We wandered through the gates to the old city of Jerusalem and just inside we saw to one side a door that was slightly ajar. We checked it out and it led to an excellent walk around the old wall, not another person to be see there while the city below was bustling.
The old town itself is remarkable. Such an amazing mixture of humanity and cultures.
The Church of the holy Sepulchre has been an important pilgrimage site for Christians since the fourth century. It houses items and activities that are said to be related to the death and resurrection of Christianity’s big dude, Jesus, and people throw themselves on to what was said to be his tomb and slobber all over it with kisses. Not a real healthy thing to do, I would have thought.
If you check out the history of the church, you’ll see that there has been a bun fight or two between the Christian variations who stake a claim to parts of the church and are prepared to have a punch-up with their fellow religious folk over silly stuff like the movement of a chair that one lot claims as theirs. Stuff like that. I guess they forget their religious, love thy neighbour thoughts at those stages.
A major site is, of course, The Western Wall, where people pray to a bunch of rocks and put little bits of paper with their wishes and stuff written down, into cracks and joins in the rocks.
Now, these two rather unusual activities, slobbering over a slab of rock and writing notes to rocks, are just two of the really unusual things about Jerusalem. It is such an interesting place.
From The Wall Around The City
The Old Town
Jerusalem Market
