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Middle East 2022
  • Nancy and Doug Trips
  • Nancy and Doug Trips

Middle East 2022

Tour of the Holy Sites and ancient monuments of Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Egypt Read more
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  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler
    1
    Mosaic depiction of Christ's bodyThe Aedicule and Tomb of JesusThe Stone of AnointingAltar of the CrucifixionAltar of the Crucifixion1

    Church of the Holy Sepulchre

    October 21, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built on the traditional site of Jesus’ Crucifixion and burial and so the church encloses the site of both the cross and the tomb. Constantine the Great first built a church on the site about 336 CE, burned by the Persians in 614, restored 626, destroyed by the caliph al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh about 1009, and restored by the Byzantines. In the 12th century the Crusaders carried out a general rebuilding of the church. The present church dates mainly from 1810. the Rock of Calvary, where the Crucifixion is believed to have occurred, is encased in glass at the lavish Altar of the Crucifixion.Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler
    Model from 1864

    The Tower of David

    October 21, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    This museum is beside the Jaffa Gate and forms part of the Citadel and Wall of the city. While it actually has nothing to do with David, dating from the Second Temple period, it has been used for 3,000 years -- archaeological excavations reveal the city’s evolution. Within these walls, Hezekiah’s soldiers built a wall, the Hasmoneans launched ballistas, Herod erected a magnificent palace, zealots fought during the revolt, a crusader dug a tunnel, the Mamluks built a minaret, and Allenby stood on the citadel’s steps.
    It was quite interesting to tour the site. The courtyard contains archeological remains dating back 2,700 years. The Citadel had a section excavated deep down through the layers where you could see the ancient Canaanite foundations all the way up to the British prison cells on top. There were also 360 degree views of the city from the towers and ramparts.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Armenian Quarter

    October 21, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    So the Armenian Quarter is the smallest of the areas of the Old City.That said, it is interesting how there is a consistent presence of the Armenian Church all around the Middle East. The implication seems to be that Armenians were the earliest adopters of Christianity and were thus accorded privileged position's as caretakers of many Holy sites.Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler
    Zion Gate
    Mount ZionBasilica of the DormitionThe Room of The Last SupperThe Room of The Last SupperSynagogueJewish QuarterJewish QuarterJewish QuarterJewish QuarterJewish Quarter

    Mt. Zion & The Jewish Quarter

    October 21, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    The Zion Gate connects the Jewish Quarter inside the Old City with the historic district of Mount Zion just outside the wall. Mount Zion has several historic sights including the Room of the Last Supper and the tomb of David which it actually isn't.
    The Jewish Quarter is quite pretty and looks newer than the other areas of the Old City as it was systematically pillaged and razed by the Arab population after Israel lost the area during the War Of Independence. It was rebuilt after Israel's victory in the Seven Days War.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    The Western Wall

    October 21, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    The Western Wall is also called the “Wailing Wall”. It is the most religious site in the world for Jewish people. It's in the Old City in the Jewish Quarter below the Temple Mount, which today has the Muslim Dome and Mosque. It is the outer wall of the Second Jewish Temple. King Herod built this wall in 20 BC during an expansion of the Second Temple. When the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 CE, this support wall is all that survived.
    Thousands of people visit the wall every year to visit and recite prayers which are either spoken or written down and placed in the cracks of the wall. The wall has two sections for males females.
    Security in the entire plaza and areas around the wall is incredibly tight and checkpoints were up to control access to the actual wall, so I limited my visit to the view from above rather than intrude.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Muslim Quarter & Damascus Gate

    October 21, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    This Quarter is incredibly atmospheric with many lanes and side markets teeming with shops. It is the largest of the Quarters, and about 20,000 people live here -- outnumbered by tourists today!
    The first seven Stations of the Cross on Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross) are located here.Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Ramallah Yasser Arafat Square

    October 22, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Decided Saturday Sabbath was a good day to see the West Bank sites and the most reliable way to do that was an organised tour. The army check points are unpredictable and one had moved but we did make our first stop in Ramallah in reasonable time.

    It was interesting to have a Palestinian who lives in the West Bank as the tour guide and have that perspective.

    Yasser Arafat Square was renamed from Clock Tower Square and features a large monument of a flag on an electric pole. This was inspired by the youths who would show defiance by dangerously climbing transmission lines to hang the then banned Palestinian flag.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Tomb of Yasser Arafat

    October 22, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    This monument to the founder of the PLO, later the PA is in the shape of the Shrine in Mecca, indicating the worship of him. This is not considered his "final" resting place as Palestinians hope to move him to Jerusalem if they reconquer Israel.Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Jericho the world's first city

    October 22, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Jericho is very cool as it is one of the earliest continuous settlements in the world, dating perhaps from about 9000 BC. and it provides evidence of the first development of permanent settlements and thus of the first steps toward civilization. In the hills above the site you can see caves where Mesolithic hunters lived. By about 8000 BCE the inhabitants had grown into an organized community with a stone wall around the settlement. The size of this settlement justifies the use of the term town and suggests a population of some 2,000–3,000 persons. Thus, this 1,000 years had seen movement from a hunting way of life to full settlement. The development of agriculture can be inferred from this, and grains of cultivated types of wheat and barley have been found. Jericho is thus one of the places providing evidence of very early agriculture.
    I was able to see the digs of the old walls and foundations.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Bethlehem, Palestine

    October 22, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We had lunch in Bethlehem, stopping first to see a graffiti by the famous artist Banksey. After lunch was the Church of the Nativity, then we stopped at a gift shop, another Banksey and finally, before crossing back into Israel proper, a stop by the wall built by the Israelis.Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Church of the Nativity

    October 22, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    The biggest tourist attraction in Bethlehem is of course the church of the Nativity. The crowd proved that. It was an hour wait but we did get in.

    The grotto is the oldest place of worship in Christendom and the church is the oldest major church in the Holy Land, having been built in 330 and repaired and rebuilt by Justinian around 550.

    The grotto has a rock on which Mary lay and this is marked wirh a 14 point silver star.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler
    Entrance to the Visitors Center at Yad Vashem
    The Holocaust History MuseumThe World That Was video artThe Hall of Names ceilingThe Hall of NamesThe Children's MemorialWarsaw Ghetto Square

    Yad Vashem

    October 23, 2022 in Israel ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    The tram takes you up to The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

    This is Israel's national site for remembrance of the Holocaust. A 50 acre park with paths and monuments, but the main feature is the Holocaust History Museum.

    An overwhelming and emotional experience that not only recounts the history but highlights many individual stories. Culmination is the Hall of Names where rows and rows of books with the names of every victim who has been identified are on shelves surrounding a deep well. Can't help but break down here.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler
    The Dead Sea ScrollsA page of the Aleppo Codex

    The Israel Museum

    October 23, 2022 in Israel ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    This is not A museum but a bunch of museums, each of which could be a half day visit. It has the world's most comprehensive collections of the archaeology of the Holy Land, a wing about Jewish art and life, and large collections of the fine arts, not only Israeli Art, but European Art, Modern Art, Contemporary Art, Prints and Drawings, Photography, Design and Architecture, Asian Art, African Art, Oceanic Art, and Arts of the Americas.

    I had unfortunately short visits to only three, just peeking in the doors of the art museums.

    The Shrine of the Book is a really cool cylindrical partly submerged in the earth that really exhibits only two things: the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Aleppo Codex. The Dead Sea scrolls of course are the oldest records of the Bible dating back to 300BC to 100AD. They are nicely exhibited along with some displays of the culture of the people who created them. The other copy of the Bible there is the oldest Hebrew version and until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest Bible in existence having been written in the 10th century.. It was the property of the Synagogue in Aleppo Syria and was thought to have been destroyed when rioting Arabs attacked the Jewish people of Aleppo in 1948 and burned the Synagogue to the ground. However, somehow it was saved and hidden before being smuggled out in the 1950's.

    The Archaeology wing is now officially my my "Best Archaeology Museum Ever" with fantastic displays of amazing artefacts going all the back to prehistory and ending in the Ottoman era. They weave together the story of technological innovation and everyday life.

    The wing for Jewish Art and Life is a great educational experience where you see the history of the Jewish people presented through costumes and jewelry, stories of life through birth, marriage etc and many other aspects of Jewish culture.

    One other display is a huge model of Jerusalem at the time of Herod just before the destruction of the Second Temple. Quite impressive.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Chapel of the Ascension

    October 24, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    The day starts with The Mount of Olives and the Holy Sites and churches there. The city bus got me most of the way to the top before the traffic jam caused by tour coaches made the road impassable and the bus driver turned around, so the rest of the way up was by foot.

    The first stop was The Chapel of the Ascension. It is located on a site traditionally believed to be the earthly spot where Jesus ascended into Heaven after his Resurrection. It houses a slab of stone believed to contain one of his footprints. Another stone with the other footprint was moved to the al Aqsa mosque as Muslims also venerate Christ.

    The little chapel was first built in the 4th century, modified in Crusader times, again in Byzantine times, and finally by the Muslims. The line to get in was long and dominated by tours.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    The Church of the Pater Noster

    October 24, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    This is an interesting spot. There was a church built here in the 4th century by Constantine as the Church of Eleona to mark the Ascension. It was discoverwed in 1910 beneath a Roman Catholic convent.. In the cloisters of the convent have been placed a series of plaques with The Lord's Prayer (hence Pater Noster) in over 100 different languages.

    After this it was a short walk past the Tomb of the Prophets to the Mount of Olives Viewpoint. According to a medieval Jewish tradition, the catacomb is believed to be the burial place of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, the last three Hebrew Bible prophets who lived during the 6th-5th centuries BC. Archaeologists have dated the three earliest burial chambers to the 1st century BC, thus contradicting the tradition. Oh well ... still a pretty old catacomb!    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler
    Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene

    Dominus Flevit

    October 24, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    From the viewppint, it was a brutal on the knees downhill walk that showed why I, like the hordes of tour grops, start the Mount of Olives from the top and work down. The walk goes past all the ancient graves in the Jewish cemetery, the most sacred burial place in that religion.

    The vey narrow entrance to the Dominus Flevit (Latin for the Lord weeps) leads to a courtyard that has some interesting ossuaries.

    The church itself is shaped like a tear, and is built on the site where Jesus is said to have wept as he predicted the destruction of the city of Jerusalem    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Garden of Gethesmane

    October 24, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    More steep downhill brings you to the Garden of Gethesmane where Jesus prayed on the last night before his arrest. The name translates as 'oil press' and is now a grove of ancient olive trees. A study conducted by the Italian National Research Council found that three of the olive trees in the garden are amongst the oldest known to science. Dates of AD 1092, 1166 and 1198 were obtained by carbon dating from older parts of the trunks of three trees.

    Beside the garden is the Roman Catholic Church of All Nations.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Kidron Valley

    October 24, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    The division between the Mount of Olives and the Old City, is also called the Valley of Kings and has the blocked up Golden Gate into the Temple. You walk along the western side of the valley below the city walls, and look back across the valley to the Mount of Olives where I was earlier in the day. There are various tombs and also looks across the area where so many people have been buried over the millennia.. It is an exposed walk in the heat, but interesting to be in this area.Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler
    Stepped Stone Structure 13th century BCKing Davids PalaceThe Siloam PoolThe Eastern Road Pilgrim's RouteMore digs outside the City of David

    City of David

    October 24, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    I continued along the Kidron Valley and came out below the south end of the old city to one end of the City of David site called the Pool of Siloam. Found out I could not access the site from this end -- the entrance is at the top of the hill and this is where you exit, so went up there by bus and paid my fee.

    This is still an active dig. Many discoveries have been in made in the past half dozen years that have confirmed the biblical stories of King David's city located just south of the current Old City walls. Incredibly old place with quite a story to tell.    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler
    Ritual bath

    Jerusalem Archaeological Park

    October 24, 2022 in Palestine ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    There are still active digs going on here as well as further ruins dating back to the Second Temple and even further. This is right below the Temple Mount.

    Planned to take the bus back, but the traffic hadn't moved for a half hour, so ended up walking, much of it along a lovely park at the base of the wallRead more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Machaneh Yahuda Market

    October 25, 2022 in Israel ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Laundry and checkout day and had a couple of hours to kill before catching a train to Haifa so walked up to this market which is famous and recommended for a visit.
    It is quite large with multiple aisles indoors and spilling into the surrounding streets. Many stalls of all sorts of foods. Cafes and bars. Quite clean and not very chaotic in late morning.Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler

    Jerusalem Wrap Up

    October 25, 2022 in Israel ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Leaving Jerusalem by train around 1pm. What a beautiful city. Can't say enough about it. One usually thinks that the really lovely cities are built around water features, but here is this dry place that is pretty at every turn. Now, it is not total desert -- the ridge of the Mount of Olives provides the divide between the coastal plain on the western slope and the Judean desert on the eastern slope, but it is a dry Med climate. But it is the soft yellow stone buildings, that almost glow, whether they are new or old, tumbling over all the hills and valleys, with tress and parks everywhere except in the Old City itself. Then the sense of history and significance to three great religions at every step it seems.

    Day 1 I arrived and just did a short wander around the neighborhoods -- Downtown Triangle or Ben Yehuda-Zion Square. Just the evening walk, so 11,268 steps.
    Day 2 was the Old City. Walked there and caught the tram back before the Sabbath shut down. Does this place ever shut down. Literally not a place to eat. Old City zig zags brought 15,388 steps.
    Day 3 not on the map as I left Jerusalem (chose Saturday to avoid the Sabbath shutdown) for a bus tour of the West Bank. Still managed 9,841 steps from where the coach parks to and in the attractions.
    Day 4 was a museum day at Yad Vashem and Israel museum. Tram up, Taxi between and a bus back. Most of the walking was in the museums and cam to 11,869 steps
    Day 5 was the Mount of Olives. Such great views starting at the top. Very difficult downhill walk on the knees, and was very sore the rest of the day, but was fine after a rest for dinner. 16,839 steps seemed like more
    Day 6 was just the morning then a train ride. Easy 11,073 steps.
    Bye Jerusalem!    Read more

  • Nancy and Doug TripsMiddle East 2022Traveler
    OK. A joke right? Yes.Ram from the front of a galley

    National Maritime Museum

    October 26, 2022 in Israel ⋅ 🌧 23 °C

    Arrived in Haifa yesterday by train and my apartment was just a couple minutes walk from the Bat Galim Station. Nice quiet location in this beachfront neighbourhood tucked behind the large institutions of the naval base/port and hospitals.
    The plan was to start the day with a walking tour of the Bat Galim area I am staying in. First stop was a local restaurant for the traditional Israeli breakfast of pita, hummus, chickpeas, parsley and pickles and onion. As usual, couldn't finish it. Stepped out and the weather had turned ugly. Thunder lightning and heavy rain by time I got to the hospital campus which was the start point. So looked up a bus and went to the next museum. Still got soaked.
    The Maritime museum is a smaller museum that had a bit of the history of ships in the Mediterranean. Crossroads of three continents for trade and all that. Models of the galley warships and lots of other ships.
    There was a short video on the techniques if underwater archaeology that was the most fascinating exhibit there.
    Of course there has to be a pirate exhibition. Nice section on maps too.
    Overall a nice little museum that is worth a quick stop if time permits, but a "second tier" attraction that today had the advantage of being dry inside.    Read more

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