On to the Old City

 

Joel took this picture of us from the overlook right before we entered the Old City.  To our right (your left) is the walled Old City of Jerusalem... Joel was adamant we recognize that the Hollywood version of Jerusalem shown in Kingdom of Heaven was ridiculous... there was no way that Saladin could have used towers to assault the walls; I mean look at the place... the entire city is on a hill.  Just over my shoulder is Mount of Olives, the largest Jewish burial ground in the world.

Old Jerusalem has been conquered, ripped down, rebuilt, etc. so many times it's hard to count.  As it stands today, it is home to three of the world's most religious sites (of which we saw two): The Church of the Holy Sepulchre (for Christians), the Western or Wailing Wall (for Jews), and the Temple Mount, also known as the Dome of the Rock (for Muslims).

Joel asked our religious backgrounds, and with me being Roman Catholic (albeit non-practicing), focused most of our time in the Old City on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We pretty much did a Christian tour of the city.

Our first stop was the Tomb of King David.  David (of biblical fame) established Jerusalem as the capitol of Jewish society and built the original walls, though the Old City in its glory was essentially finished by King Herod.  The tomb obviously has great importance to the Jews, but also happened to be the site of the Last Supper, for which the room is open to visitors.

As Joel explained it, when Jesus brought his following to Jerusalem to preach against the evil money changers, he was told to appear before the senate for his words (which of course led to his conviction and crucifixion). On the night of the Last Supper, he convened his disciples above David's Tomb, because only descendants of David were allowed to use this place on the Sabbath.  The room was originally a rooftop patio, but the Crusaders preserved it as an actual room a thousand years later, and after the Muslims retook the city they turned it into a mosque.

The first picture shows the carving on the east side of the room, showing Muslim worshippers the direction of Mecca for prayer.  I included the second photo of the two columns because they show the difference in the cornice of the pillars.  The Crusaders would destroy Jewish and Muslim buildings during the Crusades, then use the rubble to build anew.  That's why they know this was the room... because the cornices do not match.

So Joel took this picture of us with me sitting on a short pillar that he insisted I had to sit on.  He then proceeded to explain that when Pope John Paul II visited the Holy Land, among the many requests he took to deliver mass, he had only one request: that he eat in the room of the Last Supper.  Because John Paul was fairly feeble by the time he made this visit, the city administrators put in a stone pillar for him to sit on while he ate... yeah, I'm sitting where Pope John Paul II sat!  I tried to convince Jeana to sit on my lap for this photo and condemn us both to eternal hell (Joel agreed that would have made a good picture) but she politely declined.  Whoever said Unitarians don't have morals was obviously mistaken.

From outside the room of the Last Supper, you can see the Crusaders' mark carved on the pillar above the window.

We then entered the Old City through the Bethlehem Gate (each gate is named for the largest near city facing it).  All of the gates are shaped like an L and had two doors.  This was done so an invading army would be caught in a bottleneck after breaking the first gate.  There were windows above the "L" that would allow the defenses to pour hot tar, drop torches, etc. on to the army caught in the bottleneck.

(Incidentally, tourists in the Old City have utterly no concept of politeness, as evidenced by this girl walking in front of me as I took this shot.  People are so overcome with religious fervor here, they tend to just ignore courtesy.)

These photos were taken outside the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The one on the right shows a pair of Franciscan monks.  The church is shared by these monks (Roman Catholic) and the Armenians (who are Greek Orthodox).  Both have no respect for the others, so they basically will break into hymns whenever the others are singing and try to drown out the others.  2000 years of antagonism with no progress towards resolution in Jerusalem, and this is amongst Christians.  Go figure.

More in the next post...