INSIDE JERUSALEM'S ABANDONED AIRPORT

Are these bullet holes? This is the runway. >> Holy smokes. >> Look at the floor. Dude, there used to be a mazuza over here. So, this is like where a guard would sit. Oh my god, there's a bat. Without going into too much detail, we have made it onto the roof of the terminal. >> Yeah, that would be the control tower. Little rickety, but luggage conveyor belts. >> This actually a postcard published by the Jordanians. >> Wow. >> Take Alia to Iran into Europe. >> Wow. Look at all this detail. The amount of history that took place in this room. Unreal. Here you have uh King Hussein, right? Until 2000, there were flights here. But there's actually grapes growing here. What is this? >> Surveillance cameras. >> Bar literally in the VIP lounge. I bet there's a way in. >> They look like we're >> just another storage. >> Good morning from Ramatko, Jerusalem, Israel. Today I'm going to attempt to do something I've been trying to do for years now. You see, most people don't know this, but Jerusalem, Israel, used to have an airport of its own. These days, the airport is in Tel Aviv. It's a big airport. Many airlines fly there, but there used to be airport here in this city. Most people don't know about it. And today, we're going to try to visit this place, which is now abandoned. Um, and for this little mission of ours, we will be joined by a tour guide in Israel. And I've hired him for the day to show me around. But first, a word from our sponsor. So, we've just arrived. Check this out. This is the gate to the I guess the airport area, which is not closed. Although sometimes I mean I hear that it is closed. And I don't know if we're specifically supposed to be here, but I also don't know that we're not supposed to be here. Like, there's no one around to tell you anything. So, hopefully this works out. This video is sponsored by Daily Giving. You are a good person. 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I would highly recommend that you guys too join Daily Giving for just $1 a day. Go to dailygiving.org. I'm going to put a link up here in the top of the video, also in the description below. Go to dailygiving.org. Join them. Give a dollar every day. You're going to feel great and your money is going to have a big impact. Thank you Daily Giving for sponsoring this video. >> Okay, so I told you earlier that we're going to be meeting with a guide. He does not want to be filmed, but he's going to tell us a little bit about the history. So this road is what? >> The road built by the Jordanian authorities uh back in the 1950s. There's a road going in, a road coming out. >> This is the one going in, and down there is the one going out. and you know the entrance, security gate, whatever. >> Okay, I'm going to check about this little building. This is so cool. >> So, this is like where a guard would sit. >> Yeah. checking cars coming in and out, arranging taxis for tourists coming in. >> Well, there's something similar at Tel Aiv airport. They just don't arrange taxis >> only on a smaller scale. We've walked a little bit further. The guard building is behind me and we are approaching the terminal which is just unbelievable. Like I've seen pictures of this place, but to be here, this place was bustling, right? >> It was bustling. I mean, um, we're talking hundreds of thousands of passengers in the peak tiers in the mid 1960s or especially around 1964, 1965. The building's simple, modernist style, late international style is the scientific term. All the antennas were added by the Israelis over time, of course. Now, the place is somehow designed like an airplane. This would be the body and the two wings coming out. >> Oh, yeah. I see that. >> Both sides, >> they're even angled like the >> Yeah. Yeah. They're angled and seen from above. It somehow resembles an aircraft. You see, there used to be an historic um exhibition about the old Jewish mashab. Nothing is left of it, of course. They recently put up this sign by the uh council for uh the preservation of listed sites. >> So this door is locked. It should be. Yes. But we can't go down this side. I mean because you Oh yeah, dude. This is neat. They've locked the entrance to the main hall. Wow. Disappointing. There's a VIP lounge or used to be. You can still somehow walk around it. >> I bet there's a way in. >> Oh, they barred everything. Wow, this is new. Oh man, it's all sealed. Sometimes junkies would come here and they're trying to keep them out as well, >> right? >> There's got to be a way. >> So, this is like the historic exhibit showing the I know it was vandalized by actually by Israeli soldiers who were stationed here during the second in the place shut down in 2000. >> The airport. >> Yeah. And until 2002, even three, you had soldiers stationed here. >> So till 2000, there were flights here >> on and off. >> Where were they flying from this airport? >> Initially, there were flights from Tel Aviv, if you can believe it. I mean, the planes went up and down. There were flights to Kaipa. >> That's probably like a 10-minute flight. >> Not even. >> Wow. >> Um Kaipa Mahan in the upper Galilee. >> Mhm. >> Just by Kya Elot, of course. that when Sinai was still ours, they were placed to sh um private janitors would use this place with their private jets to go to Cypress, to go to Europe, whatever. >> Mhm. >> Their work tends to have international airlines serve this place, but they wouldn't for political reasons. Their governments wouldn't allow them. >> Interesting. which is somehow hypocrite because when Jordan ruled here and Jordan's rule over the West Bank was no more legal than ours was uh Arab airlines had no qualms about this. >> Mhm. >> Once we took over, Arab airlines of course would wouldn't fly here and Western airlines wouldn't as well. >> Interesting. >> What's behind the terminal? >> Well, the runway. >> The runway. >> Now it's turned into a bus park. This is the main hall where you would wait for, you know, for the board call. Oh, barbed wire. So, we are about to get onto the runway. >> But I still I haven't given up on getting into the terminal. I have some ideas. >> I'm going to try and climb. >> Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It doesn't look too too hard to climb up there and then onto the roof. And then >> there were no how do you call it? You know, where you have these um shulim those sleeves that would take you from the terminal into the plane like you have today. There's no such thing. So it was buses down these stairs. >> So So somebody somebody getting on their flight would go down these stairs >> and walk a few meters. The plane that was land that was waiting on the apron. This was the apron enlarged by the Israelis of course. >> And what neighborhood is that? >> Kafir Akab. >> That's a Arab town. >> It's a Palestinian neighborhood that was incorporated into Jerusalem back in 1967. Like back in 2002 when they built the separation barrier, they decided to exclude it by way of the barrier. So it's a no man's land between Ramla, which is further north and Jerusalem. But these buildings are Jerusalem. Nothing of what you see here is legally permitted. And that's one of the reasons there will never be an airport here again because these buildings are too high and too close. >> The residents are too hostile. >> But the this is interesting though. This is the whole airport. Like the whole runway is this is it? >> No, this is the apron. That's the runway. >> Oh, okay. Okay. >> Now, the runway was built, of course, by the British. It was rather short. When the Jordanians turned it into a civilian airport, it was extended. >> It's okay. It was extended. Then they had plans to extend it again. And they were halfway through it when the 6- day war erupted. So, when we took over 1967, we completed the work. We extended it to almost 2 km. Well, allowing for medium-sized aircraft to land and take off safely, even jet planes. There were plans to extend it even further to about 4 km, which allow big Boing planes to take uh to make use of this place, but it was never done. And the runway is now just under 2 km long, not including the end points where the planes would rotate. It's about 2 km. >> Wow. >> Bloody big. >> Yeah. >> And two taxi ways and one runway. >> This is the runway. As you can still see, there are those lines to direct the planes. At this point, it's pretty much abandoned. I mean, there's some trucks coming and going, construction. There's a little bit of people come here to race cars. Down there is a parking lot for buses that service East Jerusalem. So, this place does not get a lot of action, but back in the day in, I know only a couple decades ago, pretty wild, there were daily flights to Iran, to Lebanon, to Kuwait, and to many other places around the Middle East. It's just hard to imagine all that happening from Jerusalem, but that that's the truth. That's what it was. >> Arab airways. This is run by like >> was a Jordanian airway. >> Jerusalem. Wow. >> This plane specifically was called Jerusalem. >> Okay. >> And some were flying on behalf of Western airlines like BAC, uh, Air France, TWWA, Panama of course, and KM because those companies wouldn't land here. Their points were too big. >> Got So it was like coat sharing. >> Can we take a moment to appreciate the fashion? >> Sure. >> Oh, I love those hats. >> In those days, flying was still quite romantic. Not as bale as it is today. >> Yeah. >> So groups would take their pictures, pose in front of the planes. >> Mhm. >> Sure. Most Western pilgrims were Americans, but many Scandinavians as well. >> I actually see Is that the hills in the >> That that would be in that direction. There used to be there still is a a a vocational school for refugee children run by UNRA. >> So isn't that there? >> No, that's another one. >> Okay, >> another one. >> There are many refugees. Um, look at this great photo. This is actually a postcard published by the Jordanians. Jordan International Airways was another airline that used this place. There were six Jordanian airlines. >> Wow. >> In a country of what, 3 million people. also from the mid9. >> So this is flying the Jordanian flag of course. >> Yeah. >> Two observation decks and of course big and big letters on both sides on both wings in Arabic and in English. There used to be a big clock over here. Another one towards the uh parking lot. How cool is that? >> Wow. And then this uh an advertisement in a Lebanese newspaper uh now three daily flights to Jerusalem. in one of the churches on the Mount Mount of Olives flying MEA, Middle Eastern Airlines. >> I've flown with them. >> Oh, yeah. All right. Um, yeah. The biggest airline in the Middle East, one of the oldest. And see, Unra had their own gear for boarding the planes and whatnot. >> Mhm. >> Taxis would come here. >> Look at those cars. Chevy Impalas. >> A Those are great. >> There was a city bus coming here as well. There were plans to build a tram from here into the city. It was never done. Wow. You know what's so weird? It's like you see these pictures and it kind of brings the place to life, but while you're standing here, it's kind of dead. >> It's dead. Of course. >> The young king Hussein. >> Oh, there you go. Abdul Mati Kutub he uh he established Air Jordan Air Jordan of the Holy Land the first airline to fly to Rome from here. His son gave me some of these pictures. He has a big villa just south of here. Um yeah again. Yeah. And then tourists coming into Jordanian and Jerusalem could cross into the Israeli city through the Mandal bound gate, but they can only cross once in one direction. Meaning if they go into Israel, they're not allowed back and vice versa. >> I didn't know there were crossings. >> Only one. It was open to tourists and diplomats and so on. >> Citizens couldn't cross. >> N me and you couldn't cross. Jews officially were not allowed into Jordan. They managed to sneak through but officially they were not allowed officially. It was an anti-semitic uh policy. >> So if you landed in Jerusalem and you wanted to visit the Israeli side of town and see the rest of Israel, you had to fly out of Beni. It wasn't called back then. And vice versa. If you wanted to see the Jordanian side, you would have to fly out from Aman or from Jerusalem. >> So this is the crossing, >> the Mandelbound crossing. Of course, this shack is not there anymore. But look at these posters through Jordan in his Jesus's footsteps and Jordanian soldiers with these plinth hats like British influence. Yeah. Many photos from what used to be Jordanian Jerusalem. But anyway, very cool. So, as we discovered not long ago, um, somebody put up some kind of barriers which don't really allow us to get into the the best parts of the terminal. But I believe that if there's a will, there's a way and we got to find a way in. So this right here is actually a luggage conveyor belt. I guess it goes from here into this into the terminal through that little Oh my god. I can't believe I'm actually standing on a con. I've always wanted to do that, you know, to take a ride on the conveyor belt. >> Look at this. There's still a sticker here. >> You know what? There's tons of them. There's Wow. >> Take Alia to a lot into Europe. You know, I secondary a >> They're all over the place. There's these like these are luggage stickers or >> Yeah, a lot. ETH is a lot. >> Wow. >> What was the name of of this? >> And you know SDF SDV is the old airport of Tel Aviv that's no more. >> There were flights to Dead. Imagine the planes would go up and down. Amazing. Hyper. >> So SDV is stav which is an airport in the north. >> No. North T. It's normal. >> Okay. This is ETH a lot. Here you have >> HFA. That is so cool. >> Where'd you find those? >> Wow. So this is actually a vineyard. Oh, well I mean this is actually like a wild grape vine. And look, there's actually grapes growing here. How crazy is that? We have to find a way in. We absolutely must find a way onto the roof of this building. From there, it should be pretty simple. Okay, thank God. I haven't climbed this much since I was a little kid. But without going into too much detail, we have made it onto the roof of the terminal, which should hopefully allow us now to get inside the control tower. There was a coffee shop inside during times. We know the name of the family who ran it. And people, even people who wouldn't use the planes, would come here just to look at the planes land and take off. It was a social gathering place. >> This looks like a kind of observation area. >> Yeah. It was built for that by the Jordanians to allow onlookers, people waiting for their loved ones who would arrive from being there to Cairo. Wow. This was a coffee shop. >> This was a coffee shop. >> Yeah. >> Here. There's a clock here. An old clock. >> Yeah. >> Be some tables and chairs. >> Oh, this must have been a great place to get a coffee and >> watch the planes. Yeah. Oh, there's still a lot of operation around. >> Are these bullet holes? They look like bullet holes. >> They might be. Yeah. Oh, >> so this is like the kitchen of the coffee place, >> I guess. Yeah, they're doing it. This This is all Israeli, but they're doing it through a little kitchen going. This parking lot. So right down here you'd have like cars pulling up and families getting out with their suitcases. This circular staircase is nice. And the railing is all burned. >> No, there's still No, there's still one more floor we can go up. I just want to see the this room. So, previously like half hour ago, we were here on the other side of this recently built wall, which I guess is supposed to prevent people from getting into this part of the terminal. Thank god we uh overcame those challenges. Oh, this is like the main entrance to the >> Wow, there was luck on the other side. >> There's books. >> Do you know this book? >> Yeah, I used it. >> It's a from a former aircraft fighter. It was handed out when the government had a they had a ceremony here. Yeah. Oh, wow. This is the other side of the vineyard or the wild grapes. Look how beautiful that is. See the VIP lounge. >> Oh, is this the VIP lounge? >> Over here. Offices. Okay, so these are little offices. Oh, they installed doors and they locked them. The main peeling was right inside there. What is it? This one's open. We got to get a flashlight out. Yeah, just a room. No, the VIP lounge had like wooden wooden walls, panels, and >> Oh, look. >> Oh my god, there's a bat. >> Bat? >> Yeah, there's a bat flying around. There's literally a bat flying around. I'd rather not get hit in the face by the bat. This is some interesting art. >> Cameras. >> What is this? >> Surveillance cameras. >> Oh, too bad. Dude, there used to be a mazuza over here. And these were definitely the bathrooms. And looks like there was a shower here. I love taking showers at airport lounges. I could especially use one right now. I'm all sweated up. But where would this go? It >> might take us into the VIP lounge. You don't have a knife sharp cutter or >> No, it looks like you should be able to untie it. >> Just another storage. >> Yeah, >> that we take this into the lounge. >> There you go. There you go. >> I bet you're pretty proud of yourself right now. Holy smokes. >> Look at the floor. Wow. Look at all this detail. >> So, this is the lunch. >> King Hussein would accept his guests here. >> Yeah. >> Couple there's anything inside. Can you hold the camera for a second? No, it doesn't seem like it. >> It's only the muza case. >> Yeah, there's even tape to hang the muzzle cover. I need one. >> Maybe cases. >> That's interesting. >> But are they empty? I mean, it's kind of heavy. >> This one might not be. I I wonder if you can use the cutter to open the cases. This is quite heavy. I think there's a >> there is there is >> Yeah, there's a scroll inside. >> Is it recording? >> Yeah. >> There you go. >> Wow. So, I don't know. They'll be honest. I don't know if it's appropriate for them to be left here. >> They took place here. An air show. >> Yeah, an air show with Apachi. Um um this helicopter. >> Do you know what year this was? >> This was a couple of times. The last one was 1988, I think. >> Wow, this is so cool. We're literally in the VIP lounge and there's photos all over the place of different things that happened here. This is when you said Prime Minister Bean of Israel flew to Egypt. >> Oh, look. This is February 1973 after an Israeli renovation of the place. Former minister of transport Shimon Paris Ben Guron who was nothing at that point but out of honor they invited him and Minister of Transport at the time Gadia Kobe. >> And this was all in this room. >> Yeah. >> Wow. They put a photo of the citadel. >> I wonder where in the room it was and if you can figure that out. Look, the the wood panels is all Jordanian. >> And the floor is so pretty. >> Yeah. >> I wonder if this is Jordanian work or is your own work. >> Uh, it kind of looks Jordanian. >> I I can't be sure. >> Have you been to Alman airport? >> No. I've been to many times, but >> Okay. So, there's there's a lot of this like this red stone tile. It looks Jordanian to me. Okay, >> this is Israel's former prime minister bean um around the time on the day of his trip to Egypt. And here to see him off at the airport, you have former chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Avadia Ysef. The amount of history that took place in this room, unreal. Here you have uh King Hussein, right? Yeah. This is receiving guests in this room. Here you have um prime minister of Israel, former prime minister Ben Guran. >> Ben Guran. This is Shiman Paris, a former president. Was he also a prime minister? >> He was former minister of transport. >> But then later he became president. >> He never Oh yes. >> Much much later. And Gadia Kovi also senior politician. One of them was minister of transport at the time that it was reopened in 1967. M >> be really irresponsible. Kings, heads of states, princes, prime ministers from all over the world landed here. The three quart landed here in 1864 to visit the pope as he came to Jerusalem. >> It's interesting that it's marked here like how to get up. This seems to be a elevator shaft. Yeah. >> Oh yeah, >> this elevator shaft. >> And I don't know what this is. Somebody seems to have lived there in the past. So >> we are now headed up the stairs to the old control tower or the control tower I should say. >> Bathroom even shower. >> Little bathroom. >> Wow. How did they shower here? >> Or maybe this was built for the soldier. So, this is obviously a room that had a whole bunch of technology in here. I'm not sure what it was. >> Like the military unit that was here, there were four soldiers or four commanding officers. They're like holding up the whole structure. Take one away and the whole place falls. >> Well, this is the actual control room, right? >> This was this was the desk on which all the machinery was. And you can still see the sandbags placed by the soldiers here in 2020 when this was a a gun imp placement. There are still the um boxes of ammunition lying around as well. I remember last time I was here. >> Place where you can oil your gun. Shim in the mic. >> You know, I' I've never been in a control tower before. >> Yeah. >> Uh I kind of wish it was a little more impressive, but still pretty cool. >> Oh, they took away all the machinery, of course. But here you can see the layout, the two uh the two taxi ways. Yeah, >> the apron and the runway. >> So, right out here. Um, >> and also a helipad over there where that car is going. >> So, let's just see right out here, which is where the planes would kind of like park. >> Y >> and then they'd go take those two taxi ways out to the larger runway >> which spans across, you know, all the way. >> You know what that is? this enclosure. >> No. >> When the Gardinians were extending the runway, they came across the old cemetery of Atarot and there was a military rabbi, an American military rabbi who was here and he overlooked the uh removal of the bones very respectfully and they had them reeried over there. >> So that's that's actually a cemetery. >> Yeah. >> That gated area. >> Yeah. >> Wow. >> And look, that's the garage for the fire trucks over there. >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. You see very tall entrances for the fire trucks. >> There's one more story we didn't go to. >> Yeah. >> Well, up there is the actual uh control tower. >> Oh, so this is not it. So, we got to we got to get up here. Look. >> Yeah, that would be the control tower. Little rickety, but holy smokes. Here we are. This is the actual control tower. >> You can see there's a tattered Israeli flag and we're looking out over the runway. Incredible. Okay, so I kind of get the feeling that we should leave now. Um, nothing specific triggered it. I just, you know, when you get away with something long enough, it's time to call it a day and go home. sandbags. So apparently during the inif Palestinians would shoot from those areas towards the airport. The IDF forces would shoot back which is why they set up these firing points or snipers nests behind sandbags. And you can see right there there's a neighborhood that has not always been so friendly. See, there's another staircase here. >> Whoa. Seems to be the basement. See, you got to be really careful here because you never know what you're going to find. This is a hole. This is a hole that had an up and watch I could have fallen into. So you got to exploring abandoned places is not necessarily a great idea, especially if you're not if you don't know what you're doing. So this is some kind of cellar. No idea what this is or what was here, but I want to be very careful. Oh, and this is this seems to be the bottom of the elevator shaft that we saw earlier. Yeah. Max load 50. What is that? Next load. Five. I don't know what that is. This used to be elevator. It's tiny. Electric pipes. Wow, that was awesome. Where you at? >> Okay, I'm coming down right here. This is another area on the roof of the main terminal from where you could see the tarmac. Be careful. There's razor wire right when you get out. I got caught. I got caught on the razor wire. Okay, there we go. So, the airport is right behind us. It got really sunny. protecting my eyes a little. And now we are walking through this little field here. Really dry. And this is a cemetery. You said an old Jewish cemetery. >> This might be the place where they injured the bones when they were relocated. The bones of the deceased from the Jewish Moshaba. >> Mhm. >> When they were extending the runway. >> Uhhuh. Um the fact that it's surrounded by this um decorated fence and these stone pillars might attest to that, but there's no real knowing. >> So, you're saying this might be a cemetery. This might not. >> This might be a like a common grave for the bones that were found back in the 1950s. >> I'll say a quick prayer cuz I wonder how often people come to visit. minutes. >> You said the >> No, no, Kadesha. I can only do with 10 people. I just said uh one Absam. >> So, we already left the terminal, but now we're just checking out some other buildings around us. We saw the cemetery. And see, this is something to do with the airport cuz there's antennas on top. The architecture is distinctly Jordanian. You can tell it was used by Israelis because again there's an in here. There's another building that's almost seems almost identical. Going to check that out, too. I can't make out what this says. Oh, Assuran. No smoking. So, >> the jet fuel storage. >> That looks like jet. I was about to say that. >> Yeah. >> You see the uh vents for the gas from the uh >> Okay. Look, there's even a oil drum. Yeah. >> Wow. Very cool. Seems like this might have been What does this say? Says something else. Oh, it's Oh, it's upside down. >> So, it fell that I got it. >> Yeah. >> Well, I guess this is where they stored the fuel. >> So, apparently the place we were before is not where the bones are, but it's over here. There's some kind of memory plaque over here. This would be the Say another song. Okay, we are now approaching what is probably the last stop at the airport for us. This seems to be the little fire station. So, for those of you who are not familiar, most airports or all airports, all airports should have them just in case something goes wrong with the plane, there's a fire or whatever, will have trucks waiting at the end of the tarmac and they can just come out of their little garage and head right down there to wherever the problem is. >> The ceiling, which was for fire trucks. >> Yeah. Nice. Nice tall ceilings. Once again, there's a bizaar case flag. Not much to see. As I mentioned earlier, you know, there were literally daily flights to Iran, Kuwait, and all over the Middle East. And right now, it seems like >> Saudi Arabia. >> Saudi Arabia. Nice. >> Post October 7th, post the war with Iran. It's it's like so hard to imagine and believe that that once happened right from here. Direct flights from Jerusalem to all those places in the Arab world. But I'd like to believe that it could happen again. I don't know how. >> Not from this airport. >> Not from this airport. this will never be up. >> Anything's possible. Or let's say forget this airport >> and an airport, >> another airport in Jerusalem. That would be so cool to be able to pick up, you know, to be able to get up in the morning, drive a couple minutes to Jerusalem airport, hop on a flight anywhere in the Arab world. No war, no killing, no violence, just peace and love and happiness for everyone. Here's to hoping that it happens. Maybe one day. So, that's it for now. We're going to call it a day. So glad I was able to come here. I've been wanting to come for years and uh thankfully finally happened. Don't give up on your dreams, guys. Never give up on your dreams.