Hello! Technically I came to Jerusalem for the marathon, but in my heart I came for another reason – I wanted to see and touch and smell and feel where Jesus walked. And today I did that.
Our tour guide took us to The Old City and we entered through the Jaffa Gate. There is so much history in every single little piece of the Old City I can’t recap it all here, but I’ll share some notes.
The Old City is a small section within Jerusalem. It used to be the entire city up until about 1860. Inside this walled area there are several very important religious sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims.
One of the things I was most interested in seeing was the Stations of the Cross or what the Jewish call Via Dolorosa. It is a street in the Old City with the 14 stops it is believed Jesus made on the way to his crucifixion. I learned a lot about this in school and being there was something I can’t put in words.
This is one of the stops – they are all labeled with a plaque.
These steps lead up to the place were Jesus was nailed to the cross. The bedrock the cross was stuck in is still thought to be there and you can knee down in one small area and touch it.
I also saw burial tombs similar to the one Jesus would have been buried in, it was a lot smaller than I pictured. It’s just enough room for one person caved out of the side of a rock in a mountain.
From there we continued walking through the Old City and came to the Western Wall.
The men and women are separated here. There were a lot of people praying at the wall.
You can stick prayers on a little paper into the wall, so I wrote one and stuck it in.
I was a very special experience for me. I really tried to take it all in and remember everything about it. I never really thought I’d go to Israel someday and see for myself the places Jesus walked. I’m just very grateful for this experience.
After the tour of the Old City we headed to dinner. I didn’t get a lot of pictures, but these are the highlights…
Question: Where is one place you MUST go in your life?
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