As we walked to the Temple Mount we got our first view of the Western Wall. Apparently there is no time - day or night - when there is no-one there. Notice the partition between the men's side and women's side. The western wall is controlled by the orthodox jews.
Here is the beautiful muslin temple which since 691 has been on top of the Temple Mount. The roof was redone in 1994 and was gold plated. Tourists have not been allowed in for the last few years so we had to be content viewing the outside.
I am not sure what this is but it has seats in front of taps and must be used for some sort of ritual cleansing.
When Herod built the temple on the mount he put walls all around and added fill so that the mount is much bigger than it previously was. The following picture shows the only part of the original rock that is not covered.
We came down from the mount and followed the stations of the cross. The number on the black circle marks the spot.
Next was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was surprising to me that there is no agreement on where Christ's tomb is. In the third century Constantine's mother came to Jerusalem and determined that the site was here and built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The slab below is supposedly where the body of Jesus was laid while it was prepared for burial. It was a shock to see peoople kneeling and kissing the slab.
Below is the supposed tomb which is in the back of the church.
There are many bullet holes on the wall from the seige that took place about 1948.
The Shepherd's field was our next stop. From the field we could see Bethlehem. We didn't go to Bethlehem because it is in a section of the West Bank that our tour bus wasn't licensed to drive in. There is a shepherd and sheep there but he wasn't around while we were there. We only saw the wife and grandchild and one little sheep. The woman wanted money from us.
Every one who tours in Israel is taken to the Yad Vachem which is the Holocost Musuem. Bob only took one picture there.
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