Jerusalem

We took the bus from Ashkelon to Jerusalem, which is maybe 60km or 36 miles away. Why the bus? Traffic in Jerusalem is hectic and parking almost unheard of; the bus was a no-brainer. Anyway, the ride in reminded us of the Texas Hill Country, with limestone ledges and naturally terraced vegetation. The main thing we found strange was all the piney woods growing on limestone. To rent a car is 35 dollars a day plus 2 bucks a liter for fuel. Parking is about 3.50 shekels an hour. That's around one U.S. dollar! Being chauffeured by the EGGED is 'round 6 U.S. a piece. Again, no brainer!

This is a view out our hotel window, the Alcazar (Al Qasr, The Palace) in East Jerusalem. The hill on the left is the Mount of Olives - genuine Holy Land! The Old City is just out of view on the hill to the right and the Kidron Valley runs in between.

The minaret to the right had some speakers aimed at our room; nothing like getting blasted out of bed at 4AM by the call to prayer. The people running the hotel were nice and the food was good, but overall we felt uncomfortable in the Muslim part of town and our reception varied from very nice to creepy. Also, it was so filthy that the carpet didn't look like it had been cleaned since 1950. Overall, out of 6 stars this hotel was a minus four. Get the picture?

This is a panorama of the Old City as seen from the Mount of Olives with the Kidron Valley running between. The Temple Mount, complete with Dome of the Rock Mosque, is easily seen on the Eastern wall. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is barely visible to the upper left of the Dome. The Via Dolorosa begins to the right of the Temple Mount and winds its way to the Church. We'll show more in a little bit.

The present city wall was built by the Ottomon Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in about 1540, having been rebuilt several times since the Romans razed the place in 70AD. Most of the Old City streets are therefore comparatively new and typically medieval in character.

This is a model of Second Temple Jerusalem that's at the Israel Museum. The walls on the east side are really very high but debris that built up over the centuries has made them appear lower. The Golden Gate visible here has been raised quite a bit. The Via Dolorosa, as currently described, would have begun at Antonia Fortress, visible in the upper right.

Our visit began at Herod's Gate on the NE side. The name is a mistake: pilgrims believed a Mamluk mansion nearby was the palace of Herod Antipas, and the name stuck. The official name is Bab ez-Zahr (Gate of Flowers) but nobody uses it, perhaps because no flowers can be found in the vicinity.

The UNRWA is the worthless UN agency in charge of the Palestinian refugees. We suppose it's redundant to say "worthless UN agency". Do you think anyone pays attention to this sign?

Actually, throwing garbage is a problem in the Muslim Quarter.

Lion's Gate, complete with more trash strewn everywhere.

The Via Dolorosa starts about here, where you see the arch and the Church of the Condemnation. This was shot from the East on the unfortunately named stretch called Mujahidin (Muslim Holy Warrior) Street. This part of Via Dolorosa is one of the few that can handle vehicular traffic as Lion's Gate was modified in the 20th Centrury for that purpose, along with Jaffa Gate, Dung Gate and New Gate.

Here's a handy diagram found at the Church. The route has been enhanced over the centuries with some of the Stations added as late as the 19th. The route presupposes that the condemnation was pronounced at Antonia Fortress, which no longer exists; a more likely location was at the Citadel on the west side, where Pilate lived when he was in town. But, the route is more an act of faith than precise history. What we especially find odd are the zigzags of Stations VIII and IX, but we adamantly plead ignorance.

Based on the model, it would appear in those days that the streets were relatively open. Assuming the procession began at Antonia Fortress, it makes more sense.

Here's a procession about to get started.

As most visitors might attest, the procession can be challenging as the "streets" are narrow and usually jammed with tourists and pilgrims. Christians who are attempting to walk the Stations are usually besieged with hawkers and vendors plying kitsch. Makes for a very unholy experience.

It's also relentlessly tacky. Gee, talk about no respect!

This is the goal, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. What exists now was rebuilt after the church built by Constantine was razed by the psychotic and/or fanatical caliph Hakim in 1009, who even tried to destroy the rock tomb itself with picks and hammers. There is a mosque nearby that blares the adhan (call to prayer) and they seem to turn up the volume on Sundays. Seriously.

For reasons we don't totally understand Calvary is totally enclosed under the altar on the lower right and pilgrims must crawl under it to touch the stone through a hole in the floor. It really backs up traffic.

Here's part of the problem, a pilgrim scratching her name in the rock.

The Tomb of Jesus. The main practical effect of this structure is to limit access and slow pilgrims down. The priest right of center with his back to the camera herds people through at a fast clip.

The crush of people trying to get in and the tribal nature of tour groups make this a challenge, but it has probably been like this for, oh, 1600 years or so. These South of the Texas border folks pushed and shoved and held on to each other like they were at a Blue Light Special. Almost tainted and reduced the whole experience to a mob trying to enter La Zona Rosa when Los Lobos was featured.

Let's get back outside and catch our breath. This is Damascus Gate. It seems like 50% of the sites in the world are covered with scaffolding.

A pretty young Israeli soldier eyes the even prettier admiral as she enters the gate. Note that she's packing an M-4A1 assault rifle, which replaced the M-16. Grrrl Power! About half the soldiers here carry automatic weapons, whether they're on duty or riding the bus. They were always very nice, even giving up their seats for your elderly reporters.

This is just inside the gate. Most of the older gates force you to take a hard left upon entry. Why? Because it slows down an armed force trying to enter the gate and the left turn makes it harder for right-handed warriors to use their weapons.

An aromatic Arab bakery .

Muslims aren't allowed many vices so they make up for it in the sweets department. There were dozens of shops swirling with sugar and gooey treats.

A view of the rooftops from the ramparts. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is seen as 2 gray domes near the center, the tower to their left is the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.

This is Zion Gate. The pockmarks reflect the fierce fighting when the Jewish Quarter was under siege in 1948.

The clean and neat streets of the Jewish Quarter. We don't know why, but Orthodox Jews always seem to walk around carrying a shopping bag.

Here we try to get a candid shot of a soldier with his sweetheart all loaded up with flowers and balloons, not to mention M-16.

Like kids everywhere, pizza is the star. Here's a bunch of high schoolers right outside the Western Wall. Note the guy on standing on the left has a WWII-era M1 carbine. Every group has security guards: they don't take chances.

The Western Wall is 485 meters long . It is the western retaining wall of the Second Temple built by Herod. It is the most sacred place of worship for the Jews. Prior to the 1967 war Jews were permitted to pray on certain days only at fixed times. Since June 1967 visitors come any time every day. Men are in the left section, women on the right. Security is tight. The brown things in the foreground are are music stands for an orchestra. This shot was taken just before Israel's Independence Day.

Next up on the pilgrimage is the Mount of Olives. This is a view from the ramparts near Zion Gate. At the very top is a tacky hotel built by the Jordanians. Mount Zion is in the foreground. across the valley.

The gray dome on the far left is Al Aqsa Mosque. Just to the right of it you can see the gold domes of the Russian Church of Mary Magdalene, and to the right and upslope of it are what's left of the olive groves. The rest appears barren. Why? Because it's a massive graveyard. The prophecy is that the Resurrection will start here and the residents of this hill want to be first in line. The Kidron Valley is regarded as the Valley of Jehoshaphat (God Judges). Muslims have a huge cemetery below the east wall of the Old City, their side of the valley. There is a small Christian cemetery on the slopes of Mount Zion.

Chapel of the Ascension, the spot where Jesus, according to Christian tradition, ascended to heaven. One confused tourist asked, "Is this the Wailing Wall?"

The Ascension stone with the footprint of Jesus.

Jewish graves where locals have thrown rubbish.

The Easter Bunny makes a personal appearance at the Mount of Olives.

Dominus Flevit Church, the site where Jesus contemplated the beautiful city and wept and lamented its future destruction. (Luke 19:41-44).

Gethsemane Garden on the grounds of Church of the Agony. It's hard to determine the age of these olive trees. From what we've read, olive trees lack growth rings. However, most all the trees on the Mount of Olives were cut down by the Romans during their siege of 70AD, so these trees are likely a little younger.

Church of the Agony. To the far left are the olive trees, hundreds of years old. It was here where Jesus sat with his disciples and here that he came with them to pray after his last supper on the night of Passover. It is also where he received Judas's 'kiss of betrayal' and was then led to prison by the Roman guards.

While having a picnic we met this budding young Israeli biblical archeologist, named Daniel, who was a virtual fountainhead of knowledge . He graciously gave us an insightful tour of the Kidron Valley.

Our blossoming future professor walked with us while explaining the archeological sites here. One of the main sites is the City of David, the Jebusite City that was conquered by David about 1100BC, hence the Psalm "I cast mine eyes up unto the hills...". At first blush a valley doesn't look like a defensible spot for a city. However, it had a major benefit: the Gihon Spring, a secure water source that was more vital than the high ground. We'll cover the Spring in our page on the City of David.

The Palestinian village of Silwan can be seen at the upper left. They have furiously halted any attempts at archeology in the area, suspecting some kind of Zionist trick. Daniel intimated that being an archeologist in Israel can be a very dangerous occupation and most carry guns while working digs.

As we said, the east side of the valley was set aside for the dead, the west for the living. This is called Absalom's Tomb, although it is neither a tomb nor built for Absalom, David's son. It's called a nephesh and is a kind of monument in front of burial caves, typically for a (wealthy) family. The cave entrance is behind and to the left.

The nephesh of Bene Hezir.

This is called the Tomb of Zachariah, but it's not.

The "Tomb of the Pharaoh's Daughter", who was married to Solomon. It used to have a pyramid roof but that disappeared some time ago. We understand the residents of Silwan just above use the many tombs here as chicken coops and store rooms.

Finally, the famous Beautiful Gate aka Golden Gate; it would open to the Temple Mount. It has been sealed since about the 8th Century and was rebuilt by Suliman the Magnificent in its present state. Our guide Daniel said it was sealed to prevent the Messiah from entering the City by this route, which was enhanced by planting a graveyard in front as the Messiah would not step on the dead. Maybe that's the Jewish legend.

While from a Christian perspective it was opened for Palm Sunday by the Crusaders, the actual gate used by Jesus was more likely Lion's Gate to the north and this gate had no major significance. The main reason it was sealed by the Muslims was to keep those nasty infidels off the Temple Mount.

This is about as much damage as we can do to Jerusalem for now. We certainly learned a lot from walking around here and hope some of ya'll find some of our observations useful or interesting and hopefully not too outrageous. We're not scholars, just nosy tourists. We want to share what we think we learned.

If you made it this far, please join us on our road trip across Israel then our final visit to the City of David.

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