Jerusalem diary: No ordinary city
8th February, 2009
Day 3
SCRATCH the surface and you’ll find the past. This is how I’ve come to view this lovely city.
Exploring this kaleidoscope of land, I don’t feel like a tourist or a stranger to this ‘Kingdom of Heaven.’
The fact that so many people have yearned for this city cannot fail to affect anyone..
Today we took a trip around the four main quarters of the walls that surround the Old City and its religious shrines.
The city was built by Kind David in 1004BC. His original city covered a ridge of land encircled to the south by the valleys of the Kidron and Honnom rivers.
This area is however now outside the city walls but according to the Bible it was David who captured Jerusalem and his son Solomon who built the Jew’s first temple.
Since then the city walls have been built, knocked down and rebuilt again. The city suffered conquests, destruction and oppression at the hands of imperial powers from the Babylonians to the British.
Today the walled Old City is the focal point for most people. It is informally divided into four quarters, the Muslim Quarter were we are staying, the Jewish quarter, the Armenian quarter and the Christian quarter with separate gateways that enter the city.
Turreted ramparts of ivory stone enclose the Old City and they stand on top of 2000 year-old ruins.
The main entrance to the Old City is the Jaffa Gate, which was built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th Century. The gate on the western side marked the end of the highway leading from the Jaffa coast and now leads into the Muslim and Armenian quarters. A road allows cars to enter the Old City through a wide gap in the wall between Jaffa Gate and the Citadel (Tower of David).
This passage was originally built in 1898 when Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany visited Jerusalem. The ruling Ottomon Turks opened it so the German emperor would not have to dismount his carriage to enter the city.
A walk from the Jaffa gate through the Armenian Quarter brings you to Mount Zion where we came to the Tomb of Kind David or Dawud. His tomb lies beneath the Hall of the Last Supper. Though David’s tomb was not really there, spiritually it’s commemorated by Jewish pilgrims and the entrance hall is used as a synagogue.
On the first floor of ther Gothic building is the Coenaculum, or the Hall of the Last Supper. Christians believe that it was on this site Christ had his last meal with his disciples. The building was once a monastery and was turned into a mosque by the Turks who added a mehrab and stained glass windows with Arabic scriptures.
There Minister Andy Williams read out a passage from the Bible about Christ’s last meal. We stood in silence together and remembered his last night before crucifixion.
At this point Chaplain Fazlurrahman Hassan told us all that Jesus was a very important prophet, so much so that his name is mentioned more than Prophet Mohammed’s name in the Quran and a whole chapter is also dedicated to Mary or Mariam in Arabic.
Straight from the hill at Mount Zion the view extends over the Judean hills. Walking down past the wall we were lead to the original city of David which is now a Palestinian settlement.
The City of David is the original hilltop upon which King David dedicated ancient Jerusalem as his capital 3,000 years ago. Deep underground, the City of David is revealing some of the most exciting archeological finds of the ancient world, while above ground, the site is a vibrant centre of activity and popular tourist attraction for families, complete with visitor’s centre, 3D exhibition and guided tours through the excavations that include Warren’s Shaft, the ancient city’s underground water system, Hezekiah’s Tunnel which was used to channel water from Gihon Spring which leads to Shiloah pool, where Jesus healed a blind man by rinsing his eyes.
At the moment more excavation work is taking place and has been authorised by the Jewish authorities. This is a sensitive subject as some Palestinian families have had to be displaced so work can be carried out right in the heart of people’s homes and there really isn’t much they can say or do about it.
Our walk then lead us to the Lion Gate, which guards the main route from the Old City to the Mount of Olives and forms the main connection between the Muslim quarter and the Arab neighbourhoods to the east and south east.
The gateways that enter the old City from all sides tell much of the city’s story as the walls themselves and its stories are reflected in its entrances.
The Trek around the walls which took three hours left us all tired an exhausted. There’s so much history to take in and so much to see. It doesn’t take much for the imagination to feel how people lived thousands of years ago and how with every conquest over the years have effected its people. Just being here we have all felt affected emotionally and spiritually.