Mt. Carmel Moments: A City Like No Other

An Old City Street Scene

The Jaffa Gate at Night

My first visit to Jerusalem was on the Thursday evening before Easter in 2008. We entered the Old City through the Jaffa Gate late in the afternoon and proceeded into the Arab Quarter. Though now I love to wander the streets of the old city and even count some of the shop owners as friends, that evening I found it to be a daunting experience. Being someone who does not even usually like a clerk looking over my shoulder as I shop, I found the merchants popping out at me, trying to lure me into their stores, the uneven pavements, people darting everywhere and the cacophony of sounds all around me completely overwhelming. Our goal was to have a look around and visit the Western Wall, but within the first fifteen minutes, I was ready to leave. Where it not for my patient husband and my desire to see the streets where Jesus walked, I might have done just that. How I have changed! This trip, we made five different visits to Jerusalem and to the Old City, which I wandered freely both alone and with our many guests.

The Old City of Jerusalem is a relatively small walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem. It is composed of four distinct, but uneven, quarters: the largest is the Muslim Quarter on the northeast, the Jewish Quarter on the southeast, the Christian Quarter to the northwest and the Armenian Quarter on the southwest. The Temple Mount sits bordered by the Muslim and Jewish Quarters on the eastern side. There are seven gates that are used today: the Damascus Gate, Dung Gate, New Gate, Herod's Gate, Lion's Gate, Zion Gate and Jaffa Gate. And there are four that are closed: the Golden (or Eastern) Gate, Single Gate, Double Gate, and Huldah (or Triple) Gate.

The current Old City walls were built by the
Turks in the 1500s.

It is easy to try to visualize the Old City of today as it might have been during the time of the Kings of Judah or when Jesus and his contemporaries walked the streets. However, that city is gone and the level of those streets is really about 30 feet below the streets of today as a result of thousands of years of destruction

and reconstruction. The walls of the Old City today are not the original ones but were built by the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent between 1535 and1538 A.D. However, there are glimpses of the city of Jesus' time in areas that have been excavated since Israel took possession of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War.

One of those areas is the Cardo, an area that dates from the Roman era and was excavated in the 1970s. It is a wonderful example of what a street might have looked like during that time and allows us to imagine how the people might have lived in first century Jerusalem.

A wonderful painting in the Cardo depicts life in the
Old City in first century Jerusalem

Friends explore the Cardo

Exploring the Ruins Beneath Robinson's Arch

Robinson's Arch was part of the entrance to the
Temple Mount at the time of Herod's Temple

And there are other areas. The Davidson Archaeological Park surrounds the southwestern and southern walls of the Temple Mount. Excavations since 1967 have revealed what the area around the entrance to the magnificent Temple of Herod's time might have looked like, including an Arch identified by Biblical Scholar Edward Robinson in1880, consequently named Robinson's Arch, which was part of the stairs that led up from the first city streets of Jerusalem onto the Temple Mount. Work around that area has uncovered huge Herodian blocks that made up the walls of thet temple which were hurled down to the streets below during the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman troops in A.D. 70. Portions of the street that ran along the southwestern corner of the mount where street vendors and money changers plied their trades and ritual miqvahs (bathes), which existed for the purification of those who were preparing to ascend the stairs to offer sacrifices, have also been uncovered. To the south, one can ascend the steps often called the Teaching or Rabbi steps to the now closed Huldah Gates. And the work continues on the southern side of the walls. It is an amazing area to visit and imagine what that magnificent area and temple must have looked like when it stood there in its glory.

The Teaching or Rabbi Steps on the South Side of
the Temple Mount were possibly one of the areas
where Jesus taught.

A Miqvah Near Herod's Temple

This recreation gives us a wonderful look at what the southwest corner of the temple
looked like in the first century.

Good Friday Pilgrims Outside the Church of the Flagellation

Inside the city there are many sites to see: the Via Dolorosa with its fourteen stations begins in the Arab Quarter and winds it way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is venerated as the site of Golgotha or Calvary. It is also regarded by many as the site of Jesus' burial, and is home to branches of both Greek and Oriental Orthodox Churches as well as the Roman Catholics and is a highly venerated site. Though quite possibly the burial of Christ was in this area, (Keep in mind the streets were 30 feet or so lower at that time.) I will share the area that I prefer to think of as the tomb of Jesus in a later blog.

The Court of the Church Of the Holy Sepulchre on Good Friday

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

This structure has been built over what is believed
to be the burial site of Christ.

A set of steep and narrow steps leads up
to the site of Calvary in the church.

Many worship at this stone venerated as the place where
Jesus was laid when he was removed from the cross.

There is so much more that I can and will share
about Jerusalem, but I leave you with these
images of the city as it is today. It is a fascinating place of contrast and controversy. And, of course, at some point I will add my commentary on some of what I have shown you. Next time, we visit the Western Wall and its tunnels and the City of David.