Holy Land-Day 6-Jerusalem-Bethany-Jericho-Dead Sea

 Check out day from Grand Hotel, Bethlehem. We crossed the borders and drove to Ein Karem, a small village near Jerusalem. This place is believed to be the birthplace of John the Baptist. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church is said to be the place where John was born.



Birthplace of John the Baptist

Across the village, a good 15-20 mins walk from here is the Church of Visitation. On the way uphill is Mary's spring. The Bible says that Mary went to the hill country to visit Elizabeth. Must have been quite e trek for Mary. This is where she sang the Magnificat and it is inscribed in different languages on the outside walls of the church. There is also an upper part to the church(built by Antonio Berluzzi) that has beautiful paintings and a lovely pipe organ.

Church of Visitation

We came back to Jerusalem and went to the Garden of Gethsemene. We saw the Damascus gate of Jerusalem that is under renovation. We also saw the East gate which is sealed now and is opposite Gethsemene. Jesus had passed through this gate (aka Golden gate) many times.It is believed that when Jesus comes again, He will enter Jerusalem through this gate This is why this was sealed by the Muslims.(Ezekiel 44:1-3; Zechariah 14:4) Infront of it and opposite Gethsemene is the Kedron valley.

East gate

Read more on http://focusonjerusalem.com/easterngateinprophecy.html



We entered the Garden of Gethssemene and saw a lot of really old olive trees there. The church here is also known as the Basilica of Agony. The stone where Jesus wept and prayed before the night of His crucifixion is found at the altar.

Basilica of Agony

After that we visited the tomb of Virgin Mary nearby. The majority believe that she died a natural death but angels came and took her to heaven. The church where the 'tomb'is believed to be in looks like a dungeon and one has to descend 47 stairs inside the church. We were told not to buy anything from people in that area. Not only will we be cheated on quality but we will be stolen of our money too.

We then drove towards Bethany. The hometown of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. We went to the tomb of Lazarus. We were warned before hand that the way inside the tomb was a little steep with low levels of oxygen. So there were only a handful of people who went in. The entrance is from the road. We had to hold the railings and climb down narrow, slippery stone steps. There is a catholic church near the tomb and some people attended the mass there. We shopped at a souvenir store in Bethany.

We then headed towards Jericho. On either sides of the road was dry land and mountains. This was probably the road that the man in the Good Samaritan story took. We entered the dry lands of Jericho in about 45 mins. It did not look like a very exciting place though they say it is the oldest city.

Jericho mountains

Lunch was at Temptation Centre. They have a shopping complex on the ground floor and a restaurant on the next one. Lunch was a huge spread that ended with some exotic fruits. After lunch we went shopping (and window-shopping!!). There was a big section selling dead sea products-one of the major exports of Israel. Outside the restaurant, they were selling sycamores and they were also feeding some peacocks the same. We left from there and stopped at an old sycamore tree near by. Not the one that Zacheus climbed though. We got off for a few pictures and then drove through Jericho and then proceeded towards the Dead Sea.

Old Sycamore tree

 Soon we reached Kalia beach on the Dead Sea and went to change into "beach clothes". The Dead sea or Salt sea is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel to the west. It is 423m below sea level and is the lowest point on earth. because of its high salt content, living creatures find it difficult to survive in there.The density of the water is quite high and therefore one can float on the water surface. The mud and the salt of the sea is rich in minerals and are made into cosmetics and for used for other cosmetic purposes.

Dead Sea

Some people took to the water like fishes. I had my lens on and so was quite apprehensive. We applied the mud on our bodies and very soon it started to feel itchy all over. Changing clothes was a public affair and quite uncomfortable. Therefore, till we got to the hotel and had a proper decent bath, I was feeling very uneasy.

From there, it was a long drive to Eilat, where we were to spend the night. We stopped on the way for a short break. We finally reached Nova hotel in Eilat at 9 30 pm. All of us were dead tired and hungry. My 1st aim was a bath and so I had to skip dinner. Had a fun night helping uncles and aunties find their room,etc. Slept really late. I liked this hotel a lot but hardly got to see it.

View from our room in Nova hotel,Eilat

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Holy Land-Day 5-Jerusalem-Bethlehem

Thankfully no check out that morning. It was a Sunday and we were going to have communion service in Jerusalem. We left the hotel almost on time and proceeded towards the Palestine border.
We entered Old Jerusalem through the Lion's gate. This is also called Stephen's gate because St. Stephen's tomb is found in the Kedron valley near the gate. There is a carving of 4 panthers at the entrance. We walked towards Bethesda. Over here are the ruins of the old Byzantine church that was built near tge pool of Jesus' time. It is at this pool that Jesus had healed the crippled man on the Shabbath. Near this site is the present day church of St. Anne- an old Crusader church built during the 12th century.


Lion's gate-notice the panthers on the wall



Ruins of the old church built on top of Bethesda pool

From there we proceeded towards Via dolorosa- the way of grief that Jesus took from the prison to Calvary. There are 14 stations of the cross. We got to see most of them (not all). At the IInd station os the Church of Flagellation and it is closer to Lion's gate. Its the site where Jesus was whipped (there are different views for this). The Catholica and Orthodox have a book called 'the Stations pf the Cross'. So at every station, we stopped for those chants and prayers. We walked down to the next station singing and saying those prayers.

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Inside the Church of Flagellation

Googling up, I realise that there is so much more to see there than what we saw. A minimum of half day is required. We were so rushed and that itself took us almost 2 hrs to see just 50%.
Station III is where Jesus falls for the 1st time with the cross. There is an Armenian church there with a stone tablet showing Jesus falling with the cross. We did not enter the church. Also check http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/Via%20Dolorosa.html.

Station III

Station IV is where Jesus met His mother and tells her, "Woman, behold your son"
At Station V, Simon the Cyrene helps Jesus carry His cross.

Station V

As we walk down, there are shops selling practically everything on either side of the small stone roads.
XStation VI is based on Luke 23:27 and the 'Bible Walks"site talks about St. Veronica who wiped the face of Jesus here.

Station VI

At Station VII, Jesus falls the 2nd time. We did not go to the VIIIth station.

Station VII

Station IX

Station X

At the IXth station, Jesus falls for the 3rd time. We then walk through the courtyaed of the Holy Sepulchure church where Jesus is stripped off His clothes and this is station X. We did not see station XI. Jesus on the cross is station XII. By then we were inside the church and went to the mezzanine level. There was a long queue there and we stood for a long time though it is nothing to compared to other times. We finally got a second to see Golgotha. The wooden cross is now a golden one with lot of golden lamps and candles around it. But the whole place is not all that well lit.

Calvary

On the lower level of the church is Station XIII- the stone where Jesus was laid on while the cross was lowered. Everybody kisses the stone and I thought it had a nice smell. Must be the many hands that have touched it.

Station XIII

We then walked around and finally reached the queue that waited at Station XIV-the tomb. No photography allowed inside. This again is a dungeon like place-poorly lit- with a Holy stone in there. Later on I was told that the actual place of the tomb was else where and not the one we saw.

Entrance to the tomb

We then got out and walked through the narrow and busy streets of Jerusalem. After about 15-20 mins, we reached St. Mark's upper room. This is where the Holy Communion was institued and that is where we were having our communion service. A small little church/room that the 80 of us exactly fit into. but it was quite cold in there.The communion part of the service was by Thomas achen. It was different experience for me but I still enjoyed it. There were restrictions about photography in the room cause there is an old painting there of Mary and Joseph that they are trying to preserve. After service, we got black coffee and biscuits.

We then proceeded to the bus. It was a very windy walk. The bus was parked outside the old city and we walked out through the Jaffa gate that we walked in through the previous afternoon. We went back to our hotel in Bethlehem for lunch. We were not allowed to go to our rooms. After a lunch and a quick make-up session, we got onto the bus again. We were off to visit the churches in Bethlehem.

The 1st stop was at Milk Grotto church. We had to walk down a small street to get there and the shopkeepers in the street were calling out bargain deals to us. But we were adviced not to shop from there. The story behind this church is not biblical but interesting. When Mary was feeding Baby Jesus, a little milk spilt and the stone on which it fell turned white!

We went down to Manger Square and entered the Church of Nativity. We waited in yet another long queue(yet not so long!!). After a long wait, we entered David's star and got 2 seconds to see the 'Star". Its the spot of the manger.

David's Star

We then went to the upper portion of the Church of Nativity. That is where service is held during Christmas and the whole world watches it on TV. In one portion of the church is the altar of St. Jerome. He happens to be the person who translated the Bible from Hebrew to Latin. He fled from Rome and came to Bethlehem and dedicated his whole life for this. There is also a cave of Joseph where he is supposed to have had the dream where Gabriel tells him about Herod's plan.

We shopped at a store in Bethlehem and got back to the hotel. One of the appachens with us was celebrating his birthday that day. There was a cake for him and he shared his happy moment with all of us. Did some socialising during dinner and after that too. Had a really late nite but fun too.

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We had to check out from King Solomon hotel,Tiberias. We then proceeded to Yardenit. This is the traditional baptismal site on the Jordan river, though not the original site. The real place where John baptised Jesus is near Jericho. But we went to the Southern site closer to where the river joins the Dead sea. This is not too far from Nazareth. We prayed at the site and collected water from there. We saw a few people taking baptism in the water.

Yardenit

Then we drove down to Mount Carmel in Carmel. Çarmel'stands for 'Vineyard of God'. THis is where the prophets of Baal and Elijah prayed for fire for the sacrifice. 'Baal'is the god of rain. The monastry here was built by the Carmelites during the Crusader era. The Jews believe that Elijah will come back and they even keep a seat for him and the door open during the passover festival. From the top of the mountain, there is a view of the Israel valley. In the absence of mist, we can also see Mt. Tabor.

Mount Carmel Church

We then drove down to Haifa. This is supposed to be Israel's largest port city and is on the slopes of Mt.Carmel. We stopped to see the famous hanging gardens of the Bahai Shrine. This is a branch of the Lotus temple in Delhi.

Hanging Gardens-Haifa

We also stopped at Stella Maris church in Haifa. This is where Elijah is said to have been fed by the ravens.



Stella Maris church

                                      We drove through Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea coast towards Jerusalem. On the way, we crossed Tel Aviv.Haifa is called the 'city on the hill'and houses many MNCs like Google, IBM, Microsoft,etc. We finally entered Jerusalem after almost 2 hrs. We passed through several streets of 'New'Jerusalem and finally stopped near the gates of old Jerusalem. We walked through the Jaffa gate and went to the restaurant for lunch-Gloria Hotel. The walk till there was through busy and narrow roads and it was so windy that we had to hold on to our caps and clothes to prevent them from flying. Lunch was the ususal. But after that, a lot of care had to be taken with regard to the way we moved over to our next destination. It is easy to get lost in Jerusalem cause the streets are so narrow and crowded. So it was important to stick together.
We walked through the narrow and busy streets of Old Jerusalem to our 1st destination for the afternoon. The walk to Zion church was quite a long one. Most people believe that Mary did not die. She slept for a long time and then the angels came and took her away. There is a statue of Mary sleeping in the church.

Inside Zion Church-Mary sleeping

Zion Church

Next stop was at King David's tomb. It was the Shabbath that day. There are 2 sections in the tomb- one for the men and the other for the women. We did not see much there though there were a few boards that said 'David's Museum', etc.

We then went to the Church of St. Peter of Gallicantu. This is the house of Caiphas- the High Priest and also his prison. Jesus was imprisoned here. It is also here that Peter denies Jesus thrice. This church has an underground crypt that has stone pillars of the prison. There are holes in the pillars through which Jesus was chained.

In Caiphas'prison-Chains were tied through these holes

We saw the pit where Jesus was held in custody. In the courtyard outside, the place where He was tortured is marked. On top of the church is the structure of a cock.

St. Peter of Gallicantu church

We then drove all the way round to Mount of Olives. Here we visited the Pater Noster church. Pater Noster is Latin for Óur Father'. This where Jesus taught His disciples the Lord's Prayer. The same is written in different languages including malayalam and tamil. We prayed the Lord's prayer together in malayalam and then Anub achen said it in Aramic for us.
We then visited the Church of Ascension. Jesus is believed to have risen into Heaven from here. During the Ottoman period, the muslims took over the area and built a tower there.

Muslim tower of Church of Ascension

After that we walked down the road and came to the point from where its a steep downhill walk down the Palm Sunday road. It is a little difficult but everyone managed to walk. We took twigs of olive leaves (instead of palm leaves) and sang songs of Hosanna and walked down. We walked and reached Dominus Flevit. This is where Jesus stood and looked at Jerusalem and wept over the city. The church was closed but we waited because the pastor was on his way to open the church just for us. Watching the sun setting over Jerusalem ,from the Mount of Olives, was indeed a treat to the eyes and the mind.The church is beautiful and its altar faces Jerusalem just like all other churches but it is on the West. There are 2 tear-drop shaped structures on top of the church. We looked towards Jerusalem and prayed before getting out. The view was amazing and the feel exhilirating.

Dominus Flevit



Altar facing Jerusalem

Before we went to the hotel, we stopped at the famous Wailing wall or the Western Wall. There is security checking before entering the area. there is a separate section for men and women at the wall and men have to go with their head covered.  At the wall, women sat on chairs reading the Book of Law. Others stood near the wall and wept. The Jews believe that the Messiah has not yet come. Our people wrote prayers on chits of paper and placed them in the gaps in the wall. I was told that one should not show the back to the wall and so should walk backwards.

The Wailing/Western Wall

Outside there were a lot of Jewish men in theior traditional attire-black hats, long black coats and the side hair curls. I badly wanted to pose for a photo with one of them but I was so reluctant to ask. There were old men and smart young ones too. They all seemed to be in a hurry plus it was the Shabbath plus it was their holy place. We boarded the bus and proceeded towards Bethlehem which is in Palestine.
Israel and Palestine dont get along with each other and ther is a huge and long partition wall at their boundaries. People from Palestine can go into Israel but vice versa is not allowed. There is checking at the borders just like at Immigration. Thankfully, everytime we crossed, we did not have to get off. An army official would just come in and look at our faces and get off.

Partition wall between Israel and Palestine as seen from St. Peter of Gallicantu church

We entered the hilly town of Bethlehem and stayed at Grand Hotel. There was free wi-fi connectivity in the lobby and I decided to make use of it after dinner.

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