Made from ice cast in Alaska--mainly because the ice is of utmost clarity, but also I think because Chihuly delights in the joining of extremes--the ice arrived in Jerusalem about 10 days ago and has been kept refrigerated at minus fifteen degrees since its departure from Alaska. When the doors of the refrigerated containers were at last opened--and Jerusalem was having a heat wave of ninety degree plus days--the temperature difference (over 100 degrees) made the ice crack with a resounding hissing and popping.

A level platform of gravel was prepared outside the old city walls, just to the left of the Jaffa gate. Last night (Saturday) around 11 PM, the crane and trailers full of the precious and fragile ice arrived, and the team worked throughout the night to build the wall from 30 or so gigantic blocks, each weighing several tons. The scale is such that the blocks rival in size the larger blocks of stone used to build the walls of Jerusalem.

Chihuly had planned a more geometric wall, but the cracked ice started to split wide open under the stress of the crane, and adjustments were made--in fact, the wall now more closely echos the fragmented ancient stone wall behind it: no doubt the ancient masons faced similar difficulties with their fragile and giant stones. But they had mortar to repair and stabilize their blocks: the Chihuly crew uses super cold dry ice as a means of patching and cementing the blocks together!

And now the wall is up--ready for the party this evening, with hundreads of guests, many from the United States. And in the full jerusalem sun, it is melting--how fast? We don't know. Some guess it will be gone in three days, some say ten days. Already, water is streaming from the face of the blocks, onto the gravel, into a cistern Chihuly has created to collect the Alaskan water and pump it up to refresh the vegetation of a nearby hillside.

More tomorrow....