My Latest Adventure.......The Holy Land, Part 1: Jerusalem

Scenery while driving through the Jordan Valley!

Where did I go this time? "The Holy Land"!! :) Growing up in Canada, one learns the names of countries, territories and bodies of water all over the world. Living in a Middle Eastern Gulf country however, has many new rules and regulations that one must learn to abide by, including having to learn different names for certain places. The land I just returned from happens to be one of those. In most countries in the Middle East, this small section of land is referred to ONLY as "Occupied Palestine" or "Palestine", so that is what I must refer to it as, while being employed in a Middle Eastern country. It is there where my latest adventure took place. :)

Again, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to a land I had only dreamed of visiting since childhood. Growing up, reading and learning about the Biblical territories and various stories, led me to wonder if I would ever get the chance in my lifetime to go there and see it for myself. Well, the wondering is over as I have just returned from the most incredible trip I have ever been on. :)

Who all went? Liz and Gary (my adopted parents), Maude and Lloyd, Linda and Alex (her son who came all the way from the States for the trip) and myself! 7 people, 7 days of exploration = a lot more than 7 moments of fun! ;)

My "Kuwait Mom" Liz and I in our hotel room in Amman, Jordan before we

crossed the border......we were excited! :)

Let's start with Jerusalem, where we spent a total of 4 nights! :)

This was the view from our hotel in West Jerusalem!

Jerusalem was a startling surprise! I had no idea there were so many hills and so much greenery in this city, not to mention how incredibly big and spread out it is! We went to The Old City of Jerusalem, which is the walled section.

These are the remains of the original Old City. You can see the walls of the Temple Mount to the left.

Once we passed through the intense security scanners and were inside, we started out by walking by the Wailing Wall.....we didn't get a chance to get up close, but you can at least see the size of it from this pic. We were supposed to go back and check it out up close, but we ended up getting distracted by many other things. Anyways, here's what it looks like - much taller than I expected that's for sure!

The Wailing Wall!

Located on the Temple Mount in the Old City, lies the Al Aqsa Mosque, which in Arabic means "the farthest mosque" due to its distance from Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Directly across from it, the beautiful Dome of the Rock Mosque. It is known as the oldest Muslim building, as it was built in 691AD. The shiny, yellow roof is actually gold plated and the post and moon on top of the dome is made out of solid gold. The last King of Jordan donated all of the money for that as a gift to Jerusalem. Nice gift, eh?

Southern side of the Dome of the Rock

The Northern side of the Dome of the Rock

This is one of the 7 main gates into Old Jerusalem...........Stephen's Gate, also known as Lions' Gate from the time of Sultan Suleiman when he put 2 lions on each side of the gate. They look small in this pic!

The Stevens, at their gate......LOL! :)

This is Jaffa Gate......on the south side of the Old City

From there we went to the Pools of Bethesda......these are pictures of the remains of those bathing pools. Not much left, but kind of gives you a picture of what it would have been like. :) This is where Jesus healed the paralyzed man. (John 5:1-9)

The next stop was walking down the Via Dolorosa.....................nothing remains from the time of Jesus, except a few original stones which have been preserved inside a small church. It used to be a straight road through the city, but seeing as Jerusalem has been conquered and rebuilt many times, the road is no longer a straight path, nor is it original. Still, it was amazing to be there and walk it anyways.

These are the only original stones left from the Via Dolorosa of Jesus' time.....

There were military and security guards everywhere......thought these guys looked kind of funny all standing under an umbrella......not so tough, eh? LOL

We stopped for tea and streusel at the Austrian Hospice along the Via Dolorosa.......this is the view from the roof!

Another view from the roof.......

Walking down the Via Dolorosa........lined with little shops.

Another stretch of the famous road....

This is part of the outside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. You can see some of the old Crusader ruins in this pic!

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is HUGE! It is built on the original Calvary (Golgotha) where Christ was crucified and the tomb where His body was placed for 3 days. (John 19:17-18) It is an odd church because due to the claim that it is built over the tomb of Christ, it is divided into 3 sections: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic.

You can see the burn marks on the old stones......proof that this old church was heavily damaged from invasions of the past. This stone tomb was built over what they say are the remains of Joseph of Arimathea's tomb where Jesus' body laid for 3 days before He was resurrected. (Matthew 27:57-60)

These are more pics of the inside of this church....

This is the actual entrance to the tomb....the line was LONG, but because we were only a group of 7, another tour group let us hop into their group's line and bypass the hour long wait! :) Yay, for kindness from random strangers. :)

In 326AD, Queen Helena (Emperor Constantine's mother) supposedly found the original crosses that Jesus and the two thieves were crucified on. It is said the remains of the crosses are sealed inside this stone box.

This is supposedly the "stone of the anointing" on which Jesus' body was prepared for burial.

This is one of the domes inside the church. Very detailed!

Old Crusader crosses carved into the walls of the church.

Stay tuned for the next postings on the rest of Jerusalem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Haifa and other sites we saw! I promise it won't take half as long as it did to post this one! :) Until then...masalama! :)