Jerusalem the Old

   Jerusalem is certainly the most fascinating city in all the world.  Besides the 3000 years of history that can be found through archeology, 3000 years of history are on live display today in the often tense but altogether miraculous holy city.  Imagine being in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after having prayed at the Western Wall surrounded by Christian pilgrims who are praying at the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Coptic, Syrian, or Armenian shrines within the Church as the Muslim call to prayer is sounded and reverberates on the Roman paving stones upon which you walk.  This is the surreal experience of being in the Old City in Jerusalem. 

This is what the streets of Jerusalem might have looked liked when it was ruled by Rome.

   What makes Jersusalem so special is its central role in the three monotheistic religions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.  The history of how these religions have habitated this city forms the layers of living history that surrounds one in the old section of Jerusalem.  A brief history lesson; As you may well know, harking back 3000 years there was a walled city inhabited by the Canaanites who set themselves on a hill top that was highly defensible and protected from siege because of a hidden spring within its walls.  Then, King David, of David and Goliath fame, comes along seeking to unite the tribes of the Israelites at a central hub.  Using tunnels that were used by the Cananites to access their secret spring, David mounted a secret infiltration and took the city.  Throughout attacks by the Babylonians and Assyrians, the Jewish capital in this former Caananite city lasted until the year 70 C.E. when Rome brutally destroyed the city and expelled the Jews.  Rome would become Christian in a few hundred years and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre would become venerated as the holiest of Christian sites, just as the remaining walls of the Temple that was destroyed by the Roman Tenth Legion in 70 C.E. are the holiest of sites for Jews (the so called Western Wall).  Muslims would then take the city followed by its recapture by the Crusaders, then the Ottoman Muslims, the British after the fall of the Ottoman Empire during WWI, the Jordanians, and finally Israel. 

     Nowhere in the world does history come so alive as in Jerusalem.  Descendants of the Christians, Muslims, and Jews who have lived here for hundreds of years still share the space of the small walled Old City, and Holy Pilgrimage for these three intertwined religions happens harmoniously like it never has before.  This harmony occurs despite a bloody history of the city that is not even a distant memory; bullet holes from wars pockmark the city walls and the Jewish quarter of the Old City is entirely new because it was razed in the 1967 war by Jordan.  In spite of the tumultuous past (and perhaps because of it...the archeological digs in the ruins of the Jewish quarter are priceless and might not have occurred had the Jewish quarter not been destroyed) the spirit of Jerusalem still thrives. One feels a connectedness throughout the ages through the archeological finds and remains in the area. We walked through the tunnels that King David used to take the city 3000 years ago and we saw where the tunnels were secured in miraculous effort to fortify the water source by King Hezekiah hundreds of years later and repel an Assyrian onslaught of the city.  We went underground (today´s old city is many meters higher than it was thousands of years ago because buildings have been built over old ruins) to see remnants of the ritual bath pools used 2500 years ago before my ancestors would ascend to the temple mount to give offerings to the Almighty.  The 30 ton stones of the Second Temple walls from 70 C.E. still remain intact today, although they are piled high in some places from where the Tenth Roman legion knocked them down.  Seeing this sight as well as stones engraved with the Tenth Legion insignia brought the horror of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem into a more vivid view than anything from Hollywood.  Even the sewer systems from the Second Temple period (2000 years ago) have been excavated and can be explored.  The highlight of our archeological exploration was certainly seeing where the spring that sustained Jerusalem for many hundreds of years emanated from (the secret Caananite spring).  Knowing that Solomon was anointed there, in front of the enormous crowd of Jews thousands of years ago linked me to a sacred heritage in a way that no story ever could.

    Indeed my feelings of connectedness are biased towards Jewish events, but the many Texans (there was a cruise ship that landed with hundreds of Texans on it) who were on the "walk in the footsteps of Jesus" tour expressed just as awestruck statements as they followed the historical heart of their religion.  The city is truly miraculous.

For a pictorial view of Jerusalem with commentary, please visit my Israel gallery here.