Garden of Gethsemani, Mount of Olives - Jerusalem

Jewish Graves on the Mount of Olives - Jerusalem

There are 150 000 Jewish graves on the Mount of Olives - that's way more people than live in St. Johns!

Tomb of the Prophets, Mount of Olives - Jerusalem

Beyong this locked gate is what Jews in the middle ages identified was the site of the tombs of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

Mount of Olives - Jerusalem

These photos are:
1. A camel on the Mount
2. The view from the Mount of Olives over the valley
3. Me squinting in the sun at the Mount with the Dome of the Rock in the background (Photo credit: Trish Maskew)
4. View from the Mount across the Jewish graves towards the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock. 

Signs - Jerusalem

Sights in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City - Jerusalem

The Cardo, Jewish Quarters of the Old CIty - Jerusalem

The Cardo Maximus is a reconstruction of what would have been the main street in Jerusalem's Roman and Byzantine times.  It is now part of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, home to many nice Judaica and art shops. 

Church of St. Peter of Gallicantu on Mount Zion - Jerusalem

The only church I have thus far visited in Israel where the language used in the mosaics is French, this church was built on the traditional site where Christians believe Jesus was denied three times by his disciple Peter.  Previously, Byzantine and Crusader churches stood on these grounds.

Views of Jerusalem from Mount Zion - Jerusalem

These photos are:
1. A view of the old city, from here you can clearly see Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock.
2.-4. Views of the Hinnom Valley (Gehenna)

King David and his Tomb on Mount Zion- Jerusalem

From 1948 to 1967, when the Western wall was inaccessible to Jews,  King David' tomb was a site of much prayer and pilgrimage.  The likelihood that he was in fact buried here is low considering it is a crusader structure, which Jews only accepted as the actual tomb in the middle ages.  It is perhaps more likely that he was buried near the old City of David, under Mount Zion.  Regardless, this remains a site for prayer for Jews and the out-cove out the back, is said to have been the site of a synagogue in the 5th century AD.

These photos are:
1. David's tomb
2. Me standing outside the women's prayer room at David's tomb
3. Statue to King David

Mount Zion - Jerusalem

These photos are:
1. Church of the Dormintion
2. Courtyard on Mount Zion near where Jesus is believed to have had his last supper
3. & 4. Stars of David on Mount Zion

Street Shots in the Old City - Jerusalem

Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City (Part 2) - Jerusalem

The photos are:
1. Ceiling above Greek Choir
2.Greek Choir
3. Stone of Unction (this was placed here in 1810 to commemorate Jesus' anointment before his burial)

Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City - Jerusalem

The Church has a complicated past of Caliphs and Crusaders, but nowadays it is a pilgrimage site from Christians of varying denominations.  As the different denominations cannot agree of the ownership of the church, the key rests in the hands of a local Muslim family who are to this day responsible for unlocking it in the morning and locking it again in the evening.

The photos are:
1. View of the outside of the Church
2. Ceiling above the Stone of the Unction
3. Tomb Monument (this is the Holy Sepulchre, the tomb where pilgrim's believe Jesus' boy was laid)
4. Church of St. Helena (this is were the "true cross"  - cross believed to be used for Jesus' crucifixion - of the three crosses St. Helena discovered was displayed, but over the years pilgrims bit of so many bits as momentous when they kissed the cross in prayer, that the cross no longer exists)