Day 16 - Jerusalem (Old City)

I woke up this morning with a second wind. Maybe its the air in the Holy City. Its a good thing because today was a full day. We spent most of the day walking through the old City of Jerusalem.

We began by entering through the Damascus Gate and walking down the Suq (an ancient "mall"). It seems that every city we enter has a Suq. Its quite a mix of things to buy and look at. But we didn't have any time to do so as our guide hurried us past the store fronts to our first destination: the Wailing Wall.

The Wailing wall is quite a site. It is as close to the temple mount as devout Jews will go. They will not go up the mount for fear of stepping on the Holy of Hollies (the most sacred place in Solomon's Temple which is no longer there, and its absence makes the exact location of the Holy of Hollies a bit of a mystery). Many Jews and others stick prayers in cracks in the wall and spend time leaning on the wall and praying. It is called the "Wailing Wall" because the prayers are wailing for the loss of the temple. The temple that is now on the Temple Mount belongs to the Muslims.

And so we ascended a ramp to the Temple Mount to see the Dome of the Rock. It is a beautiful structure. The dome is coated with 24 carat gold; payed for by the late King Hussein of Jordan (a gift of $6,000,000). This is the temple mount on which Ariel Sharon took a "stroll" (with 3000 body guards) several years back to show that Israel could go where it wanted and ended up in riots and numerous deaths. Thankfully, no Israeli politician decided to take a "stroll" while we were visiting.

We descended the mount to visit Bethesda & St. Anne's Church. Bethsesda is the site of Jesus' healing a man. And St. Anne's Church has incredible acoustics. We spent some time singing various songs and the sound was incredible!

Many who are from a high church background are familiar with the "stages of the cross." They are usually depicted in Catholic churches and illustrate the various stages of Jesus' crucifixion. We participated in the "real" life stages of the cross on the Via Dolorosa. We began with the place where Jesus was sentenced and ended at the place where he was crucified and buried. The stages were marked with big bronze markers and the Roman numeral of the stage.

The grand finale of the Via Dolorosa was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This church is shared by six different Christian traditions (if you ask me to name them all I probably will get some wrong but they might include: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Ethiopian, Armenian, Syrian and Coptic). These six churches have had in the past and present much conflict over sharing this space. This is so much so that the key to the church is owned and passed down by two Muslim families who open the church each morning and lock it up each evening.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is most well known for holding Jesus' tomb. Just in case you ever wondered whether Jesus' body was still in the tomb, I checked it and there was no body. You can see for yourself. While Jesus' body may not be there, I highly doubt whether any of the original tomb is there either. Its quite an ornate structure that remains.

After lunch in Papa Andrea's upstairs restaurant, we visited the Upper Room. It is not much more than a big open space. It was a little hard to imagine it being a good place for a meal. After the Upper Room we visited Caiaphas's home and his dungeons where Jesus and/or some of the disciples may have been held at some point.

After all these sites, we were set loose to amble back to the hotel on our own. I wandered back through the suq taking time to look around and see what was to see. It was a nice change of pace.

I continue to be impressed by the diversity of the people of this land. I think that most Americans have an image of the Middle East being completely Muslim. There are in fact many Christians living on these lands. We have seen them in every country (Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, Israel). The Old City of Jerusalem is no different. There is a Christian quarter, a Muslim quarter, a Jewish quarter, and an Armenian quarter. I passed from one to the next without barely noticing the difference. It seems that the average people have learned generally how to live together (until someone decides to take a "stroll" on the Temple Mount).

P.S. I found another METS blog.

P.S.S. And another blog.