Old city Jerusalem

November 13, 2010

Today was a long day, on my feet from 7:20 am to 6 pm.  It had been a night of little sleep, a very warm room and uncomfortable bed.  We were supposed to join a tour of the dead sea and region, but not enough people signed up, so it was postponed to tomorrow.  It was really quite a process to find the meeting point.  In the Old City there are no driving streets, the streets and roads are actually narrow stone corridors, which took us a while to navigate.

Then we exited the Old City via Damascus Gate.  

Damascus Gate

shoe store outside Damascus Gate

Jerusalem is full of curvy streets which made it hard to know which way to turn.  Plus, the free map we were given has the english names of streets labeled on it, but the street name signs, when we could find them, were in the hebrew spelling.  We passed many jewish people on their way to synagogue, quite a variety of sects, men with the curls by their ears, men in tall black hats, men in black cowboy-looking hats.  How their hat looks is dependant on the synagogue they attend.  We inquired for directions from quite a number of  people and finally found the meeting place exactly on time.  what a relief!  Turns out the tour organizer was 15 minutes late.  At least we know where to meet him tomorrow.  We quickly adapted to plan B for the day.

Our first stop was the Garden Tomb, arriving before it was opened for the day.  A british man was our tour guide and we joined a lovely group from Washington State.  The guide began with showing us the the actual tomb, which is highly regarded as the burial site of Jesus.  Sitting in thie quiet garden, looking on at the open tomb as the guide declared Jesus risen and our american friends shouting "amen" was very impacting.  I did go inside and saw the spot where they believe Jesus had been laid.  Not quite like the children's bible story book illustrations.

The Garden tomb

the body was laid at the far end

In the garden tomb area

Golgotha

Next we saw the rock of golgotha.  Jesus was not crucified on a hill but rather along the roman road, to be on display as a warning to others.  This road was there, right below the rock of the skull (golgotha).  As we moved around the Garden, another group entered the tomb area and they were singing songs of praise.  It was..............very moving.

We joined in on a free 3 hour walking tour of the Old City, led by a Jerusalem native.  The first stop was the Tower of David, named by the Crusaders, who didn't know their history very well.  It was actually built by Herod, it was his palace.

Tower of David

Our next stop was the Armenian Quarter.  Approximately 2000 people live in this quarter of the old city now.  The men I see walking around with the pointy hats are Armenian, the pointiness of the hat to represent Mount Ararat where the ark landed after the flood.  When the Crusaders took back jerusalem, they were asked to stay to help protect the city from the muslims.  They stayed and married Armenian women, this is how they were given their own quarter.

Armenian Quarter

Next we visited the Jewish Quarter, home to 5000 people today.  After the 1958 war, the jewish quarter was nearly totally destroyed by the Jordanians.  After the 6 day war in 1967, the jewish quarter began to be rebuilt.

I did go to the Wailing Wall.  I had to cover my shoulders and legs to approach the wall.  Since it was the sabbath, no photography was permitted.  There was also security with metal detector to pass through beforehand.

The Christian Quarter has 5000 people today, the Muslim Quarter has 35,000 people.  The markets of the muslim quarter were bustling with people in the morning, I found it quite overwhelming.  It seemed to me that muslim, jew and christian coexist very peacefully in the Old City.

busy Old City streets

Jaffa Gate

We passed through the Lion's Gate to hike up the Mount of Olives, passing by a jewish burial site where plots are still being sold at $40,000 each.

jewish cemetary

Dome of the Rock

tree in the Garden of Gethsemane

view from the summit of the Mount of Olives

 The view from the top of the Mount of Olives is pretty great.  This is where Jesus ascending into Heaven and where the jews believe the messiah will return to.

Next we headed back to the Old city - did I mention it was 30 degrees today?!  

We walked the stations of the cross along Via Dolorosa.  Visited the pools of bethesda and tried to enter some churches, but was not permitted entry because I was wearing shorts.  sheesh, Christ accepted prostitutes, I doubt he would care less if I'm wearing long pants or not.  "it is for freedom that Christ has set you free" (Gal 5:1) 

The church of St Anne is outside of the bethesda pool area.  It looks European.  High ceilings.  there were 7 German tourists in there singing a hymn and their voices of echo filled the whole church, it was beautiful.

part of the pool of Bethesda, built after Jesus' time

Pool of Bethesda at Jesus' time

I had to pass through the markets again on my way back to the hostel, and I'm such a sucker when it comes to shopping there, so I spent some more shekels, I've asked Michelle to keep me out of the markets now!

Tomorrow we go to Massada, the Dead Sea, Ein Gedi Nature Reserve and visit the caves of the Qumran scrolls.  I'll be up at 6:30 again after 10 hours of walking today.