In front of us, in the heart of the Christian quarter, rises one of the city's most important mosques - the Omar Mosque. We are talking about the same Omar Ibn al-Khattab, the square at the Jaffa Gate is named. With his arrival in Jerusalem in 639, the era of Islam began. The most common and biggest mistake is to associate the Omar Mosque with the Dome of the Rock Mosque on the Temple Mount. The Omar Mosque is located in this place and not on the Temple Mount. There is a reason for this. Sopronius - the patriarch of Jerusalem during Omar's conquest of the city, asked not to destroy the city. He surrendered to the Muslims after a four-month siege. Omar, the Muslim caliph, was invited by Sopronius to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Omar accepted the patriarch's invitation but preferred not to perform any religious worship in the church. Instead, he ordered the construction of a mosque for Muslims to pray in, but the mosque's spire, as is customary in Muslim-controlled mixed cities, was built higher than the bell tower of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Thus, right in the center of the Christian Quarter, there is a mosque of the Third Islamic Caliph.
The trip takes us from the Jaffa Gate through the Christian Quarter to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. After that, we will visit Golgotha, the stone of anointing, burial, and resurrection, St. Helena Chapel - the site where the Holy cross was found. Further, the route passes through Muristan to the Jewish Quarter, Kardo Street, excavations of the walls of Jerusalem from the time of Jesus, the mosaic of Madaba, the Hurva Synagogue, the Menorah, the panorama of the Olive and Temple Mountains, the Wailing Wall. Finally, we return to the Jaffa Gate through the Muslim Quarter, the monuments of the Mamluk architecture, and the street of David.
Don't be afraid to get lost in new places!
