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The Southwest corner of the Temple Mount!  32 steps 220 feet long leading up to the Southern entrance of the Temple Mount. These steps were used by all people entering the Temple Mount, so it is considered 100% that Jesus walked here!  Leave behind crosses and Bibles and the Moslems will let you up on the Temple Mount between 7 AM and 11 AM. Here I am next to their Main Mosque.  Me in front of a place to wash your feet. See the "Dome of the Rock" behind me. The Moslems don't worship there, they built it to keep the Jews from building Temple #3. Yes, that is real gold plating!  Looking to the east.  The outer wall of the Temple Mount has defensive slits used to shoot arrows. I poked my camera through them and snapped some shots. Imagine repelling invaders from here! In the middle of the first picture, you can see the Church of All Nations and the Russian Orthodox (shiny domes).    I separated from my group to take these shots. As I was finishing, a couple of Moslem Security with sub-machine guns told me it was time to leave. No problem! So I went to the "only" place to enter the Temple Mount to meet up with my group. And watched them lock the door! That's when I found out about "One entrance, many exits"! So I started running along the wall, hoping to find my group before I caused an international incident! I saw two others from my group being escorted by someone calling himself a "friend of our Tour Guide who could lead us to her". We exited the Temple Mount and began winding our way through some shady parts of the Arab Quarter (actually, the whole Arab Quarter is shady, ask Mark who got his pocket picked even after our Tour Guide warned us to be watchful). Eventually, we rounded a corner and there was our group!! Church of Saint Anne (Mary's Mom). Built by the Crusaders. Famed for its acoustics. We went in and sang a song!  Pools of Bethesda: Considered having healing properties. Here Jesus healed a man lame for many years who couldn't get anyone to help him to the water. Jesus got in big trouble for doing work (healing) on the Sabbath!  Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (built in 325 AD). I'm reaching in to touch the rock that had the hole that supported Jesus' cross (the stone of Golgotha). Trying to hurry to get my picture taken (there was a line), I forgot to take a moment and reflect. Next time...  It is said that Mary didn't die, she "fell asleep". Here at the Church of Dormition.  The traditional Tomb of King David.  The view from the Citadel. See the Dome of the Rock? And notice how many satellite dishes there are!   Strong evidence that this is the Garden Tomb where Jesus was buried. I'm standing in the groove that allowed the disk-shaped stone to roll in front of the entrance.  Inside! Jesus' head would've been toward the top center of the picture and His feet toward the bottom left corner (or the other way around?). See how one side was chiseled out, indicating that the person buried there was taller than the person the tomb was originally cut for...  Click here to go to Day 5! |