Graduation trip - Tour of Old Jerusalem

Jerusalem! This is a view from new Jerusalem to old Jerusalem.

Lots of places use blue to keep away the evil eye.

Israeli cemetery. It was very hot and dusty here and Leah told us of the belief that those buried here would be amongst the first to enter the Kingdom of Heaven at the time of the resurrection because the Messiah would enter through the gate near here.

Everything is so close to each other here. The gold dome in the distance is the Dome of the Rock where God first touched the earth, where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac and near where David was crowned king.

Garden of Gethsemane. Some of these olive trees are over 2000 years old!

As in most places in Jerusalem, next to the garden is a church. You can get an idea of the massive proportions from this photo.

Inside was equally impressive

Looking back at Old Jerusalem and the cemetery where we were earlier. Notice the city gate is walled up, courtesy of the Moslems, with the idea that if the Messiah can't enter through that gate, there can't be a resurrection!

Here we're entering the Old City after finding a gate that wasn't walled up.

Old defenses - that was once a moat down there. We sat and visited while a troop of soldiers gathered and disbursed there - all with guns. Maybe the defenses aren't that old.

Leah took us through the city off the tourist path, so we got to see the real beauty of it. We went into people's back yards and through a nunnery, where the gatekeeper asked us to leave. Maybe we really weren't supposed to be all the places we went, but it was interesting. Here are some of the sites we saw:







A Roman mosaic map of Jerusalem as it was then.

Roman arches laid out on a true North-South line found under the city.

On the other side of the city is the West Wall. (Not called the Wailing Wall, according to Lea)

There's the Dome of the Rock again. We're still in the West Wall area.

Back on the beaten path, the shopkeepers were eager to sell their wares.

The way of the cross is a major shopping venue now. Where the people are, the vendors will be also.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre - Greek Orthodox style

Church of the Holy Sepulchre - Roman style

The dome over the Tomb of Jesus

People waiting to enter the Tomb of Jesus. This was the Greek Orthodox side, as you can tell by the opulence. Around back was another Tomb of Jesus site set up by the Egyptian Coptic church. It was quite simple and not crowded, but you had to remove your shoes and lie down to see it.