Jerusalem, redux!

Me at the Dome of the Rock. Apparently people can be kicked out of the site if they aren’t dressed appropriately—for women this means no short skirts, shorts, low necklines (tank tops), or sleeveless shirts, and often a covered head. It was well over 80 degrees out so you can imagine how uncomfortable walking around in long sleeves and pants was!

A Muslim coming to mosque.

View of Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter from the Temple Mount area.

Detail from the mosque.

A prayer rug.

A wall of saints at the Church of Dormition

There’s a church built over every site on which anything ever happened in Israel. This is in the Church of the Dormition, which is built to commemorate Mary’s vision.

A statue of Mary in repose.

The Room of the Last Supper.

I was there during the Jewish high holidays, including Sukkot, for which Jews built little huts (“suka“) near their homes and literally live in them for a week.

Zion gate, Old City walls.

Zion gate upon closer inspection. Yep, those are definitely bullet holes. The IDF centered on this gate to take the Old City from Muslim forces in 1967. Man, I wish MY hometown had as interesting a history!

Corridor in the Armenian museum.

A cracked globe at the Armenian museum.

Whoddat??

I was so proud when I saw this in the Armenian museum! Photography is IMPORTANT, and so are photographers…get out there and shoot!

A graveyard behind the museum (which used to be a church, I think).

Reflection in a puddle in the courtyard of the Armenian museum.

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

My dad on the spiral staircase going up a hundred BILLION more stairs to the Church of the Redeemer’s bell tower. I think we must have climbed ever bell tower in Jerusalem.

Zow! A zoom effect I did on a night shot at the Damascus Gate of the Old City.

Damascus gate in daytime. It’s a vibrant Arab marketplace!

Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City at night. It’s all pretty and lit up for the month-long holiday of Ramadan

IDF on duty at a tourist site

Camel!

Shrine of the Book, featuring Dead Sea Scrolls.

Shrine of the Book exterior architecture

ALLLLAA-A-A-H OOOOOOO-AHKBAR!”

…Life in Jerusalem?

Perhaps due to the cities’ impressive cat population, there were few pigeons to keep the streets clean of discarded bread. For some reason there seemed to be abandoned bread all over the place, it was very weird.

The Stone of Unction (believed to be the rock where Jesus was laid and purified after crucifiction) at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

A moasic at the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre Church depicting Christ’s crucifiction, cleansing, and entombing.

A Greek Orthodox priest performing a ceremony

Greek Orthodox monks performing a ceremony

What could be considered an average family size in Jerusalem—people seem to breed like the city’s cats; I’d see families of five, six, seven or more children sometimes!

Interesting fence design

My dad hanging out on the Old City walls

Hehe, I took this in downtown Jerusalem. What’s odd about this picture?

I just thought this was so funny. A very friendly cat walked right into the Church of the Flagellation to say hello

Jerusalem city