Time is slipping away now we are sitting in an airport
heading from Jordan to Cairo. Jerusalem was a completely unique experience, one
that can only truly be understood by going. We had 5 days, one of these being
Shabbat and this was not time enough to see everything, Jerusalem is jam packed
with things to see, do and eat. It’s been a city of contention for thousands of
years with many cultures coming and going, all leaving their mark on the city.
There are places that feel completely different to other areas just a 5 minute
walk away and you feel like you’re crossing into different nations sometimes
just by walking a block away. This blog could be a tome with the words we could
write about Jerusalem so we’ve decided to just look at the highlights of our
time in and around the holy city. A common sight that we didnt get a photo of is the number of people in military uniforms, especially young men doing their 3 and women doing their 2 years of mandatory military service.
The Old City
Jerusalem is a big city, but most people think of the Old
City with its huge walls and gates when thinking of Jerusalem. You could spend
2 days in the Old City alone. The Old City is a mixing pot on a scale unseen
before. It is made up of sections with different religions, the Jewish Quarter,
Muslim Quarter, Christian Quarter and Armenian Quarter. These are not divided
equally in size, so a quarter is not quite accurate, they are each completely
unique symbolising their own identities and cultural differences, and you rarely
see people from one quarter cross into another. Even outside of the Old City
Jerusalem is divided with the East mostly inhabited by the Arabs, and the west
by the Jews, again with distinct differences.
Jewish Quarter
The Jewish quarter was laid completely to waste during the war of independence in the late 40’s by the Muslims. After the 6 days war in the 60s the Israelis recaptured the eastern side of Jerusalem and rebuilt it so it has a distinctly new feeling compared to the rest of the old city.
Here Jewish children play in the open square, there are
galleries with moving artwork and businesses selling beautiful Jewish prayer
shawls and yarmulkes. The whole area has a relaxed and peaceful feel to it.
We often wonder how the kippas stay on, but the one time we
did see one just slip of the head and fall the boy picked it up fast as
lightning, dusted it, kissed it and placed it back where it belongs.
The Western/ Wailing
Wall
It is an iconic image known the world around, but what you
can’t see is the feeling of this holy place. The wall is divided for men and
for women, and men must cover their heads on approach. It is a remnant of the
ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple's courtyard, and is arguably the
most sacred site recognized by the Jewish faith outside of the Temple Mount
itself. Simon approached the wall first and he said it was like nothing else he
had experienced, there was a presence at the wall. I went into the womens
section and within a metre of the wall I was overwhelmed with emotion and tears
started to flow, this place was holy. The next day we both prayed at the wall,
we prayed for many things but for me especially I prayed for peace in Israel,
peace for all its people. Simon felt as though this place was like a direct
line to God, a feeling he had never felt when praying before. Many people write prayers and place it in the
cracks of the wall, we did this also. The beautiful thing is that when these
cracks become full they empty them and every letter is bundled and buried in a
special place. We don’t need to write
our prayers because we have a direct line anytime, but we likened this to
receiving snail mail over email. There was something special about it.
The western wall was incredibly moving and the most
beautiful part was seeing Gods people so passionate in prayer, and with a
humility and reverence like we have never seen before. The wall is particularly
special to see on a Friday night at the start of Shabbat.
Barmitzva Day
Thursday is Barmitsva day at the western wall! People fly
from around the world to have it here, and it is a celebration on new levels of
amazing. It’s a party on steroids. Some have party planners, professional
photographers and even professional videographers. The boys are carried through
the streets of the old city like princes on the shoulders of their family as
the whole family is singing and dancing. People are playing shofars, there are
drums and we even saw a saxophone. It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement
as you clap along. For some of the boys they love the attention and their faces
beam with pride as they dance on their fathers shoulders, for others you can
tell they would rather be anywhere but here as their face turns red and their
eyes are to the ground. They are all making their way to the Western Wall to do
their public reading from the Tora.
Muslim Quarter
The Muslim Quarter has a totally different feel to it, it
could be a completely different city. It really reminded us of Morocco, the
smoothed stone paths, scarves and shoes for sale everywhere amongst the other
usual souk merchandise.
Dome on the Rock
The Dome of the Rock is in many ways just as iconic image of
Jerusalem as the Western Wall, it is usually in all the photos, it can’t not
be, it dominates the city with its sheer enormity and sparkling golden dome.
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| You can see the dome of the rock poking out above the western/wailing wall |
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| An old man reading the Quran |
As part of our walking tour we managed to get into the Dome
on the Rock site. No mean feat given it’s only open for an hour a day to
tourists and there is only one entrance. According to our guide the Muslims in
charge of the site are not happy to make it open to visitors thus the very
brief period of accessibility. Once up our guide explains to us the history
about the site. The main and most important part is that this is apparently
where Muhammad ascended to heaven.
The dome itself is beautifully covered in 80 kilos of pure
gold and Ottoman era Iznik tiles. In some places the original mosaics are still
visible. It was built over the site of the rock itself and the inside is only
available to Muslims.
It is built on the site of the original temple of Jerusalem
which is the holiest place to the Jews. The sole remnant of that temple is the
Western Wall, as you may imagine this causes a large point of contention. The
dome on the rock is the third most sacred site in the Muslim world after Mecca
and Medina.
Mahane Yehuda Markets
A must see in Jerusalem is the Mahane Yehuda markets they
are intense, especially right before Shabbat as everyone races to stock up on
food. They are a tightly packed, undercover superstore of fresh and preserved,
sweet and savoury, baked and squeezed everything. The usual piles of produce,
bread, candy, halva, cafes and other random goods abound. Strawberry seller’s
hands are stained red from their sweet product. We made a few trips to the
markets whilst in Jerusalem but each time was exciting and we found fresh tasty
things every time. Our favourite is the fresh and natural slushie drinks.
Masada Day Trip
The Dead Sea would have been our #1 thing to do outside
Jerusalem but because we are doing it in Jordan and only had time for one
activity Masada was the pick.
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| The glorious Dead Sea in the background |
Masada is a massive palatial fortress built by King Herod
atop a rocky plateau above the Dead Sea. It is famous for being the last
stronghold of Jewish rebels against the Romans who built an earth wall from the
ground below right up to the walls. The Jews rather than be captured and
enslaved all suicided the night before the Romans breached the walls making
their victory somewhat hollow. The thing that struck us though was the location
and the logistics of the place. Way up high with nothing but a steep windy
track (back then) it must have been insanely difficult to build and support.
We rose bright and early for the bus to Masada. We are under
the pump from the get go as it is Shabbat eve and all public transport shuts
down at around 3pm. Time is critical. To get to Masada it’s about 1.5 hours on
the bus and you can spend 3 to 5 hours there.
There are 3 ways up this impressive mountain fortress, one
is a snake/windy path that takes an hour, the second is up the ridge that was
the Roman earth ramp or the third is a cable car that costs you big bucks. With
time of the essence, we chose the third option and packed in like sardines with
the tourist groups all wearing matching caps and name badges and we promised
ourselves we would never be one of them.
The first thing that hits you is the jaw dropping view that
spans out across the ever receding Dead Sea which is literally dying, the
lowest point of land on Earth and then the huge rocky mountains that seem to
pop up out of nowhere. The sun was killer up the top and with no breeze it was
baking weather. There is plenty of sun shades provided fortunately but its
thirsty work and there is a lot of ground to cover.
The palace is a ruin so you need to use (a lot) of your
imagination especially with the sun beating down and frying you but to picture
it as it was it must have been breath taking.
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| Simon a little too excited about the model version of Masada |
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| The mountain that this whole thing is built on top of |
Mount of Olives and
Surrounds
The mount of Olives is a well-known Christian site, it
provides amazing views over the city, and a bunch of Christian churches along
the steep climb up the hill.
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| Church of Gethsemane |
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| Garden of Gethsemane |
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| Instead of placing flowers on a grave, rocks are placed on instead. We like that it lasts longer |
Museum of Israel
We don’t really do a lot of museums, they can be expensive
and not always rewarding, but the Museum of Israel is unmissable. We had time
only for 3 hours, when really a day was required, but we were able to see the
highlight which were the Dead Sea Scrolls. Housed in a building which looked
like the jars the original scrolls were found in this place is amazing. The
scrolls are a collection of over 900 texts in multiple languages that include
some of the earliest known copies of current Hebrew biblical canon. They have
been dated between 400-300BC. We were able to take one sneaky shot.
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| A very sneaky shot - I got yelled at pretty badly!!! |
There is a complete 1:50 scale model of the old city before
it was destroyed by the Romans, which is extremely impressive, the original
temple would have been a feast for the eyes if still standing.
We were privileged to speak to some young Israelis whilst in
the museum and discuss what peace looks like and if they see a future of peace.
They feel the world hates them and everyone around them wants to kill them. They
are excited and ready for their mandatory military service, it’s good and
people get excited, they are proud to serve their country and they want to
fight for it. They tell us that the World sees them as the bad guys, and they
don’t like it. They see themselves as the good guys, they don’t want to hurt
anyone and they just want their country to be safe. For them it’s not a matter
of if, it’s a matter of when they will need to fight for their survival.
Everyone needs to be ready they tell us. They say that there isn’t anyone around us who want us here and
that’s hard. We ask them if they are scared? No, our army is great, we have a
great army and people who don’t want Israel to fall. We believe in our army.
They tell us it’s hard, because they want peace and then there are times when they get
so angry about the way they are perceived and that can make us angry at them.
It seems that Israel is motivated and prepared to do
whatever it needs to do to survive in the region and the next generation stand
ready to defend their country.
Christian Quarter
The Christian Quarter has lots of big tourist pulls, but
unfortunately none of these sights are the real thing. There is David’s tomb,
but no one knows where he is actually buried, there is the room of the last
supper but again this is not the actual room and it is covered in gothic era
architecture.
The other big sight in the Old City is the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre which is on the believed site of the Hill of Calvary where Jesus
was crucified.
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| Davids Tomb |
The Via Delarosa is a main street which is said to be where
Jesus walked as he carried the cross, it is now lined with tacky trinket shops
and poorly named cafes.
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| One of the many beautiful mosaics in the church |
Lessons Learnt
- Whilst churches face east, and mosques face west, synagogues always face Jerusalem
- Really needed extra time in Jerusalem. You probably need 7-10 days to actually solidly see everything and not feel rushed.
- Israel is ready to defend their country, and every able hand is prepared.
Parting thoughts
- Getting used to the weather, even though it is in the low 20’s were a still sweltering as we try to rapidly adjust our bodies from under 10 degrees straight into mid 20’s.
- We would love to be here for Passover one year, it would be unbelievable.
- Mixing pot of cultures and religions, this creates a lot of tensions.
- We watched so many young people in their uniforms for their mandatory military service. There is no question that Israel is ready for whatever comes their way.
- In Jerusalem you see many Orthodox Jews which at times is really quite impressive. Issue with them not working or serving in army.
- There is no other city in the world like Jerusalem. The second oldest continually inhabited city on Earth, home to three major global religions and more tension than Real Detectives it is truly one of a kind. The cultural collision here between its inhabitants and from millennia of conquest and rebuilding gives a unique design and take on architecture, food and way of life. Jerusalem should be on your list to see in your lifetime even if you are not religious, it is truly a miraculous city.
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