To Mount Zion and Beyond

What a beautiful day!

Yesterday (Monday, February 18th) was our free day. We usually have Sunday as a free day, but this week we had a field trip on Sunday, so we got Monday off instead :-) I went with Katie and Malia to the Western Wall and then to see a bunch of Christian churches. It was really a great day :-)

Sidenote--My Hebrew teacher told me today that the Western Wall was called the "Wailing Wall" during the period when it was under Jordanian control and Jews were not allowed to visit it because they "wailed" at their inability to go to the Kotel (Western Wall) and then when the Jewish people were "reunited" with the Kotel, they no longer called it the Wailing Wall, and only call it the Kotel (which is Hebrew for Western Wall).

I know I have posted pictures before, but I just love this wall.

The reason we went on Monday morning was because on Mondays and Thursdays, there are Torah readings and Bar Mitzvahs. There were actually quite a few young boys who were having their Bar Mitzvahs at the Western Wall, which was pretty cool to see.

Katie and I in front of the Western Wall

We went up and touched the wall (we were trying to be respectful and take our pictures from a distance so as not to offend anyone)

Afterwards, we stopped at a Jewish bakery for some treats. They were INCREDIBLE. The pastries in this place are unreal. 

Our next stop was Dormition Abbey, which is the traditional spot of the Virgin Mary's death. Apparently, it is where Mary and many Christian saints lived after the death of Jesus until they died. 

It was a beautiful building!

This is the Abbey from farther away (I took this from the tower of the Church of the Redeemer which we went to later in the day)

The inside of the church. The three of us were alone in there, so we sang some of the hymn Jesus, Once of Humble Birth which sounded really cool with the acoustics of the church :-)

So beautiful.

Under the chapel is a crypt where Mary supposedly died. There is a statue in the middle of the room of Mary and a place for people to light candles.

The three of us in front of the church (this is actually the only picture from our day of all three of us)

Next, we went to this room (it is fairly close to Dormition Abbey) which is traditionally known as the location for the last supper. There were tons of tourists around, so I didn't get a great picture, but here it is! haha

Interestingly, there is a Kiblah in the room. After the time of Jesus, this room was converted into an Islamic Mosque. Now it is a spot for tourists to visit...

I thought this sign was funny, I don't really know what it was and we didn't go inside...

Right below the room of the Last Supper is the traditional location of the tomb of King David, which is now a Jewish synagogue. 

The women's side of the tomb. Apparently, when the Western Wall was unavailable to the Jewish people, they would use this tomb as a substitute (although I talked to my Hebrew teacher today and she said that there really is no replacement for the Western Wall, and the guide book was not entirely right)

Statue of King David 

Zion's Gate (an entrance to the Old City)--check out the bullet holes in the wall :-)

Our next stop was the church of St. Peter in Gallicantu. This is the traditional place where Peter denied Christ as recorded at the end of Luke 22. Also, this is where Jesus Christ was supposedly held before he was taken to see Pilate.

There was a beautiful overlook at the church, so we took some beautiful shots of Jerusalem

The temple Mount

The spot where the Kidron, Tyropean, and Hinom valleys converge

love it.

Katie and Myself.

In the chapel of the church, we sang the hymn I Believe in Christ, which was really special.

This is excavated mosaic floor from the Byzantine church that formerly stood here (5th century)

A lower chapel in the church

This was the traditional spot where Jesus Christ was held before meeting with Pilate. There are some caves under the church that would have been used as a prison in the time of Jesus, and we went down to look around...

The outside of the church

St. Peter in Gallicantu

Me outside of the church

After the church, we went to a nearby cemetery to visit the grave of Oskar Schindler

This is the cemetery where Schindler's grave is

If you have seen the movie Schindler's List, it is based on the historical events of this man. He was a German businessman in Nazi occupied Poland and the Czech Republic. He hired Jews to work for him and it is estimated that he saved over 1,000 Jews from deaths by preventing their deportation to death camps. He also treated them much better than his Nazi counterparts did.  

Putting a rock on a grave is a Jewish tradition (instead of flowers) as a sign of respect. Schindler's grave is covered in pebbles and rocks.

The three of us added pebbles to his grave.

"The Unforgettable Lifesaver of over 1200 persecuted Jews"

Next we headed to the Church of the Redeemer, and climbed the tower there. It is located in the middle of the Old City, so from the tower we got some great views from a high place in the middle of the city :-)

the shadow of the tower and the street below

the grey domes are the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (one of the traditional spots honoring where Jesus died and was resurrected)

the Dome of the Rock

check out all those satellites :-)

beautiful view :-)

I love Jerusalem :-)

Malia descending the stairs--this is how the staircase was the entire way up and down (one staircase) except this was near the top, so it was more brightly lit than most of the staircase...sketch...

When we got to the bottom of the stairs, a German worship service was starting (the church of the Redeemer is a Lutheran church that was built during the time of Kaiser Wilhelm). We said that we spoke German and so we joined the service. It was actually one of my  highlights from the day. I loved it! I took 3 years of German in high school and I was surprised at how much I retained--I think I understood about half of what the lady leading the service was saying. I definitely got the gist of the service... 

the German song book :-)

On our way back to the center, we stopped at a candy store in the Old City because Malia wanted to get some gummy candies :-) These stores are all :-)

We had a really great day in the city! I loved seeing such interesting sights!

-E