For the next three days, our group is traveling to the South - Judah, the Shephelah (foothills), Philistia, the Negev, and the Dead Sea! Unfortunately, we won't have internet access, so I'll be posting an update when we get back on Friday (thought I might not get around to it till Saturday...we'll see...).
Yesterday (Monday), we had a free morning! We walked on top of the Old City Walls to start off the day. Here, Amanda and I sit on the walls (built in 16th century) overlooking East Jerusalem. The tower in the background is on the northern part of the Mount of Olives.
We then descended the walls into the Old City and walked the "Via Dolorosa" (Way of the Cross), which is the path that remembers the walk of Jesus to the cross. The Via Dolorosa ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (the site of the crucifixion and burial), so we went in and took a few more pictures.
Please excuse the blurriness! It was really crowded and people were moving quickly. :-) This picture is of a woman kissing and venerating the stone that is remembered to be where Jesus was anointed for burial. People (the majority are women) clamor to kneel down before this stone, kiss it, and spread oil on it. Is this misdirected devotion?
The police barrier in front of Jesus' tomb for crowd control: and here we are, in the land of contrasts.
Then we went to an Arabic restaurant in the Muslim quarter called "Abu Shukri," where I dipped pita bread in hummus with chickpeas, tahini, parsley, and olive oil - so good!
We went to the top of the tower of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (basically the Protestant response to Church of the Holy Sepulcher), which gave us some incredible views! There was writing ALL OVER the walls at the top, so we decided to leave our mark, as well! We all wrote in different languages - I wrote in Spanish "Gloria a Dios," which means "Glory to God."
The view from the top of the tower! In the foreground is the dome of the Lutheran church, on top of which we are standing, and then we have a straight shot to the Dome of the Rock. Farther east across the Kidron Valley stands a tower at the top of Mount of Olives.
We went "sifting" today (Tuesday), i.e. looking through rubble from the Temple Mount. At this location you can actually find pieces from the period of the Second Temple! It was pretty neat. Here I am, sifting and proudly representing the Sandager clan (see t-shirt). :-) We found some glass, pottery, bones, metals (nails), and mosaics. One girl in our group found a silver coin! The archaeologists there all got pretty excited because that's an extremely rare find.
Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summers. It's hot, hot, hot here!
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