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.
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| 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.
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Mount Carmel Church
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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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Inside Zion Church-Mary sleeping |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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St. Peter of Gallicantu church
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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.
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| 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.
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| Dominus Flevit |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
Check out more pics on
Pilgrimage-Day4-Yardenit-Haifa-Jerusalem-Mt. Olives
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