We are staying in the same hotel tonight so we were able to just eat breakfast and get out the door this morning.
Our first stop was driving up to the Mount of Olives. To provide some Biblical context, it is a mountain ridge adjacent from Jerusalem where many events in Jesus's life would have occurred; it marks the last path that Jesus took on his way to the cross. We began our trek there, moving onto a platform overlooking the most important Jewish cemetery and a side-view of Jerusalem. We were able to orient ourselves with the city before walking through it. The path we traveled took us to the Garden and Church of Gethsemane. This garden is located at the bottom slope of the Mount of Olives directly opposite of the Temple Mount. It houses olive trees thought to have been around since the Roman times! This leaves them to be roughly between 1,000-2,000 years old.... The church we went to was rebuilt on the area believed to be where Jesus prayed to God only hours before his crucifixion. Our path took us to the Wailing Wall (also known as Western Wall). This wall is a remnant of an ancient wall which used to be located by the original Jewish Temple (the location where the Temple Mount Mosque is now). What is interesting for someone like me, is I did not realize that there would be a separation of men and women. Not only did the genders have separate entrance lines, but the areas of the walls for each gender were clearly defined. I was able to write a prayer and place it in the wall though, so it was definitely a great experience. We then began to follow the Way of the Cross to Mount Calgary. Along the way we did pass the El-Asqra Mosque, noted by its black dome top. The Way of the Cross was located along the Via Dolorosa and had 14 official stops: (Wikipedia)
We finished at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The main thing that came to me during this time was how could anyone enjoy the beautiful peace of the area through the thousands of loud and bustling tourists (not to mention everyone else?!). We walked around, saw the supposed place of Jesus's crucifixion (didn't go touch the rocks due to the large volumes of people), and saw the entrance to where Jesus was thought to have been resurrected. Our last official stop of the day was at the Israeli Museum where there is a large model of the Old City and where the Dead Sea Scrolls were housed. Since there were no pictures allowed inside, we have no pictures of the scrolls. My recommendation for if anyone plans a trip here is to DEFINITELY go visit the scrolls. There is something so amazing and awe-inspiring about seeing the pieces of texts they have to offer there. Our guide gave us the option to go back into the city or to go to the hotel. Four of us chose to go back in by ourselves, and it was DEFINITELY an adventure. For three of us, we braved back into the Church of the Sepulchre to stand in line to see the place of Jesus's resurrection. Our guide warned us that it would be able an hour, and we entered it almost an hour on the dot. It was crazy however, because we moved in a mob from about 10 people across funneled into single-file lines. People (especially for some reason the highly religious tiny older women) were very physical and unforgiving; they would push and bully and elbow their way to the front of the line in front of others. Needless to say I got a LOT too much physical contact from people I didn't know today. However, people asked me when we got back if I thought it was worth it and I say yes. It was mesmerizing to think I may have touched the slab of stone Jesus's body was laid. Getting back afforded us the opportunity to get lost in the city for about 30 minutes before finding our way to the hotel. When we came back together as a group, you could just see the fatigue on everyone's faces! Each day brings new sites, insights, and growth. As our group leader reminded us, our mission and purpose is to "Put a name and a face to the other." By meeting people, asking questions, seeing places, we are better able to call up a memory and a more accurate opinion of the people and places we will hear about once we return to the states.
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