Adventures in Galilee Part 2

This is the second post from Galilee, so if you havent read the first one, read that first! We started Tuesday at the Mount of Beatitudes which commemorates the site Jesus preached the sermon on the Mount. There is a pretty little church at the top which has all of the beatitudes written in stained glass. It is very peaceful and pretty. Next we went to Tabgha, which commemorates the miracle of the fish and loaves. In the church there is a stone under the altar on which Jesus supposedly stood when he blessed the food, and in front of the stone is a lovely mosaic of a bread basket flanked by two fish. Then we went next door to the church of the Primacy of Peter, which marks the site where Jesus appeared to his apostles on the sea after the resurrection and made them breakfast. Here Jesus also reinstated the primacy of Peter by commanding him 3 times to care for his flock. Inside the church there is a huge rock that marks this site. These 3 churches are mostly pilgrimage sites, but they are very beautiful and prayerful.

The view of the sea from the Mt of Beatitudes

A little blurry, but the rock on which Jesus stood is under the altar, and in front is the mosaic of the fish and loaves

The rock on which Jesus made breakfast :)

Then we went to Capernum, a fishing village where several of the Apostles were from. There is a 4^th century synagogue built on top of an older synagogue that would have been the one Jesus taught in. There is also the house of Peter, now with a huge church built over it. Scholars are pretty certain this is Peter’s house because the archaeological evidence shows that the site took on a transformation in the mid 1^st century, where it was no longer used as a residence, but as a public facility, most likely a house-church. Then in later centuries, an octagonal church was built around the site. 

Peter's house under the church. You can see the octagonal shape.



After Capernum we went to a little museum that houses a first century fishing boat. This was really neat because it would have been the type of boat used by Jesus and the Apostles. There was a video showing how it was found by two fishermen in the 1980’s when there was a drought and the sea was low. They called in archaeologists who were so careful in excavating it because the wood had been waterlogged for so long, it would break easily or crumble if it dried. They used some scientific process to replace the water in the wood with wax, so now the boat is preserved forever.

The Jesus Boat

It is so much easier to imagine Jesus on the sea when you know what kind of boat he was in! But it doesn’t make it easier to figure out how they braved the waves! Every night when the sun goes down, the air cools and the movement of this air creates wind and waves. So every night, the sea gets rough, some nights more than others. That is why Jesus’ calming of the sea was so important, because he halted this natural, continuous occurrence.

We took a boat from Tiberius, across the sea of Ein Gev, where we were having dinner and staying overnight. The boat ride took a little over an hour and was peaceful and the sea and surrounding lands were just beautiful. But when we got to the other side, the sun had dipped below the mountains, and the sea was so rough that we couldn’t dock! The boat was tipping back and forth so much, I could see how the apostles in a much smaller boat would have been in danger of capsizing! We had to go all the way back across the sea to dock because the waves were calmer there. Then we had to order a bus to pick us up and drive us around the sea to Ein Gev. It was such a perfect example of how unexpectedly the sea can change, and I sure wasn’t going to complain about having extra time on the boat! When we got to Ein Gev, were had traditional St. Peter’s fish: head, tail, fins and bones included! 

On the front of the boat, the first trip across



The waves getting rougher, still beautiful though!

The next day we went to Bethsaida, where some of the Apostles were from. They had the remains of a fisherman’s house there because they found in it many fishing tools and nets and things like that, so it gives a good idea of how they would have lived. The site also has a section of original Roman road, which is always exciting to walk on because there is a pretty good chance Jesus would have walked there as well. 

Standing on one of many Roman roads we have seen



Then we went to Gamla, where we really didn’t know what we were getting into. We stopped at a cliff that goes into a deep valley, and our professor pointed to a sharp peak in the middle of the valley and said that was where we were going. We looked down to find a steep rocky path leading down the cliff, after which we would have to walk back up the slope to the peak that the city was on. We started down fresh with full bottles of water, and immediately saw a group on their way back, drenched in sweat, panting like dogs and barely dragging themselves up the hill. Needless to say we were a little intimidated. While climbing down, all I just couldn’t imagine why anyone in their right mind would built a city on such a steep slope! And on top of that, why the Romans felt the need to try to conquer it 3 times! If I’m a Roman, I’m going to look at the city and say, “Nope. You Jews can keep this one!”

We got to the bottom, rested for a bit, and started up the slope towards the city. It has a great synagogue, several houses, the hole in the wall where the Romans broke through, and a fabulous view all the way to the sea of Galilee. After exploring for a bit, we rested some more, refilled our water, and started the trek back up. It really wasn’t as bad as it looked, and Lori and I made it up in about 15 min, only stopping a couple short times, panting, hearts pounding, and drenched it sweat. But it felt like a great adventure and accomplishment! To top it all off, there are vulture feeding grounds there, so the vultures were circling overhead the whole time, just waiting for one of us to collapse!

Our goal...

Trying to get there...

On our last day we started by going to the Jordan river and renewing our baptismal vows. It was a really pretty and serene site for pilgrims to do just that. Most of the other groups had the white gowns on and were doing full-submersion baptism, but we just put our feet in and Sally poured water over our heads as we renewed our vows. It was really moving to be doing that in the Jordan river.

Sitting by the lovely Jordan River after renewing my baptismal vows

Then we went to Beit She’an, which was a Gentile city back in Jesus’ day, and was a really well preserved site. They had a great theater, huge bath complex, and a long shopping district lined with columns. Its claim to fame though is that the tree on the mound that covers the earlier cities was the tree in Jesus Christ Superstar where Judas hangs himself.

The whole site. You can just barely see the tree on top of the hill.

On the way to Jerusalem we stopped in Jericho, which was really just disappointing. It was sweltering hot, and there was not much there to look at other than part of a Canaanite tower and some mud bricks in a hillside. I was expecting more.
When we got back to Jerusalem, it was like coming home! I love that I can call the Mount of Olives home. The sisters were so excited to see us again, and we really missed them and the food!

Galilee Part 1

Galilee was amazing. The land is so different there, so beautiful! We did SO MUCH and went non-stop every day, so to fit it all in, I’m just going to give you the basics. I’ll have to do it in two parts, so this is just the first half of the trip! On the way up to Galilee, we stopped at Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast. The city was a man-made harbor built by Herod the Great, and was a residence of Pontius Pilate as well. Paul was imprisoned here at some point too. It was interesting because our professor had dug at the excavations there, so she knew a lot of really neat things about the site and the process of excavating.

The racetrack at Caesarea Maritima with Herod's palace behind it to the left.

Then we went to Megiddo, which is a huge site, with like 26 layers of ruins, meaning 26 different cities had been built here on top of each other. There were so many terrible wars here, that the word Armageddon comes from Megiddo. One excavation trench goes all the way down to the Canaanite period and has a huge round altar. We also climbed down the water source tunnels here, because we like tunnels!

The Canaanite altar at Megiddo



We stayed overnight in Nazareth, which is surprisingly a big modern city now. No tall buildings or anything, but nice shopping and restaurants, and lots of young people out and about. Its basically the last big Christian city left in Israel. We drove to Mount Tabor in the morning, which is the mountain on which the Transfiguration took place. It has a very distinctive rounded shape and is visible from almost everywhere throughout the region. I’ve learned that Jesus was really good about choosing locations. The church on top has a beautiful mosaic of the transfiguration, and two chapels in the back dedicated to Moses and Elijah since the Apostles didn’t get to construct the tents they wanted to. 

Mount Tabor from a distance



Then we went to Sepphoris, which was the big city back in the day. It was being built in the first part of the first century, so many scholars believe that Joseph worked there building the city since he was a craftsman and Nazareth had nothing but farming. The site was nice, with a synagogue that had beautiful mosaics, and a bathhouse that has a mosaic of a woman who has come to be known as the Mona Lisa of Sepphoris. It was really pretty. 

Mona Lisa of Sepphoris



Then we went back into Nazareth, where we went to the Church of the Annunciation. It was built over a cave-house that is believed to have been Mary’s. The courtyard was covered in Mosaics form all over the world, depicting Mary as a native woman of that country. It was beautiful. We had Mass there, which was really great, except that there were so many tourists watching and taking pictures that it almost felt like we were putting on a show or something. (2407)

The Church of the Annunciation. The cave house is to the left.

The next day we went to Tel Dan, which is the northernmost point of Israel. It is a beautiful forested area with fresh springs that feed the Jordan river. It was so refreshing to walk in the shade of the trees and smell the earth. So different from the arid lands further south. Dan has an awesome mud-brick gate from the Canaanite period. Mud bricks usually arent preserved because they are mud, so they melt. But this was covered, so it was a really rare and important find. There was also inside the city walls from a later period, the benches on which the elders of the town would sit and talk and people would come to them for judgment and wisdom, so we made the elders of our group sit there. (2451)(2458)

Lori and I playing in the spring



The mud brick gate

Then we went to Banias, also known as Caesarea Philippi. This was the site that I had to research ahead of time, and give a presentation at the site. It was so meat to see everything come to life that I had read about. There are beautiful red cliffs overlooking the city, and a big natural cave which used to have a spring that feeds the Jordan. Now the spring is underground. The people of Jesus’ time dedicated the site to the god Pan and carved several niches in the cliff where they placed statues of Pan and other gods. It was here that Jesus asked his apostles the question “Who do you say that I am?” With these pagan Gods in the background, Peter’s response that Jesus is the Messiah, Son of the living God would have been a direct challenge to those gods. Then Jesus declares Peter as the “rock” on which he will build the church, which is in contrast to the gods in the rock that the gentiles worshipped. After exploring the temple area, we took a long hike to a beautiful waterfall!

Me pretending to be a statue of Pan in the niches.



The beautiful waterfall

Monday we started at Tel Hazor, which was a huge city. Joshua destroyed the Canaanite City, and later King Solomon built it up. There is a great example of the 6 chambered gets which may be unique to Solomon. Soldiers would hide in these chambers and ambush invaders. There are also great examples of houses, and in the palace area you can see the burn marks and ashes of a great fire that destroyed the city, which may or may not have been from Joshua’s conquest. Then we went to Chorazim, which is a city right on the Sea of Galilee, and unfortunately one of the cities that Jesus condemns because they did not change their ways after seeing the miracles he performed. The city was built out of black basalt stone from the region, so it is completely black. It may have looked stunning when it was all built, but the black made the ruins look very dreary and absorbed a ton of heat. My theory is that the people were too hot and depressed to repent. The synagogue there is really neat and has a seat of Moses on which the scribes, Pharisees and others with teaching authorities would have taught from the Torah. Of course being from CTU, we took a picture of all of the women around the seat!

The depressing city of Chorazim.



The women around the seat of Moses

Then we went to the cliffs of Mount Arbel, which have the most breath-taking view of the Sea of Galilee. It is so blue! When we got to the hotel, we immediately changed into our bathing suits and went swimming in the sea. It was surprisingly warm! It really did feel like taking a soothing bath because the waves were very gentle and just kinda rolled you around. It was so refreshing. Now I see why Jesus spent so much time on the Sea of Galilee!

More to come in the next post!

 



Me on the cliffs of Mount Arbel




Sunset on the Sea of Galilee. How perfect!



Hills and Tunnels of Jerusalem

Sorry I havent posted in a while. We have had very little internet and even less time. I’m in Galilee right now and will be for the rest of the week. This post is from Jerusalem before we left. I’ll update with Galilee next time I get a chance!
On Sunday, a group of us went to a town called Ein Kerem, which is in the “hill country” where Elizabeth, Zechariah and John the Baptist were from. First we went to the Church of the Visitation where Mary met Elizabeth and the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy, and Mary responded with what is known as the Magnificat. It was a beautiful church, and the courtyard had the Magnificat written in 60 different languages on the wall. There is also a tradition that tells a story of Elizabeth and John, that when Herod was killing all of the first born sons in an attempt to kill Jesus, John was also a baby at the time. Elizabeth was running away from the soldiers and when she couldn’t go any further she cried out to God for help, and the earth opened and hid her and John. The rock that supposedly hid John is enshrined in this church. Then we went down the hill and across the street to the Church of John the Baptist which commemorates the birthplace of John. Here on the wall in the courtyard they had the Canticle of Zechariah written in many different languages.

Statue of Mary and Elizabeth with the Magnifact behind them in different languages.

The rock that hid baby John :)

chapel dedicated to the birth place of John the baptist

Then we went to the Hadassah hospital because they have a synagogue there with windows made by Marc Chagall. There are 12 windows representing each of the twelve tribes of Israel and they are very symbolic as to the characteristics of the tribes. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but I recommend doing a google search to see them because they are really beautiful (http://www.hadassah.org.il/English/Eng_MainNavBar/About/Art+at+Hadassah/The+Chagall+Windows+Pictures.htm). From there we went to the Israel Museum, which had a huge model of ancient Jerusalem, so you could see what the Temple would have looked like, Herod’s palace, the walls at different times, the residential areas, etc. It was really neat to pick everything out that we have been learning about. The museum also had some of the Dead Sea scrolls on display in a building modeled after the shape of the lid on one of the jars the scrolls were found in. We got to see the scroll of Isaiah, as well as some others from the Qumran Community. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of them though.

Lori and I infront of the model of the city. The temple is in the upper left, Herod's palace is right behind us.

The building the houses the dead sea scrolls

Monday we went to Tel Aviv to get our visas for Egypt, and we stopped at a museum there as well. I was pretty museum-ed out from the day before, but something they had that was neat was a model of an ancient Israeli house. Then on the way home we stopped at Nicopolis, which is one of the 4 sites that claims to be Emmaus. They don’t know which one really is Emmaus, but this is close enough! The city was normal ruins, nothing special. the really interesting part was that they have two 1st-century Jewish tombs! And you could go in one! This would have been very similar to Jesus’ tomb. Its not what we imagine from movies and pictures. The hole is only about a 2ft square, enough to crawl into and pull a body through. Inside was a room about 6 ft square that had 7 more little holes which would hold the bodies. So when they say that Jesus’ tomb was one in which no one else had yet been buried, that was important because the tombs were shared by many people, probably a whole family. The stone that kind of plugs up the hole still would have been too heavy for the women to move by themselves.

Model of a first century Israeli house

Me "resurrecting" from the tomb

Tuesday we toured the ruins of the City of David. This was the first Jerusalem, but it lies just outside of today’s walls. There really isn’t much left other than a huge retaining wall that would have held the temple on the top of the hillside, and other little walls. The best part was, King Hezekiah in the 8th century BC decided to hide the city’s water source so that invaders could not block it off from the city, and he built a huge tunnel underground to bring water inside the walls. We got to walk through the tunnel with flashlights in water that was up to your knees and at one point almost to your waist. It took about 25 minutes to walk through and was so much fun!

In Hezekiah's Tunnel

Then we went to the Southwest corner of the Temple Mount today, which is still part of Herod’s original construction. The street along the west side of the temple was like the 5th avenue of the day with shops and socializing, so our guide said that Jesus definitely would have walked on this street because anyone who came to the temple did. That was pretty neat.

We had about 5 minutes at the Western Wall before our next tour, so I was able to go up to it, touch it, and say a quick prayer, but I will definitely have to go back and spend some more time in prayer there. Then we walked through another tunnel that runs along the Western wall. From what I understand ( I was getting all of my time periods mixed up by then because we basically walked underground through Jerusalem’s entire history that day), part of this tunnel was dug recently and the area would have been at street level back in the day, and part of it was actually a secret tunnel then in in which they could hide the arc of the covenant during an attack.

At the Western Wall

 

After getting out of that tunnel, we were exhausted, so we stopped at the Austrian Hotel and had a beer on the roof.

The past two days have been just catching up on rest and school work. I have a presentation to give next week, and needed to finish up some research. We leave for Galilee tomorrow! We will be spending a week in Galilee touring all of the cities Jesus preached in up there. We are staying a couple nights right on the sea of Galilee! I will post again when we come back!

“ Jesus is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him as he told you.” Mark 16:7

Oh Jerusalem!

Jerusalem is incredible! The first day I was very nervous because we are in a completely different culture once again, but this time there is the added tension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the conflicts between the religions in the Old City. But when our professor Laurie took us into town, I felt much more comfortable. She showed us how to get the “bus”, which is a van, not our version of a bus to the city and back again. She took us into the old city, through the Damascus Gate into the Muslim Quarter which is nearest our bus stop and has great little sweets called honey balls that are basically fried dough balls saturated with honey. We walked through to the Christian Quarter where she introduced us to several shop owners she has become friends with over the years. These are people we can go to, first of all, for fair prices, but also if we get separated from the group, or lost, or just have questions. It was really comforting to have friends we can trust. She showed us the important things like nice bathrooms, good places to sit and get a cold drink, and the fact that the Christian Quarter is fittingly the only place in the Old City to buy alcohol. She also treated us to a great bagel type bread that is served with a delicious green mix of spices called Zatar. These are the important things to know! Our little tour ended with lunch at the Knights Palace, which used to be a seminary and before that was somehow associated with the knights that protected the Holy Sepulcher. Her friend there treated us without charge to a huge Palestinian lunch, which was delicious. One of the women who works there talked to us about being a Christian living in the Old City, and how the Israeli authorities will set up tons of checkpoints around Christian holy sites on feast days to make it pretty much impossible for Christians to go, for instance, to the Church of the Nativity on Christmas. Additionally, being Palestinians, they have a lot of trouble traveling, and it is extremely difficult to be able to visit their friends and relatives in Palestine.

The Damascus Gate

Walking down a side street in the Christian Quarter.

Lori and I took a day to rest, but on the next day we went into town to walk the Via Dolorosa. This is the stations of the cross set up for pilgrims. Most are not historically accurate as to exactly where Jesus would have been carrying his cross, but nonetheless they have been followed by Christians for centuries. Before the stations, we stopped at the pools of Bethesda. These are the pools right inside the Lion’s Gate or St. Stephen’s gate (In Jesus’ time called the Sheep Gate) where Jesus healed the crippled man on the Sabbath (John 5:1-9). This site is pretty historically accurate, and it was so moving to be in the place where a miracle occurred. As we read the story from our Bible, standing in the spot where it occurred, we realized that for years the man had been trying to get into the water to be cured. But the Bible doesn’t say that Jesus put him in the water, or poured any water on him. Jesus didn’t need the water because his healing power came from a different source. He just said, “pick up your mat and walk.”

The Roman pools of Bethesda

The stations were mostly just plaques or inscriptions on doors throughout the city. Some had chapels associated with them. The first and second station are marked by chapels of the Condemnation and Flagellation. We arrived at the Chapel of the Flagellation just as Eucharistic Adoration was finishing. Perfect timing to pray before the sacrament while reflecting on Jesus’ suffering. My favorite was probably the 4th station where Jesus meets his mother. There is an Armenian church there that also had Adoration, but it was the most beautiful tabernacle I have ever seen. It opened up to a modern take on an icon made of flowing glass with light shining through in the shape of Mary holding Jesus. Only where Jesus’ head would be in an icon, was the Blessed Sacrament. We couldn’t find the 9th station, so we will have to go back and do that. The last 5 stations are in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which pretty accurately on the site of the crucifixion. It is so big and confusing, and holds so many important holy sites in it, such as the hole in which the cross was raised, the stone on which they prepared the body of Jesus, the stone that covered the tomb, and the tomb itself. We were too overwhelmed and running out of time before the last bus left town, that we just walked through, knowing that we will return another day with Laurie and will be able to know exactly what we are looking at and be able to reverence it properly. We did recognize the stone on which Jesus’ body was prepared for burial, and I was able to kiss it.

The Chapel of the Flagellation

The 4th Station

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Me kissing the stone on which Jesus' body was prepared for burial

The front of the Sepulcher, the Tomb of Jesus

Today, we hiked up to the other side of the Mount of Olives. In Luke 19:28-44, it describes Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with palms and how he looked at the city from the Mt of Olives and wept for Jerusalem. He was coming from Jericho, which is another thousand feet below where we were coming from in Bethany (where he would have visited Mary, Martha and Lazarus), but we walked up the road that has been built over what used to be roman footpaths, probably the paths Jesus would have used. It is very steep, and very hot. You really get the physical sense of his journey. Then just as you crest the hill, you get a beautiful view of the city. Today you see the gold Dome of the Rock and the city wall, then he would have seen the huge, white temple and the Holy of Holies standing tall where the Dome is today. It is there that he wept over the fate of the city. There is a church there now, and we were able to have mass in it. Behind the altar is a huge window overlooking the city, which is just beautiful.

The view of the city after cresting the Mount of Olives

The window of the Church of Dominus Flevit, where Jesus wept

Then we walked down the hill a little further to the Garden of Gethsemane. It is very small, with about a dozen olive trees that are so old and twisted. It is very near the city, but separated from it by the Kidron Valley. Knowing from living on the other side of the Mt, how close the desert is, you see that escape was within reach. Within an hour, Jesus could have climbed over the Mt, stopped at Martha and Mary’s house for supplies, and have been well on his way into the desert where the soldiers would not have followed. But he didn’t. Coming out of the church on the site, the entryway of the Church perfectly frames the Golden Gate of the city, and you feel like coming out of prayer, Jesus faced his destiny. It was very powerful.

The Garden of Gethsemene

View of the city walls from the garden

Being here is so surreal. It just feels holy. It makes everything in the Bible seem so real because you can imagine it, and feel what it felt like to walk in these places. It is really overwhelming. We are here for 5 more weeks, so hopefully things will start to sink in a little more.

Electrolytes, Istanbul, and the first glimpse the Holy Land

The past couple days have not been quite as exciting as the others. I got a severe case of food poisoning on Friday. Actually over the course of the weekend, every person in our group was affected by it, including the Turkish tour guide, so it was definitely something that we ate together. Some of us were hit worse than others and, unfortunately, I was one of the worst. To make a long story short and spare the gross details, I had to stay in the hotel for 3 days and miss the sites. We called a doctor, who had to see me twice to give me iv fluids to re-hydrate me and prescribe lots of medicine. The humorous part was that to hang the iv bag in the hotel room, he took the painting off of the wall and hung it on the nail! But for those of you who know how much I hate needles, the actual iv was really not humorous. After fluids, medicine and lots and lots of electrolytes, I finally started feeling stronger. The grace in the situation was the love and care the people in the program showed for each other. They nursed us, checked in on us, kept our spirits up, bought us little gifts from the sites we missed. I was really overwhelmed with how giving everyone was. Anyway, I felt better to go out for our last day in Istanbul.

Istanbul is a really neat city, with so much history. But it is very touristy, very expensive and very busy. I had been really wanting to see Hagia Sophia, but it was closed for the national holiday on Monday. At least the outside is still impressive! We did get to go in the Blue Mosque across from it though, which was really impressive. We went to a different church though, in which most of the mosaics have been preserved. It was beautiful. I felt like I was stepping into my art history books. After our tours, Lori, Rick and I went to every market and bazaar possible because we needed to spend all of our Turkish Lira since it was our last day in Turkey. I think we did our part to stimulate the Turkish economy. The best souvenir EVER is pictured below: sparkly pink pom pom shoes…. it totally made my day, and the day of the man selling them to me.

One of the mosaic domes in the Chora church

Hagia Sophia

The Blue Mosque

Buying my Turkish slippers...I felt like Cinderella!!

This morning we left at 5 am for the airport for Israel. I had some trouble with my ticket and checking in, and four of us were running for the airplane at the last minute, but we made it on! Then upon arriving in Israel, we had some trouble with the border patrol who didn’t quite understand what we were going to be doing in the country for 6 weeks. But eventually it all worked out, and we were greeted at the convent by happy loving sisters, and personal bedrooms with several hours for a nice long nap :) The drive from the airport to the convent was beautiful. The land here is amazing, just like what you imagine Jesus walking through. We got to catch a glimpse of the old city and the Dome of the Rock, which was so exciting. Our professor here, Laurie, said that view will soon become old news to us. I hope not. We are staying on the Mount of Olives, in the area where Mary and Martha would have lived, and near Lazarus’ tomb. It is beautiful. Tomorrow we take our first walk to the city to learn our way around. I was so blown away by being in the places where Paul walked and preached, I cant even imagine walking in Jesus’ footsteps now… Laurie read us this psalm as we made our way through the country:

"I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord.' And now our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, built as a city, walled round about. Here the tribes have come, the tribes of the Lord. As it was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. Here are the thrones of justice, the thrones of the house of David. For the peace of Jerusalem pray: 'May those who love you prosper! May peace be within your ramparts, prosperity within your towers.' For family and friends I say, 'May peace be yours.' For the house of the Lord, our God, I pray, 'May blessings be yours.'"

The first view of the wall of the old city and the Dome of the Rock