Jerusalem: The Old City, Dome of the Rock, Yad Vashem
And Where to See the Dead Sea Scrolls
We were taken to all sections of the Old City. Whether you are Jewish or not (but especially if you are not) go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. You may want to bring something with you such as a cloth or cross. These types of items are what we saw people using to wipe the area where Christ was washed.
Make sure you tour the Tower of David. These ancient ruins were remarkable. You will get beautiful views of Jerusalem from many areas within the Old City.
You will want to go to the Wailing Wall also known as the Western Wall. You will see Jews of all denominations praying. Women are separate from men and you will have to pass through a guard especially to see if you are dressed properly. If your knees or shoulders are showing, you will be given a skirt and shawl. It is a tradition (so bring paper or write something on paper before you go) to put something you want to say (for example to your deceased father) on this paper and put it in a crack in the wall.
Make a reservation to tour the Kotel or Western Wall Tunnel. This is an underground tunnel that exposes the Wall in its entirety. The website is http://english.thekotel.org/. Remember that you can call Israel from Skype for pennies!
Spend another day going to the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock can be seen while touring the Old City. It is located on what is called the Temple Mount, which Muslims refer to as the "Noble Sanctuary." If you are Jewish, visiting this Mosque is controversial because it is literally built over the site of the Second Jewish Temple which was built after the destruction of the First Jewish Temple.
We were not allowed into the mosque although according to the times listed for visiting we should have been. The area is huge and the shrine's mosaics and pillars are beautiful. This is free.
We were there during the Gaza Strip (Flotilla) incident so security was high. I never feared for my life or looked over my shoulder; however. I am currently writing this from San Francisco where I don't want to walk in the streets for fear of being accosted by a homeless person!
Yad Vashem is Israel's Holocaust Museum. We went here after Dome of the Rock but we felt rushed. I figure you'll need about seven hours to do this museum justice. There are free tours starting at 11:00a.m. We started by listening and reading everything with the help of an audio guide and then had lunch. We realized we would have to skip some of Yad Vashem because you do not want to miss the outside. This is what really differentiates Yad Vashem from any Holocaust Museum to which I have been.
One area that moved us tremendously were 500 stone towers representing the 500 Jewish villages (Lodz, for example) destroyed during the Holocaust. There are walking paths of trees donated by a variety of people including Oscar Schindler (Schindler's List) a German who saved about 1200 Jews. Also moving was the memorial room with an eternal flame and the names of all the camps carved in the floor.
The children's museum will make anyone cry. It appears pitch dark. You will hear a voice reading the names and ages of the children. The only lights are 1.5 million lights gleaming around you representing the number of children who died in the Holocaust.
We knew that much of the Israel Museum was closed for construction so we knew we had enough time here. If it is open you'll want to visit here on another day but it is opened until 9:00p.m. What is really remarkable here are the Dead Sea Scrolls - for real - found by 2 Bedouins while walking in the desert in 1957! There was pottery that is older than imaginable as in BCE. There were some ruins here as well.
This covers our first couple of days in this amazing city.
Published by jobythebay
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3 Comments
Post a CommentVery interesting. Thanks for the details.
Thanks, Lori:)
"We were there during the Gaza Strip (Flotilla) incident so security was high. I never feared for my life or looked over my shoulder; however. I am currently writing this from San Francisco where I don't want to walk in the streets for fear of being accosted by a homeless person! " - excellent observation