As much as one hears in the general media about Israeli politics as little one really hears about the country itself, it´s culture and heritage. Of course I knew about the relevance of Jerusalem for the three main monotheistic religions of this world, but to actually be there and experience it myself was a totally different story!
The three main monotheistic religions are present in every vein of the city. It is visible in it´s people, townscape and of course all those important monuments. An even though I only had a few days there and only visited a fraction of the religious monuments in this city it is definetly the capital of monotheistic religion.
This post gives you a quick overview of my highlights in this regard of places I think you should definetly go see.
Evidence in the Old City
The Old City of Jerusalem contains and is surounded by some of the most important religious monuments of three of the five main world religions: Jewism, Islam and Christianity. It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1981.
The Temple Mount has significance for all three religions. For Christians since it´s supposed to be the place where Abraham offered to sacrifice his son Isaac and the Jewish temple that used to be on the mount was the temple where Jesus prayed and later preached to its disciples. For Jewish people it is important due it exhibiting the remains of the first temples, whereas the Western Wall is still the most important of all Jewish Monuments in the city as I will describe later. Muslims see the mount as an extremely important place since the Temple Dome and al-Aqsa Mosque were built there since Mohamed supposedly went to heaven from this place in the 7th century.
Jewish Monuments
The Western Wall, or also known as Wailling Wall, is part of the remains of the second temple. Since the most holy part of the temple was situated in the west of the temple it is the Western Wall the Jews still pray to. It is their mouth piece to god, which is why Jews also leave letters with prayers in its cracks. I personally would not recommend you to participate in this practice since I heard it was actually damaging the wall.
In order to enter the square in front of the Western wall you´ll have to go through several security checks. At the wall there are two seperate sections: one for men and one for women, but it does not matter what faith you have. Everybody can pray there. The Culture Trip published a great piece on what to know before visiting the Western Wall, which I found super helpful.
Muslim Monuments
Right above the Western Wall rises the temple mount upon which the temple Dome and al-Aqsa Mosque tower. They are besides Mekka and the Medina in Saudi Arabia two of the most important holy sites for Muslims.
Since 2010 non-Muslims can only go up the temple mount at very restricted times and can no longer enter the Temple Dome itself. Nevertheless, it´s imposing location and the Dome of Gold are one of a hell of an experience to see with your own bare eyes.
Christian Monuments
Only a stone throw away there are several Christian Monuments such as the Church of Sepulchre, the hill of Olives and City of David. Although, I did not neither make it up the Hill of Olives nor to the City of David, I was mesmerized by my visit of the Church of Sepculchre.
It was built on the site, where Jesus was crucified and buried. Besides others you can visit the tomb of Jesus, which after many years of restauration if finally open to the public again. If you do not want to stand in line to be able to enter the Mausoleum it is advised to come to the church very early in the morning or shortly before closing.
In the Old City you can follow the the steps of Jesus on the famous Via Dolorosa from the entry to the city next to the hill of olives until the Church of Sepulchre. It is a lovely and infomative walk through the whole old town.
A good way to get an overview of Jerusalems Old City is to participate in a Free Walking Tour by SANDEMANs.
Evidence in the Israel Museum
At the Israel Museum one can find evidence dating back to the beginnings of time. One curious little snippet I picked up was the first evidence of the domestication of animals, where a woman was buried with a wee puppy. These two skeletons date back 14500 BC. Isn´t that amazing?
The oldest Bible
Most famous is the Museum, however, for hosting the oldest version of the Old Testament which were part of the dead sea scrolls as well as the oldest bible in the world, the Aleppo Codex.
Both of these magnificent artefacts are hosted in the shrine of the book, which was designed by Armand Philip Bartos, Frederik John Kiesler and Gezer Heller over a period of seven years. Its shape is inspired by the lid of the jars in which the dead sea scrolls were found.The contrast between the white shrine and the black granite wall before it are symbolic towards the tensions between “sons of light” and the “sons of darkness”, which were mentioned in one of the scrolls. “Sons of light” is how the Judean sectarians called themselves, whereas they called their enemies “sons of darkness”.
In this place you can go on a journey of judism and Christianity back to their beginnings. Well worth a trip outside the old city.
Jerusalem at the time of the Old City
Another great piece the Israel Muesum showcases, is the model of the Old City of Jerusalem of the time of the second temple. It shows you what one can only imagine visiting the Old City nowadays.
So as I said in the beginning, I only managed to see a wee fragment of all the vast variety of religios monunments and sites, but I hope I could still give you a good oversight of their highlights. Have you been to Jerusalem before? What fascinated you most about this city? Or did you have a totally different experience as a whole?
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