More Jerusalem...not sure what day we're on!

Timnah rock carvings.



Arches at Timnah



Yad Vashem Sculpture



Pater Noster, where the Lord's Prayers is written in over 60 different languages.



Orthodox Jews at Jewish Cemetary



Overlook from Dominus Flevit. Great view of the Old City from the Mt. of Olives.



Window at Dominus Flevit.



Onion tops of Church of St. Mary Magdelene



Garden of Gethsemane and the flowers around it. Much prettier this time around. :)



Dome of the Rock looking north



Top side panels of the Dome of the Rock. These are all made out of tile. So intricate and so pretty. Arabic is a pretty language.



Upper side panels of the Dome of the Rock



Floor of "Center of the Earth" on Temple Mount.



Feather/Scale like mosaic up in a doorway of the Dome of the Rock. Gotta love telephoto lenses!



Cool engravings on the marble of a wash area on the Temple Mount.



Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount



Roman writings over archway that it is believed that Christ would have passed through. (Can't remember the name and I'm upstairs right now.)


What have we done the past few days….
Sunday we went to Timnah, an ancient copper mine, with all of the faculty, the Huffs and their kids, the Masters, the Browns and the Skinners. Dad even came along which was nice. We drove down past Jericho, along the Dead Sea, past Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, past Masada, past En Gedi all the way down to the Timnah. Timnah was a lot like southern Utah with different rock formations. There were cave carvings, arches, caverns and crevices. We even got to do our own sand art….well a gentleman from Germany insisted on doing mine for me, and we even did paddleboats on ‘Timnah lake.’ On the way back it was clear enough to see across the Dead Sea to Jordan and all the way up to Mt. Nebo.

Monday, Mom and I went over to En Kerem and saw the Chagall windows and then went over to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial. There is a humble reverence at Yad Vashem and it always amazes me that people still insist that the Holocaust didn’t happen. I can’t even imagine living in that time period, seeing those horrors and it breaks my heart that one man could have such a destructive influence on so many.

Tuesday, we did the Mt. of Olives. We started at the top at the Church of the Ascension, which apparently doesn’t like tourists even though they open their gates, then down to Pater Noster, where the Lord’s Prayer is in tile in over 60 different languages. From there we walked down the street where there was an amazing overlook of the Old City. As we gazed down to our left we noticed some Orthodox Jews in the Jewish cemetery around a particular grave. We walked down some stairs to the roadway and went to Dominus Flevit where I was able to get a decent picture of the iron window. It was a little difficult to get because they were having a mass in there. We went from there to the Church of St. Mary Magdelene, which has the golden onion tops on it. The gardens there were beautiful and I was surprised to see two glass tombs with bodies in them. From there we went to the Garden of Gethsemane, which was much prettier than the last time I was here, with many flowers and walkways, and over to the Church of All Nations. We went to Mary’s Tomb and the Gethsemane Grotto, where it is believed Judas betrayed Jesus.

Mom and I also went to Homemaking meeting with the permanent members of the Jerusalem branch. It was held at the 1st Counselors (Bishopric) over on French hill. Their apartment was really nice and the sisters were a lot of fun to be with.

Today, we went up on the Temple Mount, or Mt. Moriah and saw the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque. I love the tilework on the Dome of the Rock and was surprised to see people up inside the dome. I also loved the feather-looking mosaic up in one of the doorways to the mosque. As we came around to the true entrance to the mosque I got chewed out by a guard because I didn’t have my arms covered. I had walked all over the top and they didn’t say a thing and mom had a ¾ length shirt on and they didn’t say anything to her so that’s all we can figure. Luckily, I had a pullover shirt in my bag so I threw that on.

From there we went out Chain Gate and over to the Jewish quarter and to the Western Wall. We then went to the Ophel Gardens where the walls surrounding the Temple Mount have been excavated. There are many things to see at the Ophel gardens. We saw the remains of Robinson’s arch, which is believed to be the stairs that led to the temple and also and old mikvah with the divider cut in the rock to separate those going into the water and those coming out. We saw old Roman carvings and mosaic floors. Many of the stones excavated are believed to be old enough that Christ would have probably walked on them at some point during his life. We’re loving it and getting more and more tired by the day….