This was our last full day in Israel, and practically all of it was spent exploring the Old City. We started out on the temple mount, now the sight of the Dome of the rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Muslim population allows non Muslims up for a couple hours in the mornings, and the tension can be felt.
We did not stay there long, but made our way off of the mount down to the pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed a crippled man. It is also the sight of a Crusader era cathedral, which is beautiful, and has perfect acoustics. Another group was inside singing hymns, and the sound carried perfectly through the area. They don’t make churches that way any more.
We then traveled out of the old city to the city of David, which could be considered the Old Testament Jerusalem. We walked there following a path through the Kidron Valley, very likely where Jesus walked heading into Jerusalem during the Triumphal entry. The path goes past what used to be the Garden of Gethsemane, as well as some old mausoleums, or ‘white washed tombs,” where the priest hood was buried.
The City of David sight sits directly underneath an Arab town, and so the excavations take place underneath the buildings. Here we were able to stand about the same spot that would have been the roof of David’s palace, where an aging tired warrior king fell complacent, and ended up committing adultery and murder. From there we were able to travel down and see the walls of David’s palace, the old spring of Gihon, the tunnels David’s men had to swim through in order to get inside the city, and Hezekiah’s tunnel, which redirected the spring from it’s source to the pool of Siloam, where Jesus healed a blind man.
Returning to the old city for pizza (I know, totally unauthentic) we were once again free to explore the city. Some of us went to the church of the Holy Sepulcher, the oldest site to claim to hold Golgotha and the tomb of Christ. People were bowing down and venerating the rock that Jesus supposedly was laid on after his crucifixion. I did not enjoy it. That cathedral illustrates everything I find wrong with early Catholicism and Orthodoxy, as in order to build the church the sites themselves were destroyed, and replaced by little shrines. I much preferred the Garden tomb and skull hill area from the other day.
Our group then split into many smaller groups, I made my way to the western wall and offered a prayer, which was a neat experience. I then toured the Temple Institute visitor center. The Temple Institute is an organization dedicated to rebuilding the Jewish temple. They have all the tools ready to go and on display, as well as architectural plans and 3D models, so that when the Dome of the rock is somehow removed they can rebuild the temple immediately. I then wandered the Streets of the old city some more until we came together for our last meal as a group. I have to leave for the airport tomorrow at 2 AM, so I am afraid I will not be exploring the old city any more on this trip.