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Published: December 3rd 2008
Matt & Emma at the Mount of Olives
Dome of the Rock glowing in the background.We crossed into Israel from Jordan via the Allenby Bridge into the West Bank. After crossing the borders, we hopped onto another bus and met our new tour guide. We drove straight to Jerusalem. Our first sight of the Holy City was awe-inspiring. Driving into Jerusalem from the east takes you through a tunnel. When we emerged we saw the city of Jerusalem, with Mt Moriah in the middle of our view. The golden Dome of the Rock was glowing in the sunset. It was quite a beautiful sight. We made a quick pitstop at the Mount of Olives to get some perspective on Jerusalem, and then proceeded to our hotel.
The next day the Israeli section of our tour started and was non-stop until we arrived at the Dead Sea a little over a week later.
Our first two days was based in Jerusalem and we saw the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, St. Peter’s of the Cockcrow, the house of Caiphas where Jesus was imprisoned for one night, the Kedron Valley, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the old city of Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall, Mt. Zion, the Pools of Bethesda, the Via Delarosa, and
King David’s Tomb - as well as a whole bunch of churches dedicated to these sites. There were so many highlights, but probably being able to pray at the Wailing Wall would’ve been at the top. The biggest disappointment was probably the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is the site of where Jesus was crucified and laid in the tomb. We still enjoyed it because our guide was pretty clued up on the evidence for and against the Church being the original location and the evidence for and against the Garden Tomb (which we didn’t see). But the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is actually five churches in one such as the Catholic, and Greek Orthodox churches. Rather than focusing on the amazing event that happened on that location, the various churches spent their time fighting over who had rights to various sections of the site…even down to fighting over who should open the doors of the church in the morning!! Even more amazingly, it took the Muslims to come in and set some rules because they were sick of the regular fights that would break out in and around the church. The keys are held by a Muslim
1967 reminders
Bulletholes from the Six Day War on Mt Moriah family, so each day the various Churches have to go and ask for the keys to the church. It makes you wonder what Jesus would say about this…especially given that they are all CHRISTIAN churches!!
Furthermore, the site has been so “glitzed up” that it’s quite hard to find any of the original site. The tomb of Jesus has largely been destroyed because the Greek Orthodox church has cut most of it away and replaced it with golden tiles and candles etc. The most beautiful part of the church was one section with an original tomb. Two of the churches are still fighting over who owns that part of the site, so it hasn’t been glitzed up yet.
We also crossed into the Palestinian Territory to see Bethlehem. Our visit was held up because the roads were closed as the Italian president was checking out Bethlehem for himself. Once the roads were reopened, we saw the Church of the Nativity (again, another site with three churches), and the Shepherd’s Field. These places were again “glitzed up” by the churches over the ages. We were surprised by Bethlehem as we were expecting it to look like a dump seeing
Wailing Wall
Matt putting a prayer up at the Wailing Wall it’s an occupied territory. It was actually cleaner than most of Europe, except for a fair bit of construction rubble. It was still a bit sad to realize that the place where Jesus was born is a virtual prison for its present day inhabitants.
Whilst we were in Jerusalem, we also connected with a couple of churches to find out about today’s Christians in the Holy Land. Disappointingly, there’s a mass exodus of Christians from this area. They are between a rock and a hard place as most Christians are in the Palestinian Territory and tend to be well educated. So they usually leave to work in Europe on the USA as there is no work there. We learnt about modern Israeli history and the struggles of the Palestinian community. It was quite interesting, and a real eye-opener.
After Jerusalem, we went on to Nazareth. This was a long drive so we saw a few things on the way such as Mt Tabor and the spring where Gideon chose the army to fight against the Midianites. We also saw Cana which was the location of Jesus’ first miracles - turning water into wine. We saw the two Churches
of the Annunciation (the Greeks and the Catholics have them in different locations) where the angel told Mary that she would give birth to the Messiah. We also went on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee which was excellent and saw the Jesus Boat. This is a boat that was found a few years ago that dates back to the 1st century AD. It’s probably not the boat that Jesus sailed in, but because of the dating of the boat it was given that name. We went to Capernaum where we saw St. Peter’s house and the location of the synagogue where Jesus preached. We also found the location where Jesus cooked breakfast for his disciples when they caught many fish.
We proceeded on to Caesarea Philippi, and the Golan Heights. We got to see into Lebanon and Syria in the one day! We had to be careful with the areas we went to as the Syrians had mined a lot of this area during the Six Day War and weren’t kind enough to tell the Israelis afterwards where they had put the mines.
After Nazareth, we went to Mount Carmel where Elijah confronted the prophets
of Baal and then onto Haifa and Akko. Akko is the location of an old crusader port which was the crusader capital when King Richard the Lionheart came to the Holy Land. We followed the coast through Herod’s palace at Caesarea and down to Tel Aviv and then proceeded inland through to his clifftop fortress at Masada. This was an amazing place where the Zealots held out against the Roman Army. When it was clear that the Romans would eventually breach the palace, rather than accepting slavery, the 960 defenders committed suicide. Whilst we were up there, we saw a couple of school groups where the teachers had some serious “teacher aides” i.e. rifles slung over their shoulder. We had quite a few teachers, particularly secondary school teachers, who loved this idea and took many photos of this scene. One of our people asked a teacher why they were carrying guns with kids less than 12 years old nearby. The teacher answered, “Insurance.”
After that, we went on to the Dead Sea where Matt finally got his opportunity to float in the Dead Sea. It’s 30% saline, so it’s quite amazing to swim in it. They have lifeguard stations
on the beach, but it’s impossible to drown in the Dead Sea. Getting the water in your eyes or nose would be extremely painful. Matt just got a splash of water on his lips whilst swimming and it almost felt like it was burning.
We’re having a well-earned rest day at the Dead Sea and will leave from here to cross the border into Jordan before flying from Amman to Cairo to commence our Egyptian jaunt. Today’s highlight has been going to the lowest McDonald’s in the world. McDonald’s here is kosher and much tastier than back home. Because it is kosher, you can’t buy a cheeseburger (can’t mix dairy and meat), but the burgers are bigger than back home. And funnily enough, they had ran out of fish for a Filet-o-Fish at the Dead Sea. It does also show how expensive Israel is. Using McEnomics to measure purchasing power across the world, it can be seen that burger meal which would cost $6 in Australia costs about A$15 in Israel.
Anyway, we shall pick this up in Egypt. Cheers for now! And if you can, spare a prayer for our homeward bound trip. At present, we’re booked
into flying via Bangkok. If it turns into a “no-go” zone, then our alternative could probably be Mumbai….great!
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Rob
non-member comment
about the fighting over the Sepulchre... Jesus would've continued writing in the sand. What stirkes me about Jesus the person portrayed, is that he really did not spend any time worrying whether anyone believed anything he did or had to say. The fracas he created at the Temple was because of the denigration of his old man, not ebcause of any persoanl insult... he supported those who did all they could for others, and did the same himself. Secretly I wonder if he would be more upset that we honour him at all, over his father, with the sepulchre... the sand he would be standing on, and writing in would be part of his father's temple... He might just wonder why the church was built at all... but only briefly, if it does good he'd leave it be, if it does bad... I suspect he'd leave it be too... Looks like you are both having fun... and I've been working too long in a catholcic school... lol