Ana and Elaine in front of the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain.
Things feel tense in Jerusalem these days. The feeling when you first exit the wooden ramp is also tense. Many guards are checking everyone out, looking for something...I'm not sure what. They stopped Elaine because her dress wasn't long enough. The backed off a bit after Reda came over and talked to them and introduced himself as a man from Egypt.
After the initial tension, you see an enormous courtyard, complete with places to sit and rest, many trees, and a place to wash your feet. The contrast between this place and the rest of Jerusalem is impossible to miss. It's relatively quiet, it's not crowded, it's open.
While walking around, Sam observed that there is plenty of room to make peace. While we were walking around, he stops, thinks for a second and then says, “Daddy, why can’t everyone just build their own building up here? There’s plenty of space! There could be one building for the Christians, one for the Muslims, and one for the Jewish people. Wouldn’t they stop fighting about it then?”
Before leaving the Old
City for the day, I took a quick jog down to the Golden Gate. You can no longer
walk through it because the gate is sealed up tight. I’ll let Wikipedia explain
the rest:
The Golden Gate, as it is called in Christian literature, is the oldest of the current gates in Jerusalem's Old City Walls. According to Jewish tradition, the Shekhinah (שכינה) (Divine Presence) used to appear through this gate, and will appear again when the Messiah comes (Ezekiel 44:1–3) and a new gate replaces the present one; that is why Jews used to pray for mercy at the former gate at this location.[1] Hence the name Sha'ar HaRachamim (שער הרחמים), the Gate of Mercy. In Christian apocryphal texts, the gate was the scene of a meeting between the parents of Mary, so that Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate became a standard subject in cycles depicting the Life of the Virgin. It is also said that Jesuspassed through this gate on Palm Sunday.
When you turn around and look out to the Mount of Olives from in front of the Golden Gate, you see this:
When you look back at the Golden Gate from the Mount of Olives, you see this:
Sam and Ben rode a camel.
Dormition Abbey is a short trek away from the mount of
olives. It’s on the south side of the city, immediately next to the Zion Gate.
It’s the traditional site of Mary’s burial place. It’s pretty. Don't take my word for it. Go and see.
Right next door to Dormition Abbey is a site commemorating
David’s burial site.
After lunch at a Greek Orthodox Monastery (the falafel was below average…figures…should have gone for the chicken), we made a trip to Herodium. Herodium is a city that King Herod built for himself in the first century BCE. It’s magnificent. I highly recommend making the trip if you are ever in the Jerusalem area.
We completed the busy day with Ice Cream (I had the mango
popsicle) at the Haas Promenade. Great views of the city looking to the North. You can see Dormition Abbey in the left of the picture. It has a purple dome on top.
Peace. Maybe someday.
