Old City Adventures (Part 2)

Sukkot day! Everything is shut down again! This means another trip to the Holy Lands! It's about a 20 to 30 minute walk to get to the Old City from our apartment. Tricia, Skye and I were off-- in the 90 degree heat with 80% humidity at 9:30am. Fun times.

Our first stop--Dome of the Rock. Dome of the rock is located on the Temple Mount, and is the place thought to be where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac. Muslims believe this is where Muhammad ascended to Heaven.

You all probably already know this, but the Dome of the Rock is a Muslim Mosque. The rock is inside, and only Muslims are allowed to go inside. In fact, it is only open (open to walk up to the Dome, but not go inside) to others from 7am to 10am, and from 12:30pm to 1:30pm daily. 

We entered next to the Wailing Wall, where, for Sukkot, there was a huge Jewish service happening. Before we could even enter the Wailing Wall Area, Tricia was given a skirt to put on. I was lucky, I was wearing a skirt over my leggings already. It was sort of dumb though because Tricia was wearing black shorts with dark black tights, barely a difference from the leggings. It's tricky dressing for the Old City in the heat. I have a tattoo on the top of my back in Hebrew that I have been trying to keep hidden (mostly because EVERYONE here can read it), and it's best to keep your shoulders covered, so Tricia and I had been wearing short sleeved T's. Skye was wearing khaki shorts and a short sleeved shirt. These outfits were fine for the rest of the Old City but none of them were appropriate for Dome of the Rock! They sent us to a vendor where we had to buy scarves to cover up. Basically I think knees and elbows had to be covered up, so Skye got to wear a pretty scarf over his shorts to cover his knees! Apparently man elbows are appropriate, but women's aren't. Anyways, we bought scarves. Luckily they were only 5$ a piece and are pretty.

Thankfully it wasn't crowded and we got some good pictures before they started yelling at us to get out. Even as we were headed to the exits they yelled at us. Oh man, let me tell you, I love love love being yelled at every day for nothing. It's fantastic. 

After Dome of the Rock we stopped at the Wailing Wall so Tricia could see it (Skye and I had already been). The Jewish ceremonies were over but it was still quite crowded. Tricia and I went into the women’s side and spent a few minutes there. When we were ready to go, we noticed everyone was walking backwards on the way out, all the way to the entrance. We didn’t know the reason, but we joined in anyways. We walked backwards to the entrance, caught up with Skye and made our way out.

We headed to the different sites on the Mount of Olives. We walked along the road in between the Old City and the Mount of Olives past thousands of Jewish graves until we came to Zachariah’s Tomb, and Absalom’s Pillar. We continued on until we got to Mary’s Tomb. This was pretty cool. You walked down many stairs until you’re under ground and it’s inside a tiny Dome incased in glass. It’s rock, but you can almost see the shape of a person. It’s crazy!

Afterward we made our way up the Mount of Olives stopping at each site. First was the Garden of Gethsemane, where there are gardens and a church. This was one of my favorite spots, especially after the Sepulchre disaster. Ok, ok, it wasn’t a disaster, but it was incredibly disappointing. The reason I liked the garden so much was because it’s just a garden. It’s less important for it to be “the right exact spot”. Yes, everyone, I understand that 2000 years later there is absolutely no way of knowing the exact spot for these sites, and that it’s not the sites themselves that are important, it’s the significance and meaning behind them. But that doesn’t change the fact that the little visual-learning-Sunday-school-girl inside has hopes and expectations for these sites. But see, that’s why I liked the Garden. It was a whole garden, and Jesus WENT TO THAT GARDEN to pray! He probably walked all around it in addition to praying in the spot that He prayed. I mean, we know for sure he walked to where his disciples were to wake them up. I do realize that this attitude is a bit pathetic. But I can’t help it. The church they have built on the Garden of Gethsemane was also cool. It had mosaics of the scenes that happened in the Garden, and of course the rock thought to be where Jesus actually prayed.

Next we headed up, up, and up some more until we got to the church of Mary Magdalene. It was closed. Boo. But it was really pretty on the outside.

Up and up some more. We were on a narrow road in which a small car barely had enough room. There was a ton of foot traffic in addition to two-way vehicle traffic. This was rather interesting. Needless to say, we saw a lot of backing up that day.

We made it to Dominus Flevit. There is a small church here now, and this is the place thought to be where Jesus stopped off the road to pray look out over the city before he entered Jerusalem. It was definitely a nice view.

You guessed it! We kept walking up and up some more. We were headed for the Dome of the Ascension. Higher and higher we walked with breathtaking views the whole way up. We finally got there. It was pretty deserted. It was beginning to be a shady side of town, and after all, we were headed in the direction of the West Bank. A guy, who didn’t actually seem legitimate, asked for 5 shekels (about 1.25$) per person to get in. This was the first thing that cost to get into, but it was also the most unmaintained and the least crowded. So I still question the legitimacy of the guy, but oh well. It was just a small Dome with gravel and weeds surrounding it.

We stopped off at one more area for the view. Many tourists were there and gimmicky people with donkeys. The poor donkeys looked so sad to be there. We took some amazing pictures and headed down the Mount of Olives, through the crazy crowds in the Old city, and all the way back home.

A very productive day! We only had a few things left to check out in/near the Old city.

Stay tuned for Old City Adventures part 3! 

Dome of the Rock!

Skye in his scarf skirt, not covering his knees very well still

matching scarves wooo!

The Old City

Church of Mary Magdalene

Zachariah's Tomb

Stairs into Mary's Tomb

Mary's Tomb

Garden of Gethsemane

View of the Old City from Dominus Flevit

view from inside the church at Dominus

Dome of the Ascension

Old City walls seen from the base of the Mount of Olives