Day 3 - SUN - 16/9/12 - Israel, Jerusalem
It was a pleasant start of 08:30 today but we weren't told by reception and didn't realise we had to tell them as the day before we had waited an hour to wait, so today we missed the cab driver! :S
After getting the reception to make a hasty call to the tour company, our cabbie came back and we found ourselves on a private tour of Mt of Olives :D Up a winding road that can fit only 1 car 1 way (later we were to know this was the Sunday Trail - the path Jesus took to Jerusalem) - so the cabbie had to double back in reverse down when we were met head to head with another taxi coming the opposite direction with taxi's and pilgrims scattering everywhere trying to squeeze through as the driver then found out we were in the wrong spot!!
We finally caught up with the group at Dungate - the garbage entry into the Old City which is also the entry to the site of the Temple of Solomon (as it was known in Jesus' time) - before it was destroyed by the Arab's in the crusades. The location is Mt Moriah and the building on the site was built by Sultan Suleiman and is now also the site of the 'Wailing Wall' which is actually the western wall of the retaining wall surrounding the mosque as the mosque sits on the site. As it is a mosque the Jewish are not allowed inside since the six day war in 1948 when they lost the temple to the Arab's who them changed it into a mosque. This is where the wailing is said to have started with the Jews at the time being so moved by their loss that they would pray at the wall so they could be as close to god as they could be and were moved to tears by their loss. I'll explain tomorrow the reason this site is so sought after by all faiths.
This is the first site we encountered in Jerusalem with layers of history that has been excavated to show under the street level additional layers of the old site.
This was evident in the Market Place in the Islamic Quarter - some of the original paving has been raised to the surface and is large slabs of limestone with one slab weighing 620 tonne, not like the current cobblestones.
Historically, pilgrims came through the gates of the Old City to the Market Place (Suq) to trade rooms in merchants houses for handmade goods that the merchants could then sell. The prices were indexed by different times of the year depending on the religious seasons. So an icon made by a pilgrim could get a week in non peak religious season but may only get her a day during Easter or Christmas.
We observed pilgrims performing their road to salvation which is the same road they have been experiencing since the time of Jesus. For Catholics in particular this includes Via Delarosa where pilgrims follow the stations of the cross. These stations have 14 gates (doors) and it is said this is the path of sorrow with the last gate being in the Church of The Holy Sepulchre. Prayers are said at each station for each event of sorrow relating to each gate. It is also one of the only places where the phrase 'rent a cross' can probably be effectively used. Pilgrims will rent a cross to carry with them on their journey in the Old City, easier these days than bringing it all the way on the bus I suppose...
The Market Place was a bustling trade area but was full of pilgrims and tourists on the trail of Christ.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located where cristians believe the mountain where Jesus was crucified, body was washed and cleaned and entombed; and also the grave of 'Adam' from the Adam and Eve fame; and also the tomb of Joesph (Jesus' Dad) is said to be located.
The evidence used to back up the grave-site of Jesus was the discovery of 3 crucifixes by Helena Constantine - Mother of Roman Emperor in what was then the garbage chute in the basement of the pagen church that was there at the time. To test the theory it is said she put 3 young women on the crosses and one of the women 'rose again' so it was said that one was 'the holy cross'!
The current church on the site is French Crusader built in the 1st century and it is actually tendered to by 2 Muslim families who open and close the doors daily.
In what is said to be Jesus' tomb there is a sarcophagus in the tomb with a picture at rear of the tomb with a gift shop where you could buy candles, icons and rosary beads. This is where we took our picture cause the line was way too long for the tour leader to wait.
When the city was conquered by the Arab's they destroyed Joseph's tomb, we looked at another apostles next to it that would have looked the same though.
Across the way from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the Church of the Redeemer which was founded by St Mary of Egypt, also amazing architecture with a bell rang to match its imposingness.
Excavation has been performed in the Jewish Quarter to almost the City of David time showing a height range difference from current street level to original city street level being a range of around 18m. Layers on layers - 3-4 levels of ancient city is in the Old City.
The second part of the day was spent on a trip to the Dead Sea! Again a private shuttle out to the Dead Sea, going from the highest point in Israel being Mt of Olives to the lowest point being the Dead Sea at -400m below sea level in just 40 minutes, ears sure popped a few times!
We visited Kalia Beach for an afternoon of relaxing and floating to finish up the day with very smooth skin and mud mask that you dig out of the bottom of the sea - very salty water too! We were there for 3 hours and the floating was amazing. The water was opaque with salt and very warm due to the density of salt. If you scoop your hand down beneath you can feel it is cooler but there is also no way to dip down that far for long as the density of the salt pushes you back to the surface where floating on your front is actually prohibited. I think this is because you could actually drown... it's a bit like floating on a lilo and tipping over a bit and once the inertia gets you going, you're off and tipping over.
With the water being so dark I had thoughts of animals coming up to chomp on my legs but then Kearnsy pointed out to me that that's why it is called the Dead Sea... nothing can survive it ;)
After leaving the Dead Sea we headed back to Jerusalem and being that it was Shabbat the stores were closed as Shabbat means that Jewish people cannot work, even cooking in the kitchen is classed as work! With limited Arab run stores open we were tipped off about a 24hr corner shop and we set off to find it to grab some dinner with success of pitas and peanut butter.
The following day was actually unknowingly to us Jewish New Year so with the limitations of Shabbat felt we came to the realisation that we were going to be in Jerusalem for another day as there was no public transport to get to Jordan or stores open due to the New Year until after sundown on 18/9! So with another day in Israel up our sleeves we hoped the free city tour was running so we could also push out our day to Bethlehem with no public transport running the following day!
