The Old City (Luke)

    I have always fantasized of visiting the Old City in Jerusalem and seeing the Dome of the Rock and praying at the Kotel (Western Wall). We already knew that Israel had some problems with neighboring countries but I didn't learn that the Muslims and Jews often had conflicts inside the walls. When we arrived through the west gate we could see the Kotel barely but we weren't going to the Western Wall we we were going to the place where the first temple was built. Now in it's place stands the Dome of the Rock. It was so big.

At one point a lot of Muslim ladies started yelling at a Hasidic Jew. They were about 50 women all chanting Allah Akbar which translated in Arabic to "Our g-d is greater!". There is lots of conflict between these two religions mainly because the Al-Aqsa mosque is on the Temple Mount as well. Marty our guide taught us a ton about the two religions and how they have diced up land in the Old City with each religion getting a quarter. We then went in the Muslim Quarter because we are not allowed be on the Temple Mount during Muslim prayer time which happens 5 times every day.

We then walked down the Via Dolorosa or the road of pain. We followed the 14 stations on the same path that Jesus walked on his death day. It was really interesting seeing the place where people 2,000 years ago had not only stood on but done famous things on. Once we were at station 13 we were in the Christian quarter.

     We walked in the Jewish quarter as we made our way to the Kotel. I wrote a note when we got there and placed it in the wall. We then exited the Old City of Jerusalem pleased with the day.

 
 We were not even done that day as we were going to visit the City of David. We watched a movie when we got there about the Jews and how they managed to beat the Assyrians. We then walked down into a cave where a tunnel was. This tunnel had water flowing through it. We took of the bottoms of our pants and shoes and socks and started walking.

At one point I just stopped and thought, we are walking through a underground tunnel that people 3,500 years ago used to defeat their enemies! After 25 minutes of walking with just our flashlights to show us the way we saw light and were at the end of the 533 meter long tunnel. We got our shoes on and then learned we would be walking through a sewer!  It is not what you think it is though. It used to be a sewer that was in use until it blew up and then became a tunnel for tourists. One we got out we were cold and pretty tired. Today we had seen Dome of the Rock, Western Wall, walked through an underground water tunnel, and an out of order sewer. It was probably one of my favorite days so far. It was really fun and exciting to go back 3,000 years in the past to an Old City.