{postcards from Israel-Holy City Walk}

If you've been following my  blog recently, you'll know I spent a week in Jerusalem at the end of May/early June. A fantastic place! This post is dedicated to our walking tour of the holy sites of the Holy City. I highly recommend taking a Sandemans tour. They offer free short two hour tours to get your bearings of the Old City, but we opted for the paid 4-5 hour walking tour of the Holy sites. I normally hate tours, but I have to say, this is the best that I've been on-and that's saying a lot!

{our group}

{as an art historian I was called upon by the guide numerous times!}

The guide was informative and friendly, neutral (a particularly important trait when visiting Israel), and encouraged dialogue and friendship amongst the other tourists.

{and we're off!}

We started off at the Jaffa Gate and walked to a Protestant church, from there we went to the Armenian Quarter and visited a beautiful Armenian church:

 Walking along the Via Dolorosa:

{Veronica's veil}

{station of the cross where Christ is said to have laid his hand}

From there we walked through the Jewish Quarter and visited the Western Wall:

{Western Wall}

The wall is divided between genders:

{women at the wall}

{a sneak peek at the men's side}

{prayers in the wall}

{the men's side}

 We returned to the Western wall later that night, as it was a Friday and Shabbat--at this time families and groups of Jews come to pray, they dance in circles, they sing...it's quite an amazing experience.

{heading to Shabbat at the Western Wall}

Unfortunately it was a Friday so the Temple Mount was closed, but from there we went to Mount Zion where we visited the supposed Tomb of King David.

{Zion Gate}

{the views from the roof of David's Tomb}

The hall above, the apparent room of the Last Supper, has an interesting combination of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian motifs and architecture. A mihrab appears on one wall, while Crusader capitals adorn a vault...

{mihrab in the Room of the Last Supper}

{Crusader capitals}

Finally, we made it into the Christian quarter to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

{on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre}

{outside the church of the Holy Sepulchre}

The church is a very complex building, shared by the numerous denominations of Christianity, I'm dedicating another post to this unique building. So stayed tuned for more!
xo,
L