Very near the Antonia Fortress is the Pools of Bethesda. Right next to the pools of Bethesda is St Anne’s Cathedral. This is one of the few cathedrals that was not destroyed by the Muslims after the Byzantine Era because they turned it into a school, and were...
Pontius Pilate judged Jesus in the courtyard of the Antonia Fortress on the northwest corner of the Temple Mount. At the time, the courtyard was open to the sky, while now it is covered over to be the foundation for housing above. Thankfully, they preserved the...
After we went back outside of the church by the ladder no one will move, we went through another doorway and entered a deserted courtyard. These tiny green doors are entrances to the rooms of the Coptic monks that live here in the church. They open up into larger...
This is going to be a marathon. I may have to break it up into components because there is so much here. Choosing pictures to narrow down to is almost impossible because of the richness of the content. I’ll do my best. We start early in the morning by walking...
Today was quite the day. It was our last day with our tour guide, Mike. On day 8 we switched to the “hike” and got a different guide, but retained the same sababa (awesome) driver, Hasim. Hasim has been a driver for 15 years and it shows. Dude is amazing at...
I decided this was as good a place as any to let everyone who cares to know such things, that I visited a shop in the Old City of Jerusalem, just inside the Jaffa Gate, that has been there since the year 1300AD. This business has been handed down from father to son...
So there is a building on the top of Mt Zion that was built well after the destruction of Jerusalem in 90AD that is a memoriam for the Last Supper. Truth be told, the place where it would have been has been destroyed. What we do know is that the disciples were...
Jericho is the oldest city in the world still inhabited. We’re talking over 10.000 years here. Our tour guide, Mike, is a Jericho boy, and he had no shortage of good things to say about his home town. He says the weather is the best in the world, year round. We...
I learned some stuff today. Well, to be honest, I’ve learned a lot of stuff every day I’ve been here, but this one is special. I didnt know, for example, that the place where Joshua brought the Israelites into the Promised Land was the same place where later Jesus...
Definitely a highlight, although it is impossible to choose a favorite. I talk with my clients often about how the path out of the thinking that is stealing their peace is like the Valley of the Shadow of Death. It reminds me of the scene in “The Empire Strikes...