Inside the Walls

Yes, I finally got to go see the Old City for myself. There was a free tour offered to the employees of the Consulate, so we jumped on the opportunity. We were out for SIX hours in the hot sun (over 100 degrees), walking for miles and miles -- but it was worth it. We brought plenty of water with us, slathered on the sunscreen, tied our walking shoes, and charged our camera's batteries -- we were ready to go! I really have to hand it to our kids; they did very well with no complaining. They were pretty bored, but they kept up and were very obedient. Our son fell asleep about 4 hours into it, so my poor husband had to carry him for a little while. Of course, he waited to fall asleep until we were about to climb the Mount of Olives, so my husband had to work extra hard. All in all it was a good day. I'm sure you're ready now to see pictures, so here we go.
We started our tour at the Jaffa Gate. This gate faces the city of Jaffa (Joppa in the Bible), so it was thus named.

This next picture is of the Tower of David. It was not built by David, but rather Herod the Great (the one that tried to have Jesus killed shortly after he was born). Most of this palace was destroyed during the war in 70 AD, but beneath the two small windows is supposed to be original. Jesus was also supposed to have stayed here for one night while he was awaiting trial.

This is just a piece of wall, but if you look closely, you will see bullet holes from the wars in 1948 and 1967.

Walking down the narrow streets, I found this to be the sight that transported me back to Bible times.
I don't know what this man was saying, but you couldn't help but feel badly for him.
During some excavations a number of years ago this area was uncovered. These arched holes in the wall were stores on a main road through the ancient city.

Here's a familiar site for most people. This is the Dome of the Rock. The third most holy site for Muslims. It is said to be built on the spot where Abraham attempted to sacrifice Isaac. And, more importantly, it is said to be the place where Solomon's temple was built.

This was as close as we could get to this site for today. Since it was a day of worship for them, non-Muslims were not allowed past a certain point. We'll go for a closer look on another day.
This was also as close as we could get to take pictures of the "wailing" or Western Wall.
I could not get a good view of it because this tree was in my way; sorry. We did go to the Wall, but since it was Saturday, we could not take pictures up close. Again, we'll go another day for better pictures. Something a little surprising did happen to me when we were going up to the wall. Most of you that know me will have trouble believing this one. I, PAM, was deemed immodestly dressed to go to the wall!!!! My sleeves did not reach my elbows, so they gave me a shawl to cover my arms. I was more than willing to do this for them, but I thought it was pretty funny that someone found me immodest. For those of you who don't know the significance of this wall, I will give a brief description. After the Israelites were allowed to return to Jerusalem from their captivity in Babylon, a new temple was constructed to replace Solomon's temple that was destroyed after their capture. Later, Herod the Great was the ruler of Jerusalem, but because he was only part Jewish he was not accepted as a Jew. In trying to earn the favor of the Jews he decided to expand the temple to make it very large and extravagant. The tour guide showed us where this temple would have reached, as far as size, and it was HUGE. Anyway, when this temple was destroyed in 70 AD the only thing remaining was this wall -- the western wall. Since this is the only part of the temple that is left, many Jews come here to pray and worship. Between the stones you will see many, many pieces of paper, with prayers written on them, shoved in the cracks. Okay, I could go on, and on, and on with more info, but I'll stop myself. If you're interested in knowing more, e-mail me.
From here we could look out on the Mount of Olives. There are many cemeteries in the sides of these hills. You can see them in this picture.
The tiers of stone near the right are Jewish tombs. This has a lot to do with prophecy and the resurrection that I won't go in to. Again, e-mail me if you want to know more.
Next, we took a long walk through the hot sun down into the Kidron Valley. Also known as the Jehoshaphat Valley.

This led us to the site of Absalom's tomb. Absalom was the disobedient son of King David, and he is said to be buried here.

From this valley I could look up and see the Golden Gates, also known as the Eastern Gate.
It is prophesied that Christ will return through these gates, so they were blocked many years ago to prevent that happening. That's amusing really -- like a little stone is going to prevent our Lord from doing what he said.
Next we went to the Garden of Gethsemane. This tour guide was not the one that could take us inside the gates of the garden , but we did get pretty close.
We don't know if this was the actual garden where Jesus liked to pray, and was later betrayed, but there is a lot of evidence that makes this very possible. These olive trees are over 2000 years old!!
I took so many pictures, but for the sake of space and time I only chose a few to post. A lot of things in this city are ruined, in my eyes, by Catholic and Greek Orthodox tradition and religion. The top of Mount Calvary had a big church on it where they had a glass box around some rocks that they believe are the ones that Christ's cross was put into. The display around this site was so gaudy, it was repulsive. I really can't even describe it. But there were so many people around trying to get close and kiss these items and rub their hands and face against them that I couldn't get a good picture of them. Inside this same church is the place that they say is the tomb where Jesus was buried. Again, it was just gaudy. They try to add the best that we as humans have to offer. Gold, jewels, delicate and ornate fabrics and designs; but does this really honor God? I would have to say "NO". It was strange, the thing I saw in this ornate building that I thought showed the glory of God, was not made by man's hands at all.
This was the vaulted ceiling above the "tomb". These beautiful rays of sunlight were the most magnificent thing I saw all day. Yet, most of the thousands of people that were here never bothered to look up.
I did have a good day, although we were very tired by the end of it. We will go back again and take our time looking around more, and shopping for souvenirs. This was the last thing we saw before we left for the day.
He looks pretty happy too. I guess everyone had a good day!