First Days in Jerusalem

25 June 2010 0809 (GMT +3) Jerusalem, Israel

Here’s a few days worth of updates rolled into one. I do not have a steady world wide web connection where I live yet, so I’m sending this from the library before class. Thus far all is well. -MG

21 June 2010

I arrived at my hotel in Jerusalem at about noon, after the long flight from Istanbul. I was tired, having only had a series of sleepless naps in the last twenty-something hours, but I had to get out. Much of my historical research and reading has revolved around Israel (both ancient and modern) and I didn’t want to lose a moment. I changed my shoes and headed off in search of the Old City.

The hotel I stayed in advertised that it was seven minutes walking distance from the Old City. I would state it’s more like ten to fifteen, but that’s neither here nor there. It is close. Follow Jaffa Street east all the way and you’ll run right into it. You can tell you’ve reached the Old City when you run into the huge wall that surrounds the city. Really up until the late

19th and early 20th Centuries, this was the city. This was the city in which Solomon built the first temple, which housed the Ark of the Covenant. This was the city that Jesus entered on Palm Sunday. This was the city that was taken by the first Crusaders in 1099, and retaken by Salah al-Din nearly one hundred years later. This was the city that Israel captured from Jordan during the 1967 war. This is an old city indeed.

There are seven points of entry into the Old City. Starting from the north-west corner and working clockwise, there is the New Gate, the Damascus Gate, the Lions Gate, the Dung Gate (I am unsure as to the origin of this unfortunate name), the Zion Gate, and the Jaffa Gate. (Interestingly, Jaffa is the Arabic word for ‘Lion.’ So one might state that there are two ‘Lion Gates,’ but I digress.) Inside, the city is divided into four quarters. In the same order, there is the Christian Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, the Jewish Quarter, and the Armenian Quarter. The remains of the Temple Mount and the very conspicuously golden Dome of the Rock which sits atop it are located on

the eastern side of the city.

The Temple Mount is all that remains of the Second Temple. We think that Solomon built the aforementioned First Temple a tiny after 1000 BC, to house the Ark of the Covenant. This temple was destroyed in 586 BC when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and took the Israelites into captivity in Babylon (modern day Iraq). Babylon was subsequently sacked by the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great – father of Darius I and grandfather of Xerxes. A few decades later these same Persians would go on to face the Spartans. In the meantime, the Jews were allowed leave by the emperor to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city. During this time the Second Temple was built. The structure was greatly expanded under Herod the Great – father of Herod Antipas – in the late 1st Century BC. Herod was a huge fan of building huge things, and also built, among other things, the fortress of Masada near the Dead Sea. This Temple lasted until about AD 70 when – during one of the Jewish revolts – Rome finally became fed up with its Jewish subjects and destroyed Jerusalem, scattering the Jewish people

to all ends of the earth. (Yes, this place was a powder keg even back then. Perhaps some more on this later.) Some time after the Islamic conquest in the mid 7th Century, the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built, as well as the Dome of the Rock on the spot of the old Temple.

Let me state that it is very easy to get lost in the streets and side streets of the Old City. It really is a maze of souvenir shops, as I’ve mentioned before. Still, it is interesting to think about whose footsteps you may be walking in. I will state that I got lost a few times on this fist incursion into the Old City. Studying my map later, I’m pretty sure that I entered through the New Gate. After a few hours of wandering around, visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, getting lost some more, somehow I found my way back to the same gate from which I entered. Al Hamdu Lillah. Trust me, this was through no fault of my own.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is interesting in itself, as probably the most significant Christian monument in the Old City.

Many Christians believe that this is the spot where Christ was crucified. This tradition comes from the Roman Emperor Constantine’s mother, Helena, who spent a lot of time in the mid 4th Century travelling the Eastern Empire looking for holy relics. (She was quite devoutly Christian.) Somehow she came to the conclusion that this was the spot, and had a church built over it. Historians generally tend to believe that this is not the actual location of the crucifixion, even though nobody has been able to definitively prove where it actually occurred. The location of the Holy Sepulchre does not fit what we know about Christ’s execution, and what we know about crucifixion in general. Crucifixions would have most certainly been carried out outside of the city walls. Crucifixions were also a very specific form of execution reserved for very specific types of ‘criminals.’ Namely, they were political dissidents, and the crucifixion was meant to be as a warning to other potential troublemakers. (For example, during another of the Jewish Revolts, the Roman general sent in to quell the uprising crucified 2,000 of the rebels, lining them along a road for all to see. On a related side note, the two men executed along with Jesus were probably not thieves, as is sometimes believed, as such a crime would not merit crucifixion.) Thus, the place described as Golgotha – the place of skulls – would have been on a hillside outside the city so that everyone could see the consequences of rebellion. There is another theory that suggests that the real Golgotha is a rock outcropping just outside the Damascus Gate, as it is an elevated position, and the rocks look uncannily like a skull, even though this has not been proven either. In any event, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a very important site for Christian visitors to the Old City.

After leaving the Old City I made my way back to the hotel, stopping by a nearby burger place for dinner, and figuring out how to order a burger when the guy doesn’t speak English (or Arabic, or French, or German, or Spanish) and I don’t speak Hebrew. It all worked out, though. Al Hamdu Lillah. I should probably try to learn some Hebrew while I’m here too. I kind of wish I’d studied some before I left.

I returned to my hotel in the early

evening, and passed out shortly thereafter.

22 June 2010

I went back out in the morning with two objectives in mind. First, was the Mount of Olives, on the eastern side of the Old City. Second, I wanted to check out my university campus. To make a long story short, based on the communications I received from the university, I wasn’t anticipating to have to register for another few days, but I wanted to get a feel for the campus ahead of time. It’s a good thing I did. As it turned out, registration was on Tuesday and Wednesday (22-23) with classes starting on Thursday (24). I just happened to stumble in by accident. Good timing.

But that was later in the afternoon. In the morning, after enjoying a breakfast of falafel and water, I set out around the Old City to the Mount of Olives. This is another important site for Christians as tradition holds that this is the place where Jesus spent his last night. The location of the Garden of Gethsemane is believed to be towards the foot of the mountain, and this day a chapel has been built around the garden. People

can still visit, but only during certain hours. There is also a Jewish Cemetery on the Mount. There are several roads that climb to the summit, and can either be walked or taken by car. Of course, I prefer to walk. It’s really more of a hill than a mountain, and not too steep. But if you’re not a walker, then so be it. There are several observation points along the way, and this is a good place to view the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock, which is very visible from the Mount of Olives. The higher you go, the better the view over the city wall and into the city itself. The Dome of the Rock is most visible, even though you can also see things like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Tower of David from here as well. There are many tours going on in this area as well. So again, when in doubt, follow the tour busses.

Of course, just like in Cairo (or, I suppose, anywhere else in the world), there’s always someone trying to sell you something. I was standing at the overlook at the summit, enjoying the view, when some guy walks up to me and starts speaking to me. He asks me where I’m from, and I state I’m from Canada. (That has become my stock answer for people I don’t know who walk up to me off the street and begin speaking to me. It’s close enough to nearly be true, and I figure it saves me from the ‘I love America/I hate America, and let me tell you why’ thing.) He tells me that he adores Canada, and that he lived in Michigan for eight years, even though I’m not sure that I believed him. Of course, I’m not actually from Canada either, so touch. In any event, the conversation predictably turns to the point. He shows me a small box of old looking coins that he collected from a well in the City of David, on the south side of the Old City. This part may be believable, as there is still a lot to be found around here. I know where this conversation is going to go, but I let him speak anyway. He shows me one that he is particularly proud of.

-Look at this one.

He hands me the coin.

-It’s Greek. Very old. 350 BC. Do you know who’s face that is.

Is there a face on this coin? I can’t even make out anything that looks like it might be a face, let alone identify that face, if it actually exists.

-No, who is it?

-You don’t know?

He waits with anticipation for me to attempt a guess. I look for context. Greek. 350 BC. Socrates? Plato? Phillip of Macedon? I don’t know. My Greek history is a tiny fuzzy between the Greco-Persian Wars and Alexander the Great.

-I don’t know. Who is it?

-You know him. Everyone knows him.

I guess we can scratch Phillip of Macedon from the list of potential contenders.

-Really, I don’t know. Tell me.

-That’s Jesus.

….

-Ok let me get this straight. You’re telling me that three hundred and fifty years before Jesus was born, Jesus’ face was inscribed onto this coin?

-Yes, yes!

He looks so excited and pleased with himself that I decide to just let it go. Eventually the conversation takes the predictable turn, and he begins to tell me how good a deal he is willing to make me on these coins, and how the shops around town will try to charge me double. I politely refuse several times – even though I regret now not picking up that Jesus coin, that has to be pretty rare and quite valuable – but he’s persistent. Finally, he hits me with the ultimate sales pitch.

-Come on, bro, hook me up.

Hook you up? I thought you were the one hooking me up with these sweet deals on ancient, rare coins. I give my final refusal and he walks away, looking somewhat disappointed. Sorry about that.

I completed up on the Mount of Olives and made my way back down to the main road, then found my way up the neighboring mount to the University.

Al Hamdu Lillah, on my way back to the hotel, along Jaffa Road, I found an electronics shop with a wide selection of cameras. I’d been holding out, but all this new scenery demanded a new camera, as the broken screen on mine was starting to become a nuisance. My holdout was mainly in finding one that took AA batteries, and preferably one that accepted the same memory card as my existing camera. The latter was a luxury, the former a necessity. If I purchase a camera here that runs on a rechargeable battery, when I return to the US I would have to purchase a transformer and a plug adaptor to make it work. AA batteries, on the other hand, are easy and available just about everywhere. In retrospect, for this reason, I’m glad that I went with AA batteries in the first place. Thanks, dad.

Unfortunately, though, this new camera also does not have a viewfinder to back up the screen. But, as the prophet Jagger once said, you can’t always get what you want.

(Note to self: Do not sit on this camera.)

23 June 2010

Not much happening today. Moved out of the hotel and into the residence this morning. I spent some time getting acquainted with the area and with the campus. I found a nearby market, a few restaurants, but not much else around here. The campus is in east Jerusalem, and most of the shops and restaurants are downtown. It’s about a half hour walk or a ten minute bus ride. I can see the West Bank, and even the Jordanian border from the campus here. It is way off in the distance, though.

I was unable to find a shop with bed sheets and pillows, though, as the bed here does not come equipped with such items. Thus, I stuffed my Jack Sack with clothes and used it for a pillow, and used my leather jacket as a blanket. I knew it would come in handy eventually.

I must say, life is much different here than in Cairo. There are a lot of security checkpoints in Cairo, but the officers don’t usually pay attention to the metal detector or really look to see what’s in your bag (except at the Egyptian Museum). In Israel, security is very tight, and they take it very seriously, for a very good reason.

One of the benefits to living in Israel is that the liquor store is stocked with all the brands that I’m familiar with. And it’s not just the liquor stores, but the local markets sell alcohol too. Even the market here at the residence has a small selection, even though the familiar brands tend to be a bit more costly than I remember in the US. For example, a bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label sells here for 135 NIS ($35.06). Of course, I could be mistaken, it’s been so long. I found a nice bottle called The Dirk for 99 NIS ($25.71) and I have found that it is quite good. It’s very smooth, and a bit smoky. Just right. I would think that this would easily be a $40 bottle in the US. Perhaps, though, because it is not a well known name, it is priced less. Either way, it works for me. I even like the name.

Things seem more costly in general here in Israel. I won’t state that they’re more costly than in the US, but compared to what I’m used to paying in Cairo it’s quite a bit more. After living in Egypt for two months, I had my brain geared to their prices. This will take some getting used to.

Oh, brave, new world.

-MG

More Source:

A first date in Jerusalem - GoJerusalem.com
Egypt's mufti visits Jerusalem for first time | Reuters
Jerusalem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elder of Ziyon: For the first time, Egyptian Copts flock to Jerusalem ...

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Submited at Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 6:00 pm on Middle East by dave
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