirmed, archaeologically speaking. In fact, you see when you walk through the city of David, the historic site of biblical Jerusalem, that when you're in the place where the Bible happened, the words of the Bible come to life.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 6:19

When you're talking about excavating and you're finding mazes of tunnels that are revealing the ancient city, are there teams individually doing this? How does that actually work?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 6:30

So the archaeology in Israel is carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority. They're the body that oversees all the archaeological excavation, which comes from uh universities all across Israel and sometimes archaeologists from abroad who also want to take part in the excavations in Jerusalem and throughout the rest of Israel. And so you have in the city of David five active archaeological excavations going on, as we say 24-6 here, that around the clock, we have excavations that are unearthing Jerusalem's heritage, which is significant, not to millions of people, but to billions of people around the world. You know, there's probably no place in the world, more so than Jerusalem, that you have, not for millions, but for billions, when they wake up in the morning, they look to Jerusalem as a source of hope, meaning, faith, identity, purpose, more so than New York, Washington, D.C., Rome, London, Moscow, Paris, Riyadh. Jerusalem is number one. And number two is not close. And so everything that we're unearthing in Jerusalem, in the city of David, matters. It means something, not to millions, but to billions of people who it affirms their faith, connects them to history, uh to their identity. And that's something you're not going to find anywhere else in the world.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 7:34

It's very special. And walking through those streets, you feel it. It's a deep sense of feeling when you walk through those mazes, especially when you get to the cotel and you get to the other areas. I want to talk for a minute about you said there's five archaeological digs going on at any time around the city. I'm sure they're massive. And when they find something, what is the process that the archaeologists go through when they dig and they say, I think I got something here. How do they pull it out and how do they verify it? What's the process there?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 8:06

So archaeology is a science, and therefore everything has to be done very methodically, very painstakingly. And so that means in an archaeological excavation, you're not bringing in bulldozers and dump trucks. Everything is very small. Using very small shovels and little small hammers and buckets and all the earth that is dug out then has to be sifted through and sorted through. Most of the time, in an archaeological excavation, you're not actually making the discoveries on site. What ends up happening is you're gonna dig and you're gonna fill up bags with earth. And then those bags have to be sifted through and sorted through. And it's during that sifting process, most often, when these discoveries are going to be made, whether it's ancient coins or inscriptions or maybe ancient weapons or mosaics or whatever it is, that that comes out in the sifting process. Now, what's interesting is imagine you find some 2,000-year-old coin, like one that we just actually discovered that went across the international media headlines in recent weeks, and you make this discovery, you're not gonna find a 2,000-year-old coin next to a Coke can or a potato chip wrapper. One of the ways that archaeologists are able to date things is it has to be found in a certain context. So if you're digging and you find a coin from 2,000 years ago, well, chances are you'll also find pottery from 2,000 years ago and maybe a weapon from 2,000 years ago, but you're not gonna find a 2,000-year-old coin next to a Pepsi can or a potato chip wrapper because it doesn't make sense. It's it's a wrong layer. And so part of uh archaeology is understanding where you are historically speaking. When you dig down, what time period are you in? And then you know everything that you're finding within, you know, a couple of inches, one way or the other, goes back to, let's say, 2,000 years ago, 2,500 years ago, 3,000 years ago. And then it's just a matter of what turns up. And I can tell you in the city of David, where you have these five active archaeological excavations going on, every day we're finding antiquities that that are affirming so much of Jerusalem's biblical heritage going back thousands of years, whether it's seals with the names of people straight out of the pages of the Bible, whether it's inscriptions that affirm events, say 2,700 years ago when Jerusalem was saved from the Assyrian invasion. And it's it's just really exciting. And what's exciting is for these archaeologists, many of them I would say are secular. And so it's not as if they go into these excavations with a goal to affirm the Bible. In fact, for many of them, probably it's quite opposite. I would say they're not people who believe in the divinity of the Bible. And yet so often they make discoveries that they come around to saying, well, you know, there really is no other explanation. This just happens to match up pretty much word for word with the biblical account from thousands of years ago. That's pretty special because there are not a lot of places in the world where you could find things that match the ancient accounts so exactly.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 10:50

That's amazing. Do they have a grand plan of what will be unearthed in the city of David in the course of the next 10 years?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 10:57

I can tell you, even in the next year or so, what we're hoping to open up to the public, uh, as we speak, because of in 2004 a busted sewage pipe, the Jerusalem municipality has to send in construction crews to repair the sewage pipe. But Jerusalem is not just another municipality, and the city of David, the historic site of biblical Jerusalem, is not just another part of Jerusalem. And here you don't only send in construction crews, you also have to send in archaeologists. And so the archaeologists, they're supervising, the bulldozers and dumb trucks are doing their work, and they begin to hear scraping and scratching. It doesn't sound right. They clear everyone out, and it turns out they discovered a series of ancient stone steps, 2,000 years old, going back to the time of Jesus. And the archaeologists said there's only one other set of steps in all of Jerusalem that look just like these steps at the southern end of the city of David, which are the steps that the southern steps that would have led up to the temple 2,000 years ago. And so they said, okay, well, you know, what are these steps in the city of David? And they realized they found the steps leading down to the ancient pool of Siloam with significance to Christians and Jews alike. And that was the main cleansing ritual bath where people before going up to the temple atop the temple mount, thousands of years ago, they would cleanse themselves in the pool of Saloam before on the holidays of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, Passover, uh Shafuot, and Sukkot, they would have to go up to the temple. So then the archaeologists said, Well, we know where the pool is, and we know where the temple stood on the temple mount. How did the millions of pilgrims get from the pool up to the temple? This half mile journey, and they widen the excavation and they discover what has been called the most significant archaeological discovery of the last 100 years. And that is the pilgrimage road. That is the road that your ancestors, my ancestors, for Jews and for Christians, 2,000 years ago, this is the actual literal road that we are uncovering in the city of David, the same stones, the same roads that led from the pool up to the Temple Mount. And in just a little bit more time, people will be able to literally walk in the footsteps of their ancestors in the city of David along the pilgrimage road. I'm asked quite often, what are the chances that Jesus walked on this road? I say conservatively speaking, I don't want to tell you stories. The likelihood that he walked on this road is 100%. Well, how do you know? And it's really very simple because Jesus was Jewish. He would have gone with all the Jews to cleanse the pool of Siloam. He would have then gone up from the pool of Siloam through the city of David along the pilgrimage road up to the temple on the Temple Mount. The pool of Siloam that we're excavating as we speak in the city of David is 100% the same pool from 2,000 years ago, the same pilgrimage road from 2000 years ago, same city of David, same Temple Mount, not simply a matter of faith, but a matter of fact.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 13:26

Incredible. That is an incredible finding. When will that be open to the public?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 13:31

We're hoping uh first quarter of 2026, God willing.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 13:34

In terms of the other excavation sites that are going on, is there anything interesting or stories you can share?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 13:41

Well, I could tell you that uh in 2005, a woman by the name of Dr. Elat Mazar, a world-renowned archaeologist, she comes into our offices and she says to us, you need to move your visitor center. We ask her why. She says, Beneath your feet you will find the palace of King David. Now, we said, Dr. Mazar, people have been digging here in the city of David for the last 150 years. No one's ever said that before. What makes you so certain that this is the spot? And she says to us very simply, the city of David is a city on a hill. And if you're gonna have a city on a hill, what part of the hill will you find the palace? The top of the hill. She says, This is the top of the city of David. This is where you'll find the palace. And in fact, she said, a few decades before, right next to where our visitor center was located, archaeologists discovered a royal Phoenician capital. Now, Phoenicia is modern-day Lebanon, and a capital would have stood atop an ancient column or pillar if a person imagines the White House or Supreme Court, you have big columns in front of the building, and on top of those columns are ancient uh capitals. And she finds this royal Phoenician capital, and she says that this proves that the site of where we're standing, where our visitor center was, was in fact the location of King David's palace. Now you might be wondering, and your listeners and viewers might be wondering, but we were wondering, what on earth does a royal Phoenician capital have to do with David and where he built his palace? Obviously, what I was thinking. Right. So uh we asked her, and she said to us, if you knew the Bible like I know the Bible, you wouldn't ask questions like that. So he said, Clearly we don't help us out. And so she tells us, if you open up to the second book of Samuel, chapter five, King David has done the original mission impossible. He conquers a city that for 400 years prior, no one was able to conquer. Now, how does David conquer the unconquerable? For our next episode together, we could unpack that mystery. But he manages to conquer Jerusalem, he makes it the capital of his kingdom, and the first thing he does after doing that is he reaches out to his neighbors in the north, the Phoenicians. And it says in 2 Samuel chapter 5, verse 12, that King Hiram of Tyre sent envoys to David with cedar logs, carpenters, and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David. So Dr. Mazar says, Why do we find a royal Phoenician capital here in the city of David? Because it was the Phoenicians who built David's palace. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 15:57

Amazing, amazing.

Guest, Zev Orenstein 15:58

So you move the visitor center. We began to dig, and she finds massive walls to the north, to the east, and she finds at the base of the walls pottery and other organic material, which she dates back to the time of David. And others come and say, well, maybe it's a couple of years after David. So the debate is not so much what that area was. There's near consensus that this area served as the royal government center of the Davidic dynasty, the original Capitol Hill. The question is, was David living there or his grandson? Now, personally, it's not keeping me awake at night. The Davidic dynasty was ruling from the city of David in Jerusalem. And now we have yet to find a sign saying, Welcome to King David's palace. Maybe we'll find that one day. Maybe we won't. Could happen. You know, here's an amazing, amazing thing. Up until 1993, one of the most famous people who ever lived, who there was probably no civilization who has never heard of King David. And yet, until 1993, there was no archaeological evidence that he ever existed. But in an excavation in Israel's north, in a place called Tel Dan, a large stone inscription is unearthed, dating to about a century or so after David would have lived. And it's attributed to a man named King Hazael of Aram. Now this King Hazael is mentioned in the Bible in 2 Kings. Aram is modern-day Syria, and he was in a good mood. Why? The inscription tells us that he had just won a major military victory over a king from the house of David. And so now today everyone virtually agrees that there was a historic King David. Now the Bible tells us that David ruled from Jerusalem. And what we know today is if King David was ruling from Jerusalem, where was Jerusalem during his time? None other than the city of David. The visitor center. That's right.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 17:39

Any other fun facts of things that have been on earth that just like are jaw-droppingly amazing that I should know about? Well, I'll tell you one that's amazing to me, which uh in one of our excavations, archaeologists uncover an ancient seal. Now, this would have been used if you had to, you know, today if you want to send a message to someone, you have iMessage or WhatsApp or signal or emails, and there's encryption and encoding to ensure that nobody reads your message. But in ancient times, if you wanted to send a secure document, you didn't have encryption and encoding. You would write your letter, you would roll it up, tie it up, and then you would take a small piece of clay, place it on the knot of your letter, and then stick your ring in that letter, and then you put your ring into the clay, and on the ring, and on the clay, it would have your name and then son or daughter of your father's name. You would then hand this letter to the messenger. And then when the person receives that letter, the first thing they do is they make sure the seal is not broken, right? So now archaeologists they are digging in one of our excavations in the city of David, and they uncover an ancient seal, 2,500 years old. And on this seal, it has three words Eliana, daughter of Gael. Now, this seal is very special for a couple of reasons. One, you could count on one hand how many seals with the name of a woman have been discovered in Jerusalem 2,500 years ago, which means that this Eliana, daughter of Gael, was someone important. Maybe she was a member of the royal family, maybe she was an influencer, a celebrity, a political leader, a business leader. We don't know who she was, right? But it was important. But what makes it extra special is I have a daughter named Eliana. And so after this discovery was made, I went home and I told my daughter, I said, We found a seal with your name on it. And you have a lot in common with this Eliana. So she said, Well, what do I have in common with her aside from sharing the same name? And I said to her, Not only do you share the same name, but you're both from Jerusalem. You're both from Jewish, you're both Jewish, you both worship the same gods, speak the same language, have the same customs, traditions, festivals as the Eliana from 2,500 years ago. How many peoples can say that about their ancestors? And so it's very special to be able to unearth these discoveries, which really connect us to this place going back so many thousands of years. So when you find these coins or when you find a seal and it's unearthed and it's documented and everyone agrees it's authentic, where do these items go? Are they in a museum? How do you display them for the world?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 20:02

There are museums all over the world. You can go to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, you can go to the British Museum, you can go to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and countless other museums around the world that are displaying these antiquities, fancy word for old stuff, these treasures that are being unearthed from Jerusalem that people are able to go and connect, affirming so much of Jerusalem's biblical heritage going back thousands of years.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 20:24

It's absolutely amazing. And I wonder someone who's living anywhere in Ohio or South Africa, what is it that they need to know about Jerusalem and why they need to come and visit it and walk those ancient streets and see it for themselves?

Guest, Zev Orenstein 20:41

I think for people all over the world, whether it's Ohio, South Africa, or anywhere else, so many countless millions, if not billions of people around the world, they have a heart for Jerusalem, a love for Jerusalem. And what these discoveries make possible is to show that so much of our ancient heritage, our ancient faith connected to Jerusalem, it's not simply a matter of faith, but a matter of fact. It's real. You could see it, you could touch it, you could walk on it. It's not just stories, it's not fantasies and fables and these values and heritage that have shaped so much of Western civilization that come from Jerusalem. It's real. And it mattered 2,000 years ago, 3,000 years ago. It still matters today and is going to matter for thousands of years to come. And so there's nothing better than being able to come and see it in person, being able to touch it yourself, you know, even connecting with it from afar, I think is something that gives a lot of people hope, meaning, purpose, and inspiration. And that's something that uh is both so timeless and timely about Jerusalem, about the city of David and her heritage that continues to matter to this very day. There's so much that is being unearthed and discovered in the city of David and is still waiting to be unearthed that we're just gonna have to do another episode or to uh talk about it.

Host, Jennifer Weissmann 21:52

We're gonna do a new episode when the pilgrimage road opens. We're gonna do a launch party. If this conversation about Jerusalem moved you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with friends and post it on all of your socials. I'm Jennifer Weisman, and this is the Israeli Trailblazer Show. Thank you, Zev. And until next time, may the spirit of Jerusalem keep inspiring you wherever you live in the world.