We got up between 5:15-5:30 a.m. Breakfast was at 7:00 a.m. in the dining room. We were on the bus and heading out by 8:10 a.m.
Our main stop today was Old Jerusalem. The Old City is a 0.35 square mile walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem. Until the 1860s this area constituted the entire city of Jerusalem. The Old City is home to several sites of key religious importance: the Temple Mount and its Western Wall for Jews, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians, and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims. Traditionally, the Old City has been divided into four uneven quarters, although the current designations were introduced only in the 19th century. Today, the Old City is roughly divided into the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Jewish Quarter and the Armenian Quarter. The current walls of the Old City were built in 1538 by the Muslim Ottoman Empire Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The walls stretch for approximately 2.8 miles, and rise to a height of 16–49 feet, with a thickness of 10 ft. Altogether, the Old City walls contain 43 surveillance towers and 11 gates, seven of which are presently open.
The Damascus Gate is an important gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. The modern gate was built in 1542 by the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent. The original gate was presumably built in Second Temple times. The Romans built a new gate at the time of Hadrian, in the 2nd century AD. This was the northern entrance gate to the city at the time of the Crusades.
Herod's Gate adjoins the Muslim quarter, and is a short distance to the east of the Damascus Gate. This modest gate is one of the newest gates of Jerusalem. The gate is named after Herod the Great. That is because in the Crusaders' period a church was built near the gate in the belief that at the time of the Crucifixion of Jesus, Herod Antipas's house was situated at that spot.
We had to go through security to get in.
The Dome of the Rock is an important Islamic shrine and Jerusalem landmark located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. The structure, the oldest example of early Islamic architecture, was completed in 691 AD at the order of Arabian Umayyad Caliph, Abd al-Malik. The site's significance stems from religious traditions regarding the rock, known as the Foundation Stone, at its heart. Jews have traditionally regarded the location of the stone as the holiest spot on Earth, the site of the Holy of Holies during the Temple Period. The Jewish tradition does not have information regarding the exact location of the Holy of Holies, but the majority of scholars and rabbis believe it is somewhere in the area of the raised platform. Because Muslim authorities refused to permit Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, the custom developed of praying near the Western Wall, since it was the site nearest to the Foundation Stone, or on the Mount of Olives facing the site of the Temple. According to Jewish tradition, the stone is the site where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. The Holy of Holies is a term in the Hebrew Bible which refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle and later the Temple in Jerusalem where the Ark of the Covenant was kept during the First Temple. The Ark of the Covenant contained the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai. There are groups that wish to relocate the Dome to Mecca and replace it with a Third Temple. Since Muslim religious foundations own the Dome and consider it particularly sacred such actions would inevitably lead to violence. Some religious Jews, following a rabbinic dictum, feel that the Temple should only be rebuilt in the Messianic Era, and that it would be presumptuous of people to force God's hand. However, some Evangelical Christians consider this a prerequisite to Armageddon and the Second Coming. This view is steeped in the belief that there will be a prophetic rebuilding of the Temple in place of the Dome of the Rock.
Very near the Dome of the Rock is the Golden Gate. The Golden Gate, as it is called in Christian literature, is the oldest of the current gates in Jerusalem's Old city Walls. It is said that Jesus passed through this gate on Palm Sunday. Remains of a much older gate dating to the times of the Second Jewish Temple were found. The present one was probably built in the 520s AD, as part of Justinian I's building program in Jerusalem, on top of the ruins of the earlier gate in the wall. The gate is located in the middle of the eastern side of the Temple Mount. The portal in this position was believed to have been used for ritual purposes in biblical times. In Jewish tradition, this is the gate through which the Messiah will enter Jerusalem. Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I sealed off the Golden Gate in 1541 to prevent the Messiah's entrance. The Muslims also built a cemetery in front of the gate, in the belief that the precursor to the Messiah, Elijah, would not be able to pass through the Golden Gate and thus the Messiah would not come. Like that is going to stop Christ when He returns...
Mount of Olives viewed from within the Old City. The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in eastern Jerusalem. It is named for the olive groves that covers its slopes. The Mount of Olives is associated with Jewish and Christian traditions. The mount has been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and holds approximately 150,000 graves. The Mount of Olives is frequently mentioned in the New Testament (Matthew21:1; 26:30, etc.) as the route from Jerusalem to Bethany and the place where Jesus stood when he wept over Jerusalem. Jesus is said to have spent time on the mount, teaching and prophesying to his disciples (Matthew 24–25), including the Olivet discourse, returning after each day to rest (Luke 21:37), and also coming there on the night of his betrayal (Matthew 26:39). At the foot of the Mount of Olives lies the Garden of Gethsemane. The New Testament, tells how Jesus and his friends sang together – "When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" Matthew 26:30. Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mt of Olives as recorded in the book of Acts 1:9–12.
Bethesda Pools: Ruins of twin pools in the north side of the old city, close to the Lions gate. These pools supplied water to the temple during the times of the first and second temple (until Herod). There are references in the old testament to the "upper pool", which may have been the name of the northern pool. Adjacent to the pools were baths and a healing center. These baths are the site of the healing miracle of Jesus. Later, a Byzantine basilica was built over parts of the pools. The Crusaders built a small chapel over its ruins, and later a larger Basilica nearby. John 5 1-9 tells about how Jesus cured a sick man in the pools of Bethesda, which is a pool near the sheep market. The text is followed by a debate of whether healing is allowed during the Sabbath, which did not conform to the religious Jewish practices at that time. The name Bethesda means "house of mercy." The water source was a nearby spring. The Pool had five porches and according to the Bible there was a tradition that an angel moved the waters at certain times and healed the sick. It was here at the Pool of Bethesda that Jesus healed the man who was lame for thirty-eight years. Recent archaeological discoveries have again confirmed the Biblical account, that there were five porches and the fifth one divided the rectangular pool into two separate compartments. Josephus wrote about the Pool of the Sheep-market.
Byzantine Mosaic dated to the foundation of the Byzantine Bascilica in the first third of the the 5th century. It was uncovered in 1952.
The Lions' Gate is also St. Stephen's Gate. Located in the east wall, the entrance marks the beginning of the traditional Christian observance of the last walk of Jesus from prison to crucifixion, the Via Dolorosa. This gate is so named because of the tradition that the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was stoned outside this gate. However an earlier tradition locates this execution north of the city. Lions' Gate is another name for this eastern entrance into the Old City because of the four animals that decorate the gate's facade and reportedly placed there because of a dream of the builder Suleiman. 
The Western Wall or Wailing Wall is located in the Old City at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount. It is a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple's courtyard and is one of the most sacred sites in Judaism outside of the Temple Mount itself. It has been a site for Jewish prayer and pilgrimage for centuries, the earliest source mentioning Jewish attachment to the site dating from the 4th century. The sages state that anyone who prays in the Temple in Jerusalem, “it is as if he has prayed before the throne of glory because the gate of heaven is situated there and it is open to hear prayer”. Jewish Law dictates that when Jews pray the Silent Prayer, they should face towards Jerusalem, the Temple and ultimately the Holy of Holies, as all of God’s bounty and blessing emanates from that spot. Throughout the ages, the Wall is where Jews have gathered to express gratitude to God or to pray for divine mercy. There is a much publicised practice of placing slips of paper containing written prayers into the crevices of the Wall. People there to pray will write notes that they hope will come true, then place them in the cracks to come true soon.
Jewish Attire:
Western Wall Tunnel: From the outside the wall looks pretty big. But, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Most of the wall actually lies underground, and below the Old City’s streets. The tunnel will show you the full length of the wall. Uncovering the tunnel was a long and complicated archeological project that took over 20 years, and actually isn’t over yet. The incredible findings revealed the city as it was 2000 years ago – at its best. Walking the tunnel you will see the “western stone” – it is the biggest stone in the Wall. It is huge – about 570 ton actually. It is known to be one of the heaviest objects that was ever lifted by people without the use of powered machines. Along the tunnel there is a small synagogue called ‘the cave’. It is the closest point a Jewish person can get to the Holy of Holies – the most sacred point in the temple – assumed to be under the Dome of the Rock. British researchers started excavating the Western Wall in the mid 19th century. The excavations included many archaeological finds along the way, including discoveries from the Herodian period (streets, monumental masonry). In 2007 they uncovered an ancient Roman street, thought to be from the second to fourth centuries. It was a side street which likely connected two major roads, and led up to the Temple Mount. The Struthion Pool is a large cuboid cistern, which gathered the rainwater from guttering on the Forum buildings. Prior to Hadrian, this cistern had been an open-air pool, but Hadrian added arch vaulting to enable the pavement to be placed over it. The existence of the pool in the first century is attested by Josephus, who reports that it was called Struthius. Of course, I had to touch a stone from the time of Herod...
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