Travel Biography Photo Extravaganza - Part 12.

Jerusalem in the Past, in the Present, and how it could have been.

Around 1994, while I was enjoying a mug of coffee in his apartment, a friend showed me a booklet containing all the capital cities around the world. He then drew my attention towards the entry for London, and the print defined London, UK, as the most important city in the world. However, the booklet was several decades old and published in the heyday of the British Empire, perhaps even between the two world wars.

When I read the entry, I spoke aloud to the point that I almost shouted, No! London is not the world's most important city, and it never was.

I didn't have to say which city I was referring to, as he was already aware that I was referring to Jerusalem, a one-time provincial outpost in the Islamic world under its capital, Mecca, until it was proclaimed the capital city of Israel in 1949, a year after the State of Israel was born on May 14, 1948, with the withdrawal of the British Mandate. My initial visit to the Holy Land (Israel and the West Bank) in 1976 as a 23-year-old neophyte travelling alone outside Europe was one of life's major stepping stones.

In 1993, 17 years after my initial visit in 1976, I was back in the Holy Land. It was a wonderful privilege to walk the streets of Jerusalem. This time, I was more thorough in learning about the land I was in, to let the country speak to me if I listened carefully. One example was in the Citadel Museum, next to Jaffa Gate. In its gallery was a display model of the original Jerusalem of the Jebusites. This was compared to the present Old City exhibited next to it. There was also a third display, that of the New City structures that were never built, with a gigantic menorah reaching into the sky alongside New York-style skyscrapers and tower blocks blocking the Old City from the evening sunset.

But the greatest revelation about Jerusalem was centred on the Temple Mount and particularly the Dome of the Rock. In 1993, on which this week's photo album is based, the Dome was undergoing renovation. The golden roof of the dome itself was stripped, exposing its underlay. Over it a crane dominated, transforming the Haram Al-Sharif into a building site. Yet, the whole octagonal structure retained its majestic appearance as I approached it, and even went inside to see the area of rock forming the summit, over which the structure was built.

The Dome of the Rock. I took this pic in 1976.

I recalled standing in the very same spot in 1976. How excited I was! Here stood the Temple, the first one built under King Solomon's reign around 960 BC. When that was razed to the ground by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 BC, the site lay in ruins for the next seventy years before the Second Temple was built under the guidance of Ezra the Governor of post-exilic Israel. Later, the Temple was embellished by Herod the Great shortly before the birth of Jesus Christ. Centuries later, the Dome was completed in AD 691 by Caliph Al Malik, 621 years after Herod's Temple was destroyed under the Roman General Titus in AD 70.

Yet here I stood in 1976 and again in 1993, at the site with so much history. The area was quiet and serene, the summer sunshine blazing down, turning the Mount of Olives in the background golden brown with white marble gravestones glinting at its flanks. It was hard to imagine the battle cry of war and destruction that took place in 586 BC and 70 AD respectively. Yet, learning about its history had a historical and spiritual effect which dynamically altered my life and my faith for good.

And I came to realise all this while I was examining the exhibits displayed at the Citadel Museum. While I was studying the exhibits on display, I came to realise that if the Temple had not been destroyed in AD 70 and the Dome was never built on its site, then chances were that we would not be alive today. How come? According to the Biblical prophets, the Temple must exist on that site before the Resurrected Lord returns to set up his kingdom. Instead, whilst the Dome remains standing, babies are continually born throughout the centuries to know God personally and populate Heaven.

Another site connected with Israel's history is the Yad Vashem Memorial and Museum, on the west side of the New City and a short bus ride from the city centre. I spent the day learning how the Nazis first imprisoned the Jews in European ghettos during World War II, then escorted them by train to different death camps, such as Treblinka, Belzec, and Auschwitz. Up to six million Jews were unnecessarily slain for no other reason than that they were racially inferior to the white Arian race, a worldview taken from Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species, and the initiation of eugenics by Darwin's disciple, Francis Galton. The memorial itself is a large, quiet room with the Eternal Flame burning, a Children's Memorial, and the Museum where I learned about the horrors of the Holocaust.

Photos taken of the 1993 visit to the Temple Mount are on last week's album. This week, I include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Christ was Crucified and Buried, some archaeological sites of the Citadel Outdoor Museum, and the Yad Vashem Memorial.

Click here for the Index of the main Biography of this trip which covers Weeks 48-51.

Photos of Jerusalem (Continued).

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Entrance to the Church, Jerusalem.

Wall Mural of the body taken to the tomb.

Catholic Monks. I befriended one of them, off-duty.

Actual site of the Crucifixion. I worshipped here.

Here, eternity was forever changed.

Another view of the Crucifixion.

An Underground Chamber.

The Yad Vashem Memorial and Museum.

The Yad Vashem street symbol.

One of several memorials.

The Roof of the Memorial of Children slain.

The main Memorial is just ahead.

These stones form the Star of David, Israel's Emblem.

The Sentinal of the Holocaust.

Sculpture depicting Suffering Jews.

Details of the Ghetto, Yad Vashem Museum.

After they were killed, mass burial.

Ancient Ruins at the Citadel Outdoor Museum.

Roman Wall cuts across Hasmonian ruins.

View of the site, from the Tower of David.

Hasmonian Ruins, 1st Century BC.

The arch of a church, early Middle Ages.

Roman masonry.

Roman and Hasmonian masonry.

 A pile of masonry from Hasmonian to Medieval.

A Hasmonian doorway.

A Medieval Church Arch.

Detail of Hasmonian masonry.

Posing at the Citadel archaeological site.

Jebusite Jerusalem, Citadel Museum (indoor).

Present Day Old City, Citadel Museum.

Jerusalem that never was, Citadel Museum.

Under the Damascus Gate.

Roman Flour Millstone, Damascus Gate.

Another view of the same millstone.

Underground Roman masonry of the original gate.

The Pool of Bethesda. Here, Jesus healed a crippled Beggar.

The Pool of Bethesda.

One of the pool's five Porches.

Pool Masonry.

Further details of the Pool of Bethesda

Solomon's Mines - Circa 900 years BC.

Solomon's Mines, under the Old City.

Solomon's Mines were used to build the 1st Temple.

I went deeper into the Mines.

They say not a sound was heard during mining.

Miscellaneous Sites in and around Jerusalem.

Dormition Abbey, Mt Zion

Dormition Abbey, the interior of the Crypt.

A view of the Golden Gate.

Traditional View of Jerusalem from the Mt of Olives.

Jewish Graveyard on the Mount of Olives.

Posing over the Kidron Valley.

At the Chapel of Ascension.

The Church of the Nations, Mt of Olives.

A Mass was taking place inside the Church.

The Clergy at the church altar.

Distant view of the Church and the Mount.

The Garden of Gethsemane.

Here, Jesus was betrayed and arrested.

Ancient Olive Tree.

Another view of the Garden.

Eastern Orthodox Tomb of Mary.

Interior of the Orthodox Church, with a tourist group.

Alone again, as normal.

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Next Week: The Model of 1st Century Jerusalem, Bethlehem, En Gedi, the Dead Sea.