Places to visit

Old City of Jerusalem from Jaffa Gate to Ethiopian Village


Description:

The trip combines the famous and hidden places of Old Jerusalem. Traditionally, we start at the Jaffa Gate, but soon we will enter a quiet street of the Maronite Church. Further, we will visit the little-known Syrian church of St. Mark, built on Mark's house where the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples took place. Next, we will pass through the Jewish quarter with its famous Cardo Street, Madaba Map and two synagogues - Hurva and Tipheret. We will also visit the Institute of the Temple, which tells in great detail about objects in the Jerusalem Temple. Next, the synagogue at the Western Wall will show us the rare pillars of the ancient bridge that were the entrance portal to the Temple Mount. Further, we will walk through the Muslim quarter and talk about the city's water supply system and its open street fountains - sibyls. Finally, after visiting the fifth, sixth and seventh stops of the Via Dolorosa, we will complete our trip in the Ethiopian village on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Author & Co-authors
Evgeny Praisman (author)
Здравствуйте! Меня зовут Женя, я путешественник и гид. Здесь я публикую свои путешествия и путеводители по городам и странам. Вы можете воспользоваться ими, как готовыми путеводителями, так и ресурсом для создания собственных маршрутов. Некоторые находятся в свободном доступе, некоторые открываются по промо коду. Чтобы получить промо код напишите мне сообщение на телефон +972 537907561 или на epraisman@gmail.com и я с радостью вам помогу! Иначе, зачем я всё это делаю?
Distance
2.65 km
Duration
3h 38 m
Likes
50
Places with media
34

Jaffa Gate is one of the eight gates of the old city. The gate is called Jaffa because a road approached it from the direction of Jaffa.

Right at the gate, behind a small fence, you can see the graves of two builders of the walls of Jerusalem. They were executed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent because they made a mistake in the construction.

These massive structures have nothing with King David. King was so famous and respected that many impressive buildings in the city were named after the king. These are the towers of the palace of King Herod the Great. Someone says that it was here that Jesus Christ was brought to Pontius Pilate trial.

This square is named after Omar, the Muslim conqueror of the city. At the end of the nineteenth century, pilgrims hotels began to be built opposite the fortress walls of the residence of Herod the Great. The most famous and luxurious was called Imperial. The hotel for Jewish travellers belonged to the Amdursky merchants.

A small street of little-travelled Jerusalem. Here is a map of the city. It's quiet here, and there are no people - such a non-tourist old town is charming.

The mosque is named after Jacob, the eldest son of Joseph, the betrothed of the Virgin Mary. Strange! How are things related? The fact is that Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet. They call him Issa. And the whole family is revered along with him.

Saint Maroun is the founder of this church in Lebanon. Maronite church is a whole movement in Christianity. The church is active.

A small street that leads to the Armenian quarter of the old city is Ararat street. Armenians have been present in Jerusalem since the fourth century. The Armenians were among the first nations to adopt Christianity. The Armenian quarter is one of the city's four quarters along with the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish.

According to one of the traditions, this place was the home of Markus - one of the apostles of Jesus. By the way, he is one of the four evangelists. It is believed that the last supper of Jesus and the disciples took place in the house of St. Mark, that is, here. The church is Syrian.

The church has an underground room. It is believed that ruins are precisely the remains of the ancient house where the last supper of Jesus and his disciples took place.

There is an old icon in the church. It depicts the holy virgin Mary with the baby Jesus. The virgin's hands are made of silver. It is noteworthy that the fingers of the Holy Virgin are folded in an unusual shape. Perhaps this is an early Christian form of ordination or blessing. The icon dates from the seventh century.

We have reached partially restored ancient Roman cardo street. It crossed the entire city from north to south. By the way, the town was renamed for the only time in its long history. The Romans called Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina.

Part of the stone pavement has been preserved from the 6th century AD. New restoration material has been effectively inserted between it. It was as if masons worked in the same place with a difference of fifteen centuries.

We see a copy of a mosaic from a monastery in the city of Madaba in Jordan. This mosaic featured a map of Jerusalem. It's incredible how accurately the ancient artists portrayed the geography of the town. For example, central Cardo street is easily recognizable on the map.

The open part of the Cardo makes it possible to imagine what the city looked like fifteen centuries ago. Then, shops were located along the street. Columns supported tiled roofs that provided shade and sheltered from the rain.

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This synagogue is one of the most famous in the Jewish Quarter. Some say that when Franz Joseph, the Kaiser of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was visiting Jerusalem, Rabbi Mogilever, who knew German, was kaizer`s translator. Rabbi Mogilever led the Kaiser to the synagogue under construction and began to talk about its beauty. Kaiser remarked that it is not appropriate to talk about the beauty of an unfinished building. Mogilever was not at a loss, saying: Oh, your majesty! But, the synagogue just had removed its dome in front of your majesty arriving.

A small street in the old town is called Karaite street. Karaites are also Jews to some extent. However, they do not recognize all the books of Judaism written after the second temple's destruction. By the way, Karaites can obtain Israeli citizenship under the law of return.

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Jordanian sappers blew up the synagogue immediately after Jordanians captured the city in 1948. It was built in the middle of the nineteenth century and became the beauty of the Jewish quarter. Its name Tipheret - means beauty in Hebrew. The people used to call the synagogue after Nisan Bek, a respected and wealthy Jew who donated money to purchase land to construct a synagogue. It is noteworthy that the Russian Tsar Nicholai I envoys offered a lot of money for this plot. Still, they bought another property outside the old city, where the buildings of the Russian courtyard exist today.

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The Temple Institute in the Old City of Jerusalem operates as a centre for researching the history of the Jerusalem Temple. The institute scrupulously recreated the priests' clothes, utensils, and detailed models of the Second Temple. The centre provides organized groups with explanations about what the seven-branched candlestick looked like, the oil used in it, what jugs were for storing and using oil, and what colours were used in dyeing fabrics and threads of clothing of the Levites and Coens. Everything has been recreated to the smallest detail in this unique place. In addition to exhibitions and explanations, the institute presents vast literature and essential scientific and popular publications regarding the history of the first and second Jerusalem temples.

In the photo professor, Hillel Wise lights the Hanukkah Candles By פרופ' הלל ויס - פרופ' הלל ויס, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55064118

Descent from Mount Zion to the Western Wall is an excellent point to observe the retaining walls of the Temple Mount. The mountain of Zion became part of Jerusalem only during King Ezekiah, before the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar siege the city. By the stairs, you can see the remains of the abandoned building. These are the ruins of the Church of the Virgin Mary survived since the Middle Ages.

This site is top-rated. The seven-branched candlestick was once exhibited here. You can see a beautiful view of the square in front of the Wailing Wall, the Wailing Wall itself and the Temple Mount.

Entering the square in front of the Western Wall and visiting the Western Wall itself requires security checks.

The entire square in front of the Western Wall is an open-air synagogue. We are entering the space under the arch of the old pedestrian bridge that climbed the Temple Mount. In those days, various entrances to the mountain were built. A comprehensive portal rested on arched supports and faced a bridge from Mount Zion to the Temple Mount. We are located under one of the support arches of this bridge where the bridge adjoined the wall.

Huge, clean and comfortable toilet

The passage from the Western Wall square to the Muslim quarter passes under the arch - the support arch of the ancient bridge connected between the Mount of Zion to the Temple Mount.

Uploaded by Evgeny Praisman

Agay is the central street of the Muslim quarter of the old city. He rises to the Shechem or Damascus gates. Water conduits were laid along this street during the last glorious rebuilding of Jerusalem by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Water flowed into outdoor pools. Such city fountains were called Sibyls. The sibyl in front of us was created from an old Roman sarcophagus. Nearby is a keykeeper's shop. Probably among his keys can be found keys from the time of the Janissaries.

Everyone knows the word cotton, but only someone knows the origin of this word. Its roots are in Semitic languages, namely Kutna (Hebrew) Kutnin (Arabic). Kutnin Street, or the street of cotton cloth merchants, leads, like hundreds of years ago, to the Temple Mount. On the way to prayer or from prayer, it is well to buy clothes. Therefore, there has been a cotton market here for centuries. This entrance to the Temple Mount is for Muslims only.

Uploaded by Evgeny Praisman

Houses from the mamluk times are well preserved in this part of the city. It was they who began to rebuild Jerusalem after the Crusaders kingdom collapsed. These houses were primarily expanded under the Turks. In the nineteenth century, it became fashionable to build closed protruding large windows in all cities and towns of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Something like closed balconies. Thus, dwellers increased the living space without raising taxes.

Uploaded by Evgeny Praisman

aGai is gorge in Hebrew. This street does indeed pass through the gorge dividing between Mount Zion and the Temple Mount. In the time of the Romans, this gorge was called Theropion. Streets rise from aGai to the temple mountain. One of them is called Alla ad Din, which sounds like Aladin. But this is not the street of the hero Aladdin of fairy tales of a thousand and one nights. This street is named after Khorezm rulers. Since the Muslim world is large and magnificent, the Islam of Central Asia is also represented in Jerusalem. By the way, at the crossroads of the streets, there is another sibil - the fountain of Sultan Suleiman.

According to the tradition, at this place, Roman soldiers caught a man named Shimon from the crowd and put the cross of Jesus on him. In the nineteenth century developed a tradition to believe the path to Calvary passed here. There is a stone with a deepening in the corner. The stone came from ancient times and was a witness of Jesus. Traditionally believed the stone was touched by the hand of Jesus and left its imprint on it.

At this place, according to evangelicals, a girl named Veronica approached Jesus and wiped sweat and blood from his brow. This handkerchief captured the face of Jesus.

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At this point, Jesus addressed the crying women with the words: Don't cry for me, but yourself. For if they do this with a living tree, then what will happen to the dead. In these words, Jesus reflected the difference between the real and the lost people of Israel. For the Christian tradition, these words are of great importance as affirming the Christian faith. At the time of Jesus, approximately in this place were the city walls. So Jesus was led outside the city, continuing to Golgotha, a lonely rock outside Jerusalem.

From Beit Chabad Street - a continuation of the historic central street of the city - Cardo, steps rises. They lead to a complex of houses near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. At the alley end near the entrance to the Coptic Monastery of St. Anthony stays a column with a cross. It marks the site of Jesus' third fall. The column is the ninth and last station of the Way of the Cross before entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

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On the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, above the Helena Chapel, where, according to Christian tradition, the cross was found, there is a courtyard. It belongs to Ethiopian monks and they call it Dir a-Sultan (royal monastery) after King Solomon. They consider Solomon to be the ancestor of the dynasty of Ethiopian kings. According to their version, the Queen of Sheba gave birth to a son after a visit to King Solomon. Having matured, he also visited Jerusalem and returned to his homeland with the Ark of the Covenant, which is kept to this day in the Ethiopian city of Aksum.

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