Our first trip to Jerusalem was one of the most impressive days in my life.   The things we learned were many but the memories were unforgettable. I was totally unprepared for what I was going to witness that day.

             When we walked through the gate to the old city, the gate we actually walked through was the Jaffa Gate or the Main Gate. We then walked to the top of a building that held incredible views.  These views consisted of the Mount of Olives, Dome of the Rock, the Kydron valley, Church of the Sepulicor, Hezekiah’s pool and the Hora Synagogue. The Mount of Olives consists of three towers, Hebrew University, Augusta Victoria, and the Russian church of Asserion.

We looked at the Dome of the Rock and discussed its significance.  I thought it interesting that this little plot of land on which the dome sat, was the most controversial real-estate in the world. Built in 691,  it glows in the distance as the place where the Lord will soon return.

The Holy Sepulicure, is a shrine located on the grounds where the Catholic church believe Jesus was crucified, died and rose from the dead .  The original idea to build the Holy Sepulicure was formed by Constantine’s mother, Helena because she also believed that this was the place Jesus was crucified.  It was built on a mound where they have dug out a place for you to touch the ground on the actual place they think He was crucified.  Here, there are also tombs believed to be dated back to the time of Jesus.  They believe this primarily because of the “shaft” or kok tombs.  There were also other types of tombs we discussed, but we never actually saw the Arcasolia tombs that Jesus was buried in.  Although there were many reasons for the Holy Sepulicure, the tradition was never lost by the Christians in the Old City.

             Traveling north, we traveled to the Damascus Gate or the Gate of the Statue where Emperor Hadrian made a statue to himself.  Here, there were three arches, two small and one large.  Unfortunately, two were unseen because of later architecture built, but one smaller one remained.  Emperor Hadrian built this gate and carved above the arches, “Alia and Capitila”, Alia meaning Hadrian and Capitila meaning the God Jupiter.

             From there we walked on top of the old wall.  Here we observed the Skull Rock.  Some believe Jesus was crucified here instead of the Holy Sepulicre.  This is primarily because of Charles Warren, an officer in the British Royal Engineers.  He believed that the rock or the hill looked like a skull; therefore, this could possibly be a place where Jesus was crucified. 

             After walking on the wall, we proceeded to the pools of Bethsadia.  Here, Jesus healed the paralytic in John 5.  There are four walkways around the pool where lame, sick, and paralytic people would sit/stay. They believed that an angel would stir up the water and the people around the pools would go down to “heal” themselves. 

             Next to the pools, stood the Church of Saint Anne, this church was dedicated to Mary’s mother Saint Anne.  

Our next stop was at the western wall or the Wailing Wall.  We call it the western wall out of respect for the Jews.  This is the closest the Jews can get to the Dome of the rock.  A new Torah had been translated the day we were there and they were reading and crowds were weeping at the base of the wall, it was quite a sight to see!

             Finally, we exited out of the “Zion” gate.  In the gate, you can still see bullet holes from the War of Independence from 1948 and 1967.