Succot Weekend: Jerusalem Trip

Saturday evening, Neil and I took the train over to Jerusalem. Public transportation in Israel is suspended during shabbat, which meant the first train running out of Herzliya on Saturday departed at 17:09. We arrived in Jerusalem around 23:00, took a cab to the Old City, and went off in search of the Jaffa Gate Hostel where we had made reservations. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the hostel, we found the reception desk vacant. Multiple calls to the cellphone number listed on the desk proved fruitless, and Neil and I walked out with sad, sad spirits.

Consulting our Let's Go Israel, we decided to stay in a notoriously active hostel in the Muslim quarter. However, while navigating through the deserted alleys of the Old City, a Jewish guy and his little brother asked us if we needed help. Learning of our destination, he strongly discouraged us from staying there, and instead directed us to the hostel of his friend in the Armenian quarter. As he led us up an obscure set of stairs off the main alley and down another isolated crevice, I got a little nervous. But, the hostel turned out to be really cool.

The Citadel hostel has a really unique interior. The rooms appear to be carved into the stone, and we lucked out with Room #2-- a sweet suite on the second floor with a private bathroom and window alcove.

Desolate alleyway near hostel.

The room.

Windowsill perch.

Bathroom decor.

Neil: "I think this room gets a 10 for character."

Views from the roof of the hostel.

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Before I dive into the heart of my Succot weekend in Jerusalem, let me briefly digress.

I am, by no stretch of the imagination, a religious person. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself atheist, but despite 18 years of Catholic upbringing, I failed to retain the foundational tenets of the practice.

With that said, I am fascinated by the (frequently overlapping) historical foundations of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity found in Jerusalem and greater Israel. I have a profound respect for those that practice their religion with quiet conviction; it is the opportunity to observe the diverse practices of multiple faiths within such close quarters within their historical context that brings me to Jerusalem again and again. (This weekend was my 3rd visit to Jerusalem since my arrival in August.)

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The Old City is the heart of historical Jerusalem. It is completely enclosed by 4km of stone walls. While many sets of walls have protected the Old City since before the 10th century BC, these walls have been razed and rebuilt by various conquering forces. The current walls stand from the 16th century, built by the Ottoman Turks.

View of the walls of the Old City from a distant peak.

The Old City is split into four quarters-- Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. These four quadrants remain from the divisions dictated by the Romans in 135 BCE. The Old City can be entered from any one of the many gates found along the perimeter of the city. The two main gates are Damascus Gate, which leads into theMuslim quarter, and Jaffa Gate, which leads into the Armenian quarter.

Photo of Damascus gate in earlier times when merchants travelled to the Old City on camels.

Neil in front of Damascus Gate today.

Neil in the entrance of the Citadel, also known as the Tower of David. The current structure dates from the 14th century, although excavations within the Citadel grounds revealed artifacts from the 2nd century BC.

The Citadel from outside the Old City walls.

Soldiers touring the Tower of David.

Neil thought it would be funny to take a picture of me with the Dome of the Rock as a little hat...

Inside the Tower of David.

The courtyard features various excavations from the 2nd century BC.

The Dome of the Rock from the top of the Tower.

Photo of a corridor leading to the machicolations-- parapets from which molten lead, hot oil and stones were dropped onto intruding enemies.

View of the Tower walls.

Excavation.

Clay tablet from the Canaanite Period. Dates from the 14th century BCE.

Written in ancient cuneiform script. One of the six letters writtent to Egyptian kings by the ruler of Urusalim.

Also from the Canaanite period. A clay figurine inscribed with curses and enemy names, which were smashed with the purpose of destroying the enemy's power.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian quarter. This is one of my favorite sites in the Old City. It is the alleged site of Christ's crucifixtion, burial and Resurrection, which makes it the most important site for Christianity and thus the destination of many pilgrims. The original basilica was constructed by the Roman emperor Constantine between 326 and 335 AD. It was destroyed by Fatimid sultan Hakim in 1009, rebuilt by the Byzantine emperor Constantine Monomachus in the 1040s, then enlarged by the Crusaders between 1114 and 1170 AD. A fire in 1808 and an earthquake in 1927 caused extensive damage to the structure, which necessitated widescale reconstruction and repair of the structure.

View of the Holy Sepulchre rotunda from the Citadel.

Front entrance of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

It is known that the left arch framed the exit of the structure and the right arch framed the entrance, because there are arrows etched into the stones above the door show where people should enter and exit.

14th century graffiti on the exterior of the church.

The Stone of Unction-- the stone upon which the annointing and wrapping of Christ's body is celebrated. The current stone dates from 1810-- after the great fire.

Underneath the Greek Orthodox altar is the celebrated site of Christ's crucifixtion-- Golgotha. You can kneel underneath the altar, and touch the rock upon which the crucifixtion occurred.

This is one of the most valuable pieces in the church-- a gold altar donated by the Medici family. The Medici crest is affixed to the sides of the piece.

The church is shared by multiple denominations of Christians-- priests in different robes are constantly in rotation through the sites of the church with incense.

Priests at prayer.

Main altar of the church.

The Edicule of the Holy Sepulchre-- the Tomb of Christ.
(Image taken from wikipedia-- my pictures of the tomb didn't turn out.)

Exterior of the Tomb and the priest guarding the entrance.
Only 4 people are allowed in the tomb at a time, and no plastic/nylon bags can be carried inside.

Inside the tomb.

Carving inside the Tomb.

The Crusaders buried themselves under the floor of the rotunda, because they thought that by placing themselves under the soles of men they would be atoning in the afterlife for their extensive sins of murder, pillaging and the like.

In the Bible, the ground allegedly splits after the crucifixion of Christ. Here, you can see the split in the ground underneath the site of Christ's crucifixion.

The carvings of pilgrims on the walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. These carved crucifixes cover the walls of the structure.

Soldiers at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Another favorite Old City site is, of course, the Western Wall. It is the Judaism's holiest site-- the Jewish peoples' primary site of pilgrimage-- where the destruction of the Temple in 70AD is mourned. The current wall is part of the wall of the Temple of the Mount (a Muslim site), built by King Herod in 20 BC. The architecture of the stone wall reveals its creators-- the large, lower stones are Herodian, while the smaller, higher stones are from Omayyad and Fatimid times.

Overhead view of the Western Wall, showing the close proximity of Judaism's holiest site with Islam's holiest site in Jerusalem.

The Dome of the Rock, built in 688-91 AD by the Omayyad caliph Abd el-Malik. It is Islam's focal structure in the Old City-- a shrine as well as a mosque, and has become a symbol of the entire city of Jerusalem. The dome was originally made of copper, but King Hussein of Jordan donated the finances to cover the dome in gold leaf.

This is my favorite, favorite site in the Old City. Ironically, I have never been inside. The Dome of the Rock is open very limited hours because of prayer, and the previous two times I visited the Old City I was with US Embassy people, who are not allowed to enter this site. Technically, when you enter the Temple Mount-- Haram esh-Sharif-- you are leaving Israel and entering a Palestinian territory. This time when I visited with Neil, it was Ramadan, so the hours were even more limited-- 07:30-09:30, which we consistently missed two mornings in a row.
NEXT TIME.

The Western Wall on a non-holiday Sunday.

The Western Wall on Succot. Crazy busy.

The wall is separated by a physical barrier-- 2/3rds of the walls is reserved for the men, and the remainder of the wall is open for women. Modest dress is required in this area, and there are police officers whose specific job is to chase down scanitly clad women and cover them with a shawl. The police also chase down photographers on Shabbat. Security into the area is pretty similar to international airport security.

Women at the wall.

Orthodox Russian Jews.

Ophel Archaeological Park-- southwestern side of Haram esh-Sharif (Temple Mount).

Dung Gate--
the entrance into the Old City nearest the Western Wall.

Soldiers near the Western Wall.

Neil and I also did the Ramparts Walk, where you walk along the top of the walls of the Old City-- a total of 4km. The walk affords great views of both modern Jerusalem and the Old City. And it was only 5 shekels (~1 dollar) as a special Succot price.

Climbing up to the Ramparts.

Neil peeking over the walls.

Views of the city from the ramparts.

Neil and the Dome of the Rock.

Next, we headed over to the City of David-- the heart of historical Jerusalem, where King David conquered the city from the Jebusites. It is just outside the Old City walls, and is the site of the first civilizations in the city dating back about 4,000 years. It was a very small city, measuring only 12 acres, but was extremely well fortified.

Orthodox Russian Jews outside the City of David.

The highlight of the site was Warren's Shaft and Hezekiah's Tunnel, which was Jerusalem's main water source-- directed from Gihon Spring. Hezekiah's Tunnel is the diversion of water from Gihon Spring into a water pool inside the Old City, constructed by Sennacherib-- king of Assyria, who laid seige to the city in 701BC. Hezekiah's Tunnel is an excavation of a 533 meter tunnel into sheer rock far, far, far below the earth's surface. It takes approximately 40 minutes to walk through the tunnel, during which you wade through approximately 70cm of water. It is pitch black inside the tunnel (you bring a flashlight), and the ceiling and walls of the claustrophobia-inducing tunnel close in on you at unpredictable times.

Descending into the bowels of the earth.


A happy tourist wielding a flashlight.

A not-so-happy tourist wishing the tunnel was larger and less than 40 minutes long.

The ceiling dropping in the small crevice.

Very narrow.

Getting to the end.

Finally out of the tunnel.

The end.

Here are some random photos:

Yummy, yummy Jerusalem bagels. SO CHEAP (4 shekels=less than a dollar).
Eaten with zatar-- essential spice.


Carob tree. Smells awful. The seeds are all exactly the same weight.
Each is exactly one carat, which is how diamonds were originally measured.

Site of Schindler's grave. Very erratic hours.

Inside Dormition Abbey-- commemorates the death of the Virgin Mary.

The excavated ruins of a Byzantine church line the bathrooms.

The Cenacle-- the alleged site of the Last Supper.

On a US Embassy tour w/ the school, we were taken here: Mary's Spring.

It is just outside Jerusalem, at the top of a hill. It is supposedly the site where Mary met Sarah and told her that she had been visited by the angel Gabriel and was pregnant.

Donkey grazing.

At the church at this site, the Lord's Prayer is printed in nearly every modern language.

In Korean.

Entrance to church.

Here the rock which once covered Christ's tomb is housed.

Apparently, it used to be very large, but pilgrims chipped away pieces of the stone until it was whittled down to its current size.

Mosaic inside the church.

View of restricted area between Jerusalem and Bethlehem (West Bank).

Concrete barricade providing Jerusalem residents some protection from snipers.

Old, old stone home reminiscent of domestic architecture during Christ's time.