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Many of the group added on a 4-day extension to go to Eliat & into Jordan to see Petra and other things.  We, however, were completely done after 10 days of touring.  Our brains were full!  

On our final day we got a new tour guide - Amir's friend Erez Bar David.  He was very sweet and totally opposite from Amir, who enjoyed giving us lots of abuse.  On this day we saw a lot: Western Wall (in daylight) / Temple Mount / Pools of Bethesda / Church of St. Ann / Via Delarosa / Muslim Quarter / Church of the Holy Sepulchre / Christian Quarter / Southern Steps / Western Wall (yes, for a 3rd time.)  
 

The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine and a major landmark located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It was completed in 691, making it the oldest extant Islamic building in the world. Its significance stems from the religious beliefs regarding the rock at its heart. According to Islamic tradition, the rock is the spot from where Muhammad ascended to Heaven accompanied by the angel Gabriel.

The Dome of the Rock is located at the visual center of an ancient man-made platform known as the Temple MountThe platform, greatly enlarged under the rule of Herod the Great, is the site of the Second Jewish Temple which was destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
 
Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan who initiated construction of the Dome, hoped that it would “house the Muslims from cold and heat” and intended the building to serve as a shrine for pilgrims and not as a mosque for public worship

Notice the staircase leading to ground level from below - there were two
of them.  These led to an original entrance to the Temple Mount for the
common people - which was the Southern Steps, which we will see later.

Pools of Bethesda - there is a very interesting page on this here. 

Church of St. Ann - according to traditional belief, Ann               
was the mother of Mary, who was the mother of Jesus            .  

This church had amazing acoustics.  We sang two hymns here and I 
have to say our voices were completely transformed.  It was beautiful! 

Now we are starting on the Via Dolorosa - a Catholic traditional path believed to have been the way Jesus went from his trial to his crucifixion.  
Unfortunately, the place is infested with aggressive hawkers with stupid tourist junk.  Erez jokingly called it the "Via For A Dolla."  It was the 
very worst part of the trip for me.  

How would my germ phobic husband ever survive in a world where shopping is done like this?

Next we reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - a church built on the site where 
the Catholics think Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose again.

Control of the building is shared between several Christian churches including: 
Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, and Roman Catholic Churches, 
with the Greek Orthodox Church having the lion's share.

These steps lead to the original entrance of the Temple Mount and the Second Temple.  
You might remember the two staircases I mentioned earlier in front of the mosque on
the Temple Mount.  This was where you entered that staircase in Jesus' time. 

Teaching: Pastor Mark

Pastor Mark taught us about the two sets of gates that used to be here, called the Huldah Gates.  The western set is a double arched gate and is called the Double Gate.  The eastern set is a triple arched gate, aptly called the Triple Gate. Each arch of the double gate led into an aisle of a passageway leading from the gate into the Mount, and to steps leading to the Mount's surface; when the al-Aqsa Mosque was built, the old steps were blocked, and the eastern aisle lengthened so that new steps from its end would exit north of the Mosque. The triple gate is similar.

Pastor Mark had Kendall help him do a demonstration using the steps.  Every third one is longer than the others so it breaks your natural stride.  He referred us to a portion of Ecclesiastes 5:1 which reads, "Walk prudently when you go to the house of God..."  This is God telling us to slow down and not rush into His house the way we rush through the rest of our lives.  The layout of the steps helped to reinforce this.  

The Garden Tomb

The Garden Tomb is believed by many to be the garden and sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, and therefore a possible site of the resurrection of Jesus. The Garden is owned and administered by The Garden Tomb ( Jerusalem) Association, a Charitable Trust based in the United Kingdom.

I don't want to get into the debate about where Golgotha is located, but I can tell you a few things for a fact: this place was beautiful and peaceful and was a perfect place to contemplate the death and resurrection of our Lord.  The Via Delarosa was a commercialized, nasty place.  So no matter where the location really was, I think it is more important to reflect on what Jesus did for us and I was able to do that much better at the Garden Tomb location.

And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha  John 19:17

This shows the hill near the tomb today with weathering other damage - 
and a picture taken back in the 60's which shows how much the side of
this hill looked like a skull.

Our motley band of travelers was smaller now that some of our group went on to Eilat. (Which is an amazing resort area in Israel.)  
On the way to the airport we stopped at this restaurant.  The plates at left were there when we got there - we thought this was our 
meal so we made falafel sandwiches and filled up.  THEN they brought out a giant platter of kabobs.  Most of us ate some, even 
though we were full.  Probably not the smartest thing to do before getting on a 14 hour flight!!

 
A group shot of the whole gang on the Mount of Olives

Roster of our tour group: 

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