Day 1b--Highlights of the Jewish Temple Mount

First, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  4th-century tradition claims that at this location Christ both was crucified and resurrected.  It is really a complex, more than a shrine with three buildings and many, many people.  If the location of Golgotha and Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, where Christ was buried and resurrected are accurate, one is surprised how close together they are. 

The other eye-catcher was the number of faiths that lay claim to the real estate in the church proper.  These include the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Roman Catholic and to a lesser degree the Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox.   

People kneeling down and kissing the rock where the cross is believed to have been located.

You ask: where are the Protestants??   Good question.  They got aced out.  Or, actually weren't invited.  All the choice real estate in the Church was claimed long before Luther and Protestantism came on the scene, so for their pilgrims to have a destination, they 'created' the Garden Tomb, elsewhere in Jerusalem in the late 19th-century.  Indeed, this is a modest pilgrimage site for Protestants, (although, not mentioned by our guide), and it has been embraced and 'certified' as the tomb of Jesus by the Mormon Church.  Scholars have rejected it.

People cued up to kiss the alleged tomb of Christ.

Actual crypts close to the one above.  Typically, after death,  a family member would lie here
for 12 months, then the bones would be moved to a 'bone box'.  This went on for generations
in the family tomb. 

Orthodox Jews reading and swaying while immersed in the Torah.

Hey, we stumbled on a Bar Mitzvah.  A coming of age ceremony for a 12-year-old Jewish boy.   We were told these are only on Monday and Thursdays.  All were having a great time!

The other highlight of the day was to visit the Western or Wailing Wall.    Built by King Herod in 19BC, it and the other three walls are basically retaining walls for the Temple Mount, where the '2nd Jewish Temple' stood until its destruction, by the Romans in 70AD.  This is the holiest site in Judaism and very busy.  Really, quite an experience.

Notice the Kippah on my head.  All men are required to wear a Kippah.  Also, notice the 'white' in the seams of the huge stone building blocks. There are small papers for prayers.   The women have their own section of the Western Wall.  Very quiet and prayerful on our side, the ladies said it was packed and noisy in their area.  Go figure.