Here are some of the things you can see in Jerusalem!
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The upper picture shows two beautiful people with the Mt of Olives in the background. To the left is the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. The lower picture is us at a different angle with the Western Wall in the background. The area where this picture was taken is neat because we walked through some narrow streets and down many stairs and we thought we were lost until finally we turned a corner and saw this magnificent view of the Temple Mount and Mt of Olives.
This is Jerusalem as viewed from one of the towers in the Tower of David Museum near the Jaffa Gate, looking east. In the fore-ground is the city and the Dome of the Rock. Further is the Mt of Olives. If you think the buildings are really close together, you're right! Some of the "streets" in the old city are so narrow that you can reach out your arms and touch the buildings on either side of the street. The majority aren't much wider.
Inside the wall is the Old City. Nearly everything built outside the wall was built in this century. The light colored, populated area descending south from the wall is The City Of David. This was where the city of Jerusalem was originally. It was destroyed by the Romans and the current walls were built by the Ottoman Turks.
To the left of this picture, the Temple Mount continues several hundred yards to the north. To the right is the City of David. When we took this picture, the area was undergoing an archeological excavation. Parts of it had not been touched since it was destroyed by the Romans about 2000 years ago. The wall used to be much higher than this, possibly as high as 200 ft! There is a huge staircase, about 100 ft wide, where the commonfolk would ascend to the entrace in the south wall to get to the Temple. Jesus probably taught on this staircase.
Adjoining the Jaffa gate, The Ottomans built this fortress to protect the gate. It is now a museum that shows the history of Jerusalem and its different occupiers. It's actually built over Herod's Palace. Even lower are walls that were probably built for King Hezekiah as he readied for the Assyrian invasion. If you look close you may be able to see walls built on top of others at odd angles to each other indicating the different builders. The tower in the background is called the Tower of David even though David had been gone for more than 1500 years when it was built. When we were there, a glass sculptor from Seattle named Dale Chihuly had several displays there. You can see the pink tree made of glass ingots, as well as the yellow flames and several other pieces.
