Jerusalem, the City of Cities

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Early in the morning we were picked up from our hotel and started to head towards Jerusalem. The trip was quite short and we arrived soon at the City Centre of Jerusalem. After the arrival we started the city trip by visiting the tomb of King David which is located on Mount Zion. King David's Tomb is a site viewed as the burial place of David, King of Israel, according to a tradition beginning in the 12th century. The tomb is situated in a ground floor corner of the remains of the former Hagia Zion, a Byzantine church. Older Byzantine tradition dating to the 4th century identified the location as the Cenacle of Jesus and the original meeting place of the Christian faith.

. From there we arrived in a synagogue, which has been changed to a monastery and a mosque many times. From inside you can see many traces of all these religions.

From there we went to the Church of the Sepulchre of Saint Mary, also Tomb of the Virgin Mary.

According Sacred Tradition of Eastern Christianity the Virgin Mary died a natural death, like any human being, that her soul was received by Christ
upon death, and that her body was resurrected on the third day after her repose, at which time she was taken up, soul and body, into heaven in
anticipation of the general resurrection. Her tomb, according to this teaching, was found empty on the third day. Roman Catholic teaching holds
that Mary was "assumed" into heaven in bodily form, the Assumption, the question of whether or not Mary actually underwent physical death remains
open in the Catholic view; however, most theologians believe that she did undergo death before her Assumption.
A narrative known as the Euthymiaca Historia (written probably by Cyril of Scythopolis in the 5th century) relates how the Emperor Marcian
and his wife, Pulcheria, requested the relics of the Virgin Mary from Juvenal, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, while he was attending the
Council of Chalcedon (451). According to the account, Juvenal replied that, on the third day after her burial, Mary's tomb was discovered to be empty,
only her shroud being preserved in the church of Gethsemane. According to another tradition it was the Cincture of the Virgin Mary which was left behind in the tomb.

After a short but impressive visit it was time for visiting 'the wall'. Entering the wall area requires off course another series of security checks and we entered the wall area. In order to come close to the wall it was obligatory to wear a kippah. Luckily there were kippahs made from paper which were offered for tourists in order to go come close to the wall.

The Western Wall or Wailing Wall is located in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount.
It is a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple's courtyard, and is arguably the most sacred site recognized by the Jewish faith
outside of the Temple Mount itself. Just over half the wall, including its 17 courses located below street level, dates from the end of the
Second Temple period, commonly believed to have been constructed around 19 BCE by Herod the Great, but recent excavations indicate that the works were
not finished during Herod's lifetime. The remaining layers were added from the 7th century onwards. The Western Wall refers not only to the exposed
section facing a large plaza in the Jewish Quarter, but also to the sections concealed behind structures running along the whole length of the
Temple Mount, such as the Little Western Wall – a 25 ft (8 m) section in the Muslim Quarter.

It has been a site for Jewish prayer and pilgrimage for centuries; the earliest source mentioning Jewish attachment to the site dates back to
the 4th century. From the mid-19th century onwards, attempts to purchase rights to the wall and its immediate area were made by various Jews,
but none was successful. With the rise of the Zionist movement in the early 20th century, the wall became a source of friction between the
Jewish community and the Muslim religious leadership, who were worried that the wall was being used to further Jewish nationalistic claims to the
Temple Mount and Jerusalem. Outbreaks of violence at the foot of the wall became commonplace and an international commission was convened in 1930
to determine the rights and claims of Muslims and Jews in connection with the wall. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the wall came under Jordanian
control and Jews were barred from the site for 19 years until Israel captured the Old City in 1967 and three days later bulldozed the adjacent
770-year old Moroccan Quarter.

After the wall it was time to visit the third holiest site in Islam, the Al Aqsa Mosque. By arriving to the entrance of the mosque, immediately the Palestine 'guards' stopped us. Our guide explained that I was a Muslim and wanted to visit the site. Strange enough the Palestines do not allow foreigners into the Mosque area. I also experienced some problems as I've Turkish roots. Anyway after they were convinced the let me trough and one guy offered him as a guide (actually it was mandatory to have a guide) and entered the mosque area.

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