The Tombs of Silwan

As in Washington, so in Jerusalem: There are some sections you just don’t venture into. In Jerusalem one such section is the village of Silwan, on the eastern slope of the Kidron Valley opposite the City of David (the oldest inhabited part of Jerusalem). Silwan has a long reputation for filth and inhospitality. Since the early 19th century, travelers to Silwan (or Siloam, as it is also called) have written about this: Charles Wilson, the British explorer, noted, “The houses and the streets of Siloam, if such they may be called, are filthy in the extreme.” Wilson’s famous British […]