Completing Our Tour of the Old City

The Roman-era Cardo (a.k.a. an ancient shopping mall) in the Old City

On Wednesday, got an early start on our last major tour of the Old City. First thing in the morning, however, I gave a very-well-received going away sermon at the synagogue.

We saw seven sites in or near the Old City by noon! Our morning started with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian Quarter. The Church is believed to the location of Jesus' crucifixion, as identified by Emperor Constantine's mom in the year 330.

Inside the Church.

Following the Church, we visited the Armenian Museum. The museum building itself is beautiful but the exhibits include many photocopied articles or enlarged and grainy photos. Jen and I were the only visitors that morning and as soon as we'd paid our five shekel admission price ($1.25) the caretaker turned on Armenian music that flowed throughout the museum. As soon as we left, the music was turned off by the cartoon-watching caretaker/ticket seller.

The courtyard of the Armenian Museum.

We then proceeded to visit the grave of Oskar Schindler in a cemetery just outside the Old City walls that appears to be primarily a cemetery of Arab Christians. Nonetheless, Mr. Schindler has a beautiful location.

Schindler's Grave

Schindler's View

Nearby Schindler's Grave is King David's Tomb and we paid our respects there in separate men's and women's sections.

Then we proceeded across the street to the awkwardly named museum, The Chamber of the Holocaust. This museum is underground and quite dark. It includes marble memorial plaques on just about every wall. There are photocopies of photos and articles taped to the walls and display cabinets along with artifacts brought by survivors themselves to Israel. It is said to be the world's oldest Holocaust museum and there is a certain special significance in its jumbled appearance. At the museum there is also a courtyard dedicated to destroyed communities called "The Courtyard of Annihilation."

Our sixth stop on our tour of the Old City was the Four Sephardi Synagogues - all four are connected and were built collaboratively. All four are beautiful and more information can be found here.

Inside just one of the four synagogues.

Our final stop and the big highlight of the day was the Tower of David: Museum of the History of Jerusalem. This is an incredible museum built into an old guard tower on the wall of the Old City. From the top of the tower one can see across the city and to the mountains on the Jordan side of the Dead Sea. It's a beautiful building and has very nice exhibits but after a year of living in the city, Jen and I realized that we should have gone there first and not last - we had visited all of the places that the displays discussed so for us it was a quick tour. I highly recommend visiting this museum upon your first arrival in Jerusalem.

The view of the Old City from the Tower of David. The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount is in the background and behind that is the Mount of Olives.

Our next up over the next two and a half weeks we're here is a tour of the northern part of the country and at least one more day trip to Tel Aviv!

Leaving the Old City for what might be the last time this trip...