A trip to Israel wasn't really high on my list of places to visit. But I have to admit that after having been, I think it should be high on everyone's list! The history that is there is just amazing. I mean, every step, I was in awe as we saw something else from the Bible or I'd read about.
Of course for Christians, a must see is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is the site of Jesus' crucifixion. Because of this, it is actually maintained by 6 different religions: Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Egyptian Copts, Syriacs, and Ethiopians. They all have a chapel inside the Church.
Just as you enter the church, there are stairs on the right leading you up to Calvary. The Roman Catholics have the 11th and 12th Stations of the Cross here as well. The picture above is the Rock of Calvary/Golgotha - you can actually kneel under the altar and touch the stone on which Jesus was crucified.
This is the anointing stone where they laid out Jesus' body. People touch it and pray or bless items on it.
Here is the Rotunda which contains the Holy Sepulchre - Jesus' tomb. You are allowed to go in and see the stone of his tomb. Outside of these major things, there are still a ton of other interesting sites within the Holy Sepulchre! You could spend hours going through it. We did have time to walk around and see more sites but never enough time on a tour :)
After the Holy Sepulchre, we saw a few more sites within the Old City of Jerusalem including the room where Jesus held the Last Supper and the Tomb of King David. Jut walking around the old city was fascinating - so many small passageways and shops/markets all along. People often ask me if I felt safe. Really, I did. I mean, there are Israeli soldiers walking around with machine guns which is a little weird. But there are TONS of tourists there of all religions. I really never felt unsafe.
Then, we departed the Old City and went across the valley to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations.
The Church of All Nations
The Garden of Gethsemane - olive trees
And that was the end of the tour! They dropped us off at our hotel where we relaxed until the next day when we left for the Dead Sea/Masada.
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I miss traveling with you!
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