Israel - Day 7 - Sunday

Sunday - our first day to tour Jerusalem!  

Jerusalem - city of peace

Conquered 39 times, destroyed and rebuilt 17 times

Here's one of the gates into the old city.

Here's the one we went in.  Dung Gate - where the waste was once collected.

Until 1865 the walled city was the whole city.  There are 7 open gates and one closed one.

Our view of the Wailing Wall from above

parts of the city were so dirty

The Temple Mount - the Dome of the Rock

The fountain in front has stones to sit on so you can wash your feet if you are entering the temple.

The dome was constructed in 691 AD, and refurbished in 1998 by the Jordan King Hussein who on his death bed decreed the money ($8.2 Mil)  be used to cover the dome in solid gold.

The bedrock under the dome is considered holy because it is the site that Abraham went to sacrifice Issac.  

Next to the dome, looking toward the Mt of Olives

Another city gate - this one is closed.  This is the Golden Gate on the southern side of the eastern wall.  The original gate at this site is now below ground and was closed in 1541 by the Muslims because it is believed, in Jewish tradition, that this is the gate that the Messiah will enter and they wanted to prevent his entrance.  It is humorous to me that someone who "doesn't believe" would be concerned at all with his entrance to the city.

Sign for the Wailing Wall - the closest point that non-muslims can get to where the Holy of Holies was located.

That's the wall straight ahead

and to the right as we were walking towards the wall - several hundred armed Israeli soldiers - they were quite a sight!

Here I am at the Wailing Wall - more than a million written prayers are collected in the wall each year.  They are collected twice a year and buried on the Mt of Olives.  Yes, I wrote a prayer to put in the wall, though I don't consider it to be more substantial than any other prayers I have written or said.  I thought it was meaningful to be there with others who were praying.

This is me on the steps of the temple - Jesus walked on these same steps!!

These steps were used by commoners to enter the temple.  Jesus entered as a baby, a 12 yr old, and this is where he overturned the coin changers tables.  

Lunch time!

This is a shawarma - yum!

Next we went to the Jewish Quarter - an orthodox Jewish community

Moving model of the Holy City of Jerusalem

layers of the city walls

the Warrens at Warren's Gate

We exited through Lions Gate

We looked out over the Shepherds Field, over the City of David.  We could see the tomb of Rachel, the area where the story of Ruth and Boaz took place, the Herodium (where Herod the Great is buried).  This is where the angels filled the sky and spoke to the shepherds about Jesus' birth.  Amazing.

That was all for the tour on Sunday.

We got back to our hotel, ate dinner, and settled in for the night.  Then we heard some loud pops and David was slightly concerned that it sounded like gunfire.  On opening the curtains to our balcony, we instead discovered fireworks, low and directly over Jerusalem, and being shot off in the rain!!  Crazy!