Monday, 27 October – Jerusalem’s Old City

The Prima King Hotel is very nice.  The internet is sporadic and a pain……  It’s a huge hotel and it’s filled with tourists and pilgrims.  You never know what language people will try out on you at breakfast…..

We took the bus to the Old City and entered thru one of the newer gates. We started at the Western (Wailing) Wall.  The place for prayer is separated between men and women.

The Men's section

Next we entered the tunnels and chambers under the western wall.  It showed all the different levels of construction used for the two times the temple was built, destroyed and built again.

The women's section

Where we exited the tunnel system we were in the Moslem Quarter of the city, but it was right near the start of the “Via Dolorosa” which was the path that Jesus took from his death sentence to the top of Golgotha (Calvary).  There are 14 ‘stations of the cross that we got to see.

This is the site where Jesus was whipped and the thorn of crowns was put on him.

This is the site where he fell for the second time and
right after he saw his mother

We ended at the “Church of the Holy Sepulcher” which is the site of Jesus crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

This is the site of the crucifixion.  The people are crawling in
to touch the place where the cross was inserted in the rock.

This is the rock that is believed to be where Jesus' body
was prepared for burial.

This is the site of the actual tomb.  

This is a nearby Jewish tomb that would
have been similar to Jesus' tomb.

We then walked to the Mt. Zion area, which is the site of the last supper and 50 days later…. Pentecost occurred here.

In the chapel that was built on the site of the 'Upper Room'