Two days in the Old City - Jerusalem

It takes a full two days to see just the major sites in the old city of Jerusalem, taste the delicious sweets available, and bargain for items that will be a special memory of this quite amazing bustling and enduring city.

The best time to visit Jerusalem is mid week—on Friday and Saturday (the weekend days here in Israel) the markets are either very busy or closed. So, accompanied by our dear friends Peter and Pat, we ventured into a city rich in history, a timeless place significant to three of the world’s great monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As a result, these symbols are frequently seen in Jerusalem—the fourth one originally belonged to a Crusader order.

We started out on a beautiful, clear, sunny day with this sunrise breaking—from our front lounge room windows which face north towards Akka and Lebanon, we have the most amazing views.

Our trip ended with drenching rain on the drive home (that’s a good sight in Israel), and in-between we had a completely unexpected “khamseen” or dusty desert wind; but neither of these affected our visit or dented our enthusiasm. Our hotel was outside the walled city, very close to the Damascus gate,

and within walking distance of the Jaffa gate.

From these you enter the narrow streets of old Jerusalem, crammed with thousands of shops and stores selling the most amazing array of things to eat, wear, and take home.

The photo above shows a lovely herb fequently used in the Middle East to make a savoury pizza like breakfast. Yummy! We stocked up on our supplies.

The Armenian porcelain is especially intricate. Arabs in traditional wear are a common site.

The old city is divided into 4 sections—the Christian, Muslim, Armenian and Jewish quarters—even though the Armenians are Christian.

For the Jews, the Western or Wailing Wall is the most significant site.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is sacred for Christians – the place where Christ’s body was placed after the crucifixion.

While for Muslims, the Temple Mount, upon which the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsá Mosque can be found, is the focus.

Even today, excavation continues in many areas in and around the old city; below the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount, is an excavation which reveals 2,500 years of Jerusalem's history in 25 layers of ruins from different periods under successive rulers.

The current walls of the Old City were built in 1538 by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (founder of the Turkish or Ottoman Empire). The walls stretch for approximately 4.5km, rise in height of 5 to 15m, with a thickness of up to 3m. Altogether, the Old City walls contain 43 surveillance towers and 11 gates, seven of which are presently open.

You can walk along the ramparts of the wall and look to the Mount of Olives and other lovely new and old buildings in the Greater Jerusalem area outside the walls, as well as looking over the roof-tops of the old city and into the backyards of many inhabitants!

You can even find some fresh dates to eat if youcan reach out far enough.
In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there are some lovely roof paintings and balustrades as well as numerous alcoves and intricate ornamentation.

The entrance door has certainly seen many days!

It also contains the last five stations of the “Way of the Cross” or via Dolorosa – historically the path taken by Christ to His crucifixion and burial. When the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, only one outer wall remained standing. The Romans could have destroyed that wall also, but it must have seemed too insignificant to them. For the Jews, however, this remnant of their most sacred building became the holiest spot in Jewish life.

Throughout the centuries, Jews have traveled to Palestine, and immediately headed for the Kotel ha-Ma'aravi (the Western Wall) to thank God - the area is open 24-hours. Close to the wall, recent excavations show that the Temple walls go some 20 or more metres below the current level – down to bedrock, and to a civilization that existed here thousands of years ago.

The Temple Mount is revered by both Jewish and Islamic Faiths as the area of Mount Moriah where Abraham offered up his son in sacrifice. King Solomon built the First Temple here almost 3,000 years ago - it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, but Jews returning from exile built the Second Temple on the same site. King Herod refashioned it into an edifice of great splendour.

So within a few hundred metres of each other, Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship and pray for the return of the Promised One.

Following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70, the area of the Temple was deliberately left in ruins - first by the Romans, then by the Byzantines. This desecration was not redressed until the Muslim conquest of the city in 638, when the site was cleared and the Dome of the Rock was built to enshrine the outcrop of bedrock believed to be the place of Abraham’s intended sacrifice. The Dome of the Rock is the only early Islamic sanctuary to have survived intact. The design of the building is basically Byzantine—octagonal in shape—it is the third holiest place in Islam after the Ka’aba in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. A large mosque, Al Aqsá, was later built at the southern end of the Temple Mount.
We actually did not get to see this area close up (sigh) as we were carrying a Jewish menorah with us—a 7 or 9 section candle holder used for the Hanukah Holy days—and such a symbol cannot be taken inside the Temple Mount area (we only found that out after queuing up for 20 minutes at the security check-in!!!). Really interesting! A Jewish security guard telling me I could not take a Jewish symbol to a Muslim area! We tried again the next day, only to be advised that it was a Muslim Holy day—the same Jewish guards explained we could not visit. Oh well; it has provided us with a good reason to return to this amazing spot—and that is no hardship!

To all our family and friends, we wish you a safe and happy 2010 and thank you for following this blog and sharing our amazing stay in Israel during our service at the Bahá’í World Centre.