Day 71 - Jerusalem and the Status Quo

K has a list of things she wants to see in Israel, growing up she would have never imagined that she would get to visit all the familiar names and places, Israel had never seemed like another country but more another planet.

First on the list was the free walking tour that we had booked to meet at Jaffa Gate, one of the entrances to the old city of Jerusalem. Each entrance is named according to where you want to go and Jaffa is the old name for Tel Aviv. We walked there from where we were staying and not far from home we spied a familiar Camino marker on the footpath. This makes sense as we are now in serious Christian pilgrimage territory. We were quite surprised at the size of the walking group but fortunately our guide had a huge voice and expertly filled us in on history, religion and politics over the next two hours. 

We learnt about the different quarters of the city, the Armenian quarter along with the Jewish, Christian and Muslim quarters. Unfortunately when we were outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre/Church of the Resurrection it was so packed with people we ended up losing our tour group. 

After looking for them for a while we gave up and entered the Church that had been built over the site where Jesus had been crucified, buried and raised again. We had learnt that six different Christian religions occupy the church in harmony - the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox. They operate together under a Status Quo decided upon in 1757. A symbol of the status quo is a wooden ladder that was placed outside the church before 1757 which is still in place.

Unfortunately without our guide or internet access we weren't quite sure what we were looking at but were aware of the places of huge significance. Just inside the door was a stone slab that many people were placing their hands heads and items on, this was the slab where Jesus's body was prepared for burial. 

From here we walked to the Western Wall and walked down to the wall watching people praying and inserting their notes into the cracks in the walls (nowadays you can send your message in an email and someone will insert it for you).

From there we left the old city and stopped off at the old city of David, which is the ancient city. Then we walked past the Kidron Valley between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. 

We found ourselves at the Tomb of the Virgin and right next door is the Grotto of Gethsemane. We finished our day visiting the Garden of Gethsemane before walking home in the dark. We both commented on how safe it felt to be walking in the dark in Israel, even with all the very young soldiers (to us they look 16 years old) with machine guns slung over their shoulders.