Old City

Here is a 1st glance at the Old City of Jerusalem. I will be back visiting this area a number of times while here. So I expect there to be a number of additional posts.
The 1st picture is the Jaffa gate and some of the ancient city walls. This gate dates to the Ottoman period and was constructed during the rebuilding of the city walks in the 16th century.
The 2nd picture is the Tower of David or the Citadel. This is now a museum, but was built as a fortification. This structure only dates to the Mamluk period, but it is built on the foundations of older fortifications dating back thousands of years.
The 3rd picture is along David Street, the main street in the Arab Shuq. The 4th picture looks into a restaurant on David Street to show what the shop spaces in this part of the old city look like.
The 5th picture is the Western Wall, sometimes called the Wailing Wall, one of the holiest places in Judaism. This is the retaining wall built by Herod to created the platform on which his work on the 2nd temple was built. So it is more thane 2,000 years old. It is a profoundly spiritual place where prayers are arising 24/7.
The last picture is the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Church of the Resurrection, as the Palestinian Christians call it. This will have its own posts soon.Leggi altro