Old City of Jerusalem Part I: Week 4 / Day 26 / Feb 5

Posted February 6, 2019 by davehartsough

Jerusalem, Israel: A couple of notes before getting started with today’s activities: 1. This is the most hotly contested bit of real estate in the entire world. Although I have read a fair bit about it, I am no expert on the history of, or validity of claims to different things. With that awareness, I am only going to describe what I did and saw. No editorializing on who should own what, live where, or similar things. Want to get up on a soapbox in the comments? Knock yourself out. 2. This place is one of the holiest of holy sites for the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). Pretty clearly they believe different things about what has happened here or will still happen here. Here again, I am not going to state some things as fact and others as “stories.” I’m just going to describe the spots as described by the mainstream adherents of that faith – “Jesus’ cross was put into the ground at this spot? Yep!” or “Muhammad ascended to heaven from this spot for a conversation with Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, Jesus, and God? You bet!” The exception to this is where scholars (religious and non-religious alike, agree that certain events could not have taken place at the spots ascribed by some – e.g. the first ten locations along the via dolorosa). Also, anything I get egregiously wrong on the Christian faith, I am sure my brother (Pastor Mark Hartsough of New Hope Lutheran Church in Newark, Ohio) will be happy to correct. 3. This is going to be a long post. There is a LOT to see here and I found a lot of it very interesting. So long that I am breaking it into two parts. Whew! With that out of the way, let’s get on with the day’s events.

There are various options for tours of the Old City, both free and paid. After a bit of research I decided to go with the Sandeman’s Tours paid tour. It was supposed to be a 4 hour walking tour, but our guide really got into it, so it was actually a bit over 6 hrs. If you ever get a chance to come here, I strongly recommend taking such a tour, either paid or free. It is a great breadth-first search of the city that acquaints you with the major things to see. In later days, once can then explore the things of most interest in greater detail.

Our tour was to meet at the Jaffa Gate at 11:00 AM. Conveniently forgetting this fact, I arrive promptly at the Damascus Gate 10:45 AM, early as instructed to allow time for check-in. After a half mile sprint up hill to the proper gate, I was suitably exhausted for the tour. I was going to say I was wheezing like an old man at the end of that run, but, given my age, I guess just saying I was wheezing is sufficient.

The Jaffa Gate is one of the passages through the city walls.

The walls are a relatively recent addition to the city, having been built in 1536. Prior to that the Ottoman sultan in charge of the city did not want walls. Given their prior experiences with the Crusades (side note: pretty much No One likes the Crusaders. When they got here they murdered almost anybody they saw: Jews and Muslims for being the wrong faith, and Christians for being the wrong brand of Christian), they felt it best to not have city walls. That way if the Crusaders came back they could be easily defeated again and the city retaken. Solid fortifications would make it a lot harder to get the Crusader out.

Our tour began down the streets of the Armenian Quarter. The city is divided into four quarters (shocking that there would be four, I know!): Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim. Although they are “Quarters” the Muslim Quarter is 30,000 of the city’s inhabitants with the other three quarters roughly equal shares of the other 10,000. The Armenians have the longest, continuous residence in the city, having been here since 350 AD following the conversion of their king to Christianity (a long interesting backstory on that which is worth the read).

Leaving the Armenian Quarter we entered the Jewish Quarter and saw the old Roman Cardo.

Unlike other culture’s cities, Roman cities were planned out. They always featured a dominant North / South street called the Cardo where many shops and markets were located. If you recall the visit to Jerash, there was a Cardo there that ran from the Oval Plaza and Temple of Zeus / South Gate to the Public Plaza / North Gate.

Continuing on from the Cardo and going through the Jewish Quarter we arrive at the Western Wall.

Prior to this trip, although I had heard of the Western Wall, I did not understand its significance. The entirety of the Temple Mount was constructed as a place of worship on the ground where the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem were. Jews had been forcibly evicted from the city in the centuries earlier, but were allowed to reenter and worship during the 1500s. However, given that they were not Muslims, they were not allowed to worship atop the mount. The significance of the Western Wall then is that this is the closest a Jew can get to the foundation stone of the original temple built by Solomon and pray, engage in religious ritual, and openly express their faith. As such, it is the site of many bar mitzvahs and other religious events.

OK, I will express my profound ignorance of Jewish tradition here and say that I thought the boy in the first picture was wearing a Go-Pro to record his bar mitzvah (given all of the other cameras it would not have been shocking). However, I was told that it was a Tefillin – a small leather box containing scrolls of parchment with verses from the Torah. The reason for this comes from Exodus: “And it shall be for a sign for you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth.” This then is literally the memorial between their eyes. Similarly, the straps on the arms in the last picture come from Deuteronomy: “And you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm.”

Leaving the Western Wall we went through security to head up to the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is open to the public from 7:30 AM – 10:30 AM and 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM Sunday through Thursday. Security is provided by the Israeli army, but there are Muslim authorities who control access as well and deem what is appropriate / inappropriate. One aspect of this is that visitors, male or female, who are deemed to be dressed insufficiently modestly are provided with a green skirt (as modeled by the gentleman below) to wear while visiting.

The two dominant structures up on the mount are the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The Al Aqsa mosque (full name al Asjid al Aqsa which basically means the furthest mosque) is the mosque that Muhammad visited when he ascended into heaven for the discussions with God and prophets mentioned previously. One may note a certain time incongruity here in visiting a mosque before Islam had started as a religion, but, if literal accuracy is what you are after, you are going to have a bad time reading many religious texts. From the outside the mosque appears relatively modest.

We did not have time to visit the mosque in detail, but I hope to get back up there to see more. Located to the north of the mosque is a purification fountain.

Further beyond this fountain is the Dome of the Rock. Contained within this building is the foundation stone from the first temple and from which Muhammad ascended into heaven.

The Dome of the Rock is quite beautiful to see in person and has amazing tile work. The dome itself has been stripped of gold and refinished multiple times over the years. Most recently, it was refinished through a grant from King Hussein of Jordan. Unfortunately, they a did a bit too good a job (the reflection blinded drivers on a nearby highway causing the road to be closed) and the refinishers had to be brought back to dull the surface.

Around the rest of the Temple Mount one can see various other remnants of previous years and views of the surrounding countryside.