Tuesday, 28 October - City of David and Bethlehem

We had the best night sleep so far.  Here is a picture of our Hotel.

Our first tour was the City of David.  It’s just below the south wall of the Old City.  It was a very small but well defended village when David captured it 1000 years before Jesus.  It was just below Mount Moriah which is where his son, Solomon built the first Temple.

Standing next to David's harp.

Looking across into the Arab section of town.

There is a lot of archeological digging going on since Israel gained control of East Jerusalem after the 6 day war in 1967.  They found another tunnel that we took from the City of David area back toward the Western (Wailing) Wall.  Portions of that wall have just been exposed.

Part of an arch that collapsed.

An active excavation

Some of the tunnels are very narrow
(or... Ellen's too wide)

The south wall of the The Temple Mount.

Our next stop was the Israel Museum.  They had a 1/50^th scale model of what Jerusalem would have looked like in 66 A.D., just before the Romans destroyed it.  The museum also housed the Dead Sea Scrolls, but we were not allowed to take any pictures in that area.

Model of the Temple Mount

Overall view of the model

The old walled "City of David" area below
the Temple Mount

Not far away was the Parliament Building of Israel (The Knesset) and a large sculpture of a menorah given to Israel by Britain.

The Knesset in the background.
(It's in session now)

We then traveled 40 minutes down to Bethlehem.  We had to cross a ‘border’ back into the West Bank.  We had a nice lunch and then visited the Shepard’s Fields where Angels appeared to the shepards.

Our lunch in Bethlehem

The Chapel of the Angels

This is a grotto (cave) where shepards would have
been keeping the sheep at night.

We went back into town and visited the Church of the Nativity which is over 1,500 years old.  It’s currently undergoing a major renovation.  The Church is built over the place where they believe the stable was where Jesus was born.  It was very crowded and the actual stable area is very small.

There are no copywriter laws in the West Bank

In the middle of a MAJOR renovation..

The Church of the Nativity

Down in the old stable area...

Kneeling to kiss the place of the birth.

Right next to the old Greek Orthodox Church is a recent (only 120 year old) Catholic church.  That is where they do the live worldwide TV broadcast of the Christmas Eve service every year.