jerusalem

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Wow ! ! ! today sooo busy started by walking to the jaffa gate but ruth had the map upside down and we didnt realise till we had gone 10 minuets and noticed the sun was in the west we debated for a while if the sun rose in the west in Israel then we decided it rose in the east because of certain biblical referances and turned around.

we arrived at the gate 15mins late to meet mum and dad who had taken a taxi who knew the sun rose in the east.

the walls of jerusalem are not those of Jesus time, they were broken down by the Romans in ad 70, the walls you see today were built by the Turks (Suliman the magnificent)

but the jaffa gate is in the same place

we walked down David promenard between the christian and Armenian quaters and turned right into the Cardo in the jewish quater

the cardo takes you under the houses to an area that has been excavated ( when the jews took the city in 1967 for 10 years they demolished all the houses in the jewish quater and excavated, then they built new buildings over the excavations leaving parts of it exposed so you can see walls and buildings going back to ad 70 and even back to hezekiahs time.)

we looked at sections of walls in hezekiah time and finished up at the end of the cardo in a roman street very wide with pillars and paving mostly original with some new paving

we went up to ground level and then looked back down at a section of wall built by hezekiah from stones of peoples houses Isiah 22:10

then to the remains of the burnt house a house belonging to a priest of ad 70 near the temple where there is a skeleton of a woman and a spear head and evidence that it was burnt.

we also saw more houses clearly belonging to someone wealthy because the mosaics on the floor were the same as Herods at massada

from here we went past the wailing wall and saw a replica of a manorah which a group of Jews have made to go into the new temple when they plan to build it again on the temple mount

we didnt stay at the wailing wall because we will come again later, instead we went down a tunnel that follows the wall down to the ground level as it was in ad 70

one of the stones in the wall they found was almost 600ton 14metres long 4metres thick and 7metres high this is the wall jesus was looking at when he said to his disciples you see these great stones.......

we finished this section by going through an aquaduct that brought water into the temple area.

from the end of this tunnel we went to Dele rose where the tower of antonio was and the cathilics have churches to mark the place where jesus was tried by pilate and where he was condemned to die but what happened that night is more important to us than where it happened.

because of ramadan we were not allowed up the temple mount so instead we went into omariya school which overlooks the temple mount and saw though a window the ramadam prayers with a lot of pilgrims.

when we left the school the prayers had just finished so we joined the crowds of muslims to leave the area this was so slow we had to change our plans and go back to the jaffa gate befor getting a taxi to a market area we are now back at the house having tea and at 630 we will go and witness shabat ceremonies at the wailing wall.

just got back from the temple mount the boys ruth and george and dad went down to the wall but we waited up on some steps with mum

the area was crowded and lots of non jews dancing outside the area near the wall

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