Day 4 in pictures.

The day started on the Temple Mount, also known as the Haram esh-Sherif. The area is relatively quiet and has some nice groups of trees. Originally, the site was home to Solomon’s temple, but Titus destroyed it in 70 AD. The two most important present-day structures on the site are the El-Aksa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock from 688 to 691. It is probably built on the site of the Holy of Holies, and Muslim tradition holds that it was the place that Muhammad ascended into Heaven. The Dome of the Rock has a beautiful gold-plated dome that is visible from just about any high point in Jerusalem. The El-Aksa isn’t quite as “shiny,” but is still impressive. It is supposedly the site where Muhammad landed at the end of his night journey to Jerusalem. The El-Aksa is more of a community worship place for Muslims and the Dome of the Rock is more of a shrine.

We had to leave the Temple Mount sooner than we would have liked to because it was prayer time. Next, we went to see the Sheep Pool and the Pool of Bethesda. The real treat of this area was the Church of St. Anne (the mother of Mary) that is built near the Pool of Bethesda. It dates back to the 11th century and was built by the Crusaders. It has amazing domes and awesome acoustics. Mishi tried to get the group to sing “Hallejiah,” but we didn’t really know what we were doing, so it didn’t go so well. I was disappointed that we weren’t going to get to hear the acoustics put to full use, but just as we were about to leave, another group came in. This group happened to have two ladies that obviously knew what they were doing. They sang a beautiful rendition of a choral piece. It was amazing.

Then it was off to Hezekiah’s tunnel. King Hezekiah built the tunnel so he could have a secure water supply when the Assyrians attacked him. It’s about 1750 ft. long and travels in a big S shape. We actually got to go through the tunnel, which was a lot of fun, the water was ankle to knee deep the whole time.

As soon as we got out of the other side, we quickly made our way to Bethlehem. This part of the tour was somewhat complicated because Bethlehem is no longer in Israel. The Palestinian National Authority controls it. So, we had to leave Mishi and our tour bus behind after we crossed the security checkpoint. We got a new tour guide that I was not as impressed with. He owns the largest olive wood factory in Bethlehem and wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to buy souvenirs. We almost had more time in the gift shop then we did at the Church of the Nativity, which was our next stop.

The Church of the Nativity, like the Holy Sepulchre is another example of a Holy site that has been way over-decorated and is controlled by several religious factions that don’t get along with each other. The place was stuffed with icons and religious symbols. It seems like if they could find something shiny and had room to shove it in somewhere, they put it in. Their sense of decoration doesn’t always make sense either. On the main platform of the church, numerous decorations had to share space with two pillar-style butane heaters. Also, the ornate columns and fancy curtain surrounding the entrance to the cave of the nativity were lit by a naked halogen bulb suspended on its own electric wire.

As the bus took us to exit the region controlled by Palestine, there were a few tense moments while our tour guide negotiated with the guards while Israeli soldiers pointed their guns straight at the driver of the bus. After a few loud proclamations of how much he loved President Bush, we made it through just fine. It felt good to be back with Mishi.

The final stop was The Garden Tomb. Unlike the other Holy Sites we’d seen, this was much quieter. This is partly because it is a fairly recent site; the land was purchased only about 120 years ago. Also, it is run by a group from England, so I felt more at home; there wasn’t a culture gap to bridge. Instead of building an over-decorated church on top of the site, they just made a very nice garden around it. Instead of telling us a hard to believe tradition, our tour guide gave us a list of archaeological observations and gave a disclaimer that they still didn’t know for sure if it was the right place. Hymns sang by other tour groups drifted through the air and birds softly sang in the background. It was very peaceful. After seeing the tomb, we had a short communion ceremony. Diane bought everyone in the group a communion cup made out of olive tree wood, so that made it even more special. Unfortunately, after doing some reading and talking to people when I got back that night, it seems that there isn’t much archaeological evidence in favor of The Garden Tomb being the actual location. That’s okay, the guide even pointed out what I mentioned earlier: we don’t worship places of things, and we don’t look for the living among the dead. He is not here, He is risen!

Following another amazing dinner, Wayco, Michael, Jenn, Anna, and I went out on the town looking for trouble. The city was fairly alive as it was the night before Purim, the festival celebrating the story of Esther. Somehow, this got turned into a weird mix of Mardi Gras and Halloween for the Jews, so there were lots of parties and crazy people dressed up in even crazier costumes. It was fun to just walk through all that. We also went through the ultra-conservative Orthodox section of town. We passed signs warning us not to enter if we were not modestly dressed (no short sleeves, no tight fitting jeans for the girls, etc). The place was very run down, but it was at least refreshing to be out of the “tourist” areas. None of the signs had any English on them at all. We ended the night by stopping at the same place for coffee as we did last night, Cafe Hillel. I had a surprisingly good Green Lemongrass tea.

Day 4 in pictures.