Thursday, July 15, 2010


Wow! Yesterdays tour was AMAZING! The tour was mainly seeing Christian and Jewish holy sites such as the area where Jesus was apparently killed, buried and rose once again. The Jewish holy site we saw was the Wailing wall. We started the tour off by going to the church were Jeus was buried. It was huge!!!!!!!!!! When you first walked in, it opened up to a large room with many different passage ways. We took on up some VERY steep stairs and came to a place that was a place were people came to pray. In the back off the room, there was a raised platform containing a large metal slab with a picture of Jesus hanging on the cross. On either side of him there were life size models of two women (I didn't know the names of them) In front of the raised platforn was a low shelter with a hole in the middle. Apparently, inside of that hole was were the cross was placed. The room was beautiful. Nearly everything in the room was red, but it had a pleasing affect to it. We then climbed down the stairs back into the main area. In the back, there was a slab of granite that was suppose to be the place where they prepared Jesus's body. If you touched it and then brought the hand that you touched it to your face, it would have a certain smell. Next we went into a large circular room where there was a smaller building were Jesus was suppose to be buried. However the line to see it was far to long, so we went into a small "cave" off the side of the hall. Inside there was round circular area and a smaller doorway that led to a grave. Apparently the grave was for the person that had buried Jesus. Wow, I can't take up his much time explaining all of this! :) If you don't mind, I'm going to jump ahead! After we got out of the church towards the Jewish part of the Old City. To get there, we had to walk through this street that was FULL of shops, cafes and many other things. There were venders on the street selling things from drinks to clothes. The people that owned the shops really, really wanted us to buy something. They would go up to you and shake beads, necklaces and many other things in you face trying to get them to buy them. In fact one guy kept coming up to my mom and I asking us to buy postcards! VERY annoying! The first things we saw in the Jewish quarters was some old ruins of a large street that was like a outdoor market. There were large columns that created a pathway which use to be lined with shops. After checking this out for awhile, we continued down stairs to another place where a large shopping street had been found. After this, we continued onto the Wailing Wall/Western wall. It was very beautiful. After going down a flight of stairs, we sent through security like something at the airport. After this, we entered the main part of the Wailing Wall. There was a large fence the ran across the large area about 20 feet or more in front of the wall. The wall was split into two sections, a section for men and a section for women. The women section was a lot smaller. Walking towards the wall was like walking towards a giant. The two sections were completely silent except for a cough or a sneeze every once and awhile. The wall was over 20 feet tall and was very thick. There were some plants growing out of the wall and falling down it like a waterfall. An occasional pigeon would land in the one of the holes in the wall. After the Wailing wall, we went back to the bus and headed home, the tour over.
Tonight we are having dinner with all of the people who came to the conference, so I should have some things to write about!
See ya! :)

1 comment:

  1. You are an amazing writer.. Love reading about your trip.

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