Jerusalem

So much to say, it’s fantastic so see Jews, Muslims and Christians all sharing the same space in harmony. The small streets of the old town where people in a mixture of, to me, strange dress go about their daily life. Alas you have to ignore the armed guards, the lookout posts, the divergent political views given out by our three guides, hope that the air raid sirens don’t sound, and hope you don’t see any of the protests. This has been a place of trouble, as each archeological visit will tell you, for so long. It’s being ruled by so many nations , the Brits being responsible for the clear area around Jaffa gate. I find it interesting that most of the troubles are based on some religious belief and yet nearly all the worlds religions preach peace.

The old town is a maze of small streets lined with shops and market stalls resulting in a riot of sound, colour and smells. The new town is like any modern city I have so far seen.

While here you do religious stuff, we have seen, and of course touched, one of the places where Jesus was crucified and buried, where the Virgin Mary was born, where Zacchaeus is buried, King David’s tomb, where Solomon made his wise judgements, where the last supper was held, Herods palaces, where Jesus fell, etc, etc. Often these places are backed up with Old Testament quotes that prove this is the place. Alas we didn’t do any Muslim places as I booked the tour that covered them for Friday which is a day of prayer. Friday the muslim bits shut, Friday lunch the Jews stop for sabbath and Jerusalem is primarily under Jewish control so that means nearly everything is shut, (the Chinese restaurant came to our rescue that night,) and Sunday it’s the turn of the Christians to shut their doors. Still in Jerusalem we did an aquifer tunnel, this is a small tunnel, just wide enough for a human and tall enough for a short human that was hand chiselled in the bedrock. It takes 40 minutes to walk through it, in knee height water, and given it is pitch black there is not much to see. If you are not claustrophobic do it! It was a way to get fresh water into the city at times of siege.

From here we also went into the West Bank, to Ramallah where we were taken around the market, to Jericho, where Joshua destroyed it’s walls and Jesus was tempted in the wild, to the Jordan river where Jesus was baptised, to Bethlehem where Jesus was born, and to the Palestine/Israeli wall. The last place was the most moving.

I could write a much longer post on this stop, but I’ll close here with the words from an anthem I used to sing as a kid “o pray for the peace of Jerusalem “. You can choose who/what you pray to.