Frank's Christian Thoughts: Travel Biography Photo Extravaganza

Saturday, 20 December 2025

Travel Biography Photo Extravaganza - Part 53.

An Issue with Mary, Mohammed, and A Day Trip to Eilat.

When we flew to the Holy Land to celebrate our first Wedding Anniversary in 2000, our aim was to spend our time in Jerusalem soaking in the archaeological sites and the churches, especially those directly connected to the life of Jesus Christ. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, located in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, was one such church.

Our hostel on Souk David was 180 metres from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, yet every morning, while still in bed, we heard its bells chime. It was a distinct sound - de-clung, clung, de-clung, clung, de-clung, clung - a rhythmic sound lasting up to three minutes. The sound was unique, a reminder each morning that we were in Jerusalem, as such melodic bell-ringing as I had never heard in the UK.

The Roman Catholic Church of the Dormition on Mt Sion, the highest hill in Jerusalem, was another venue where I took Alex. Despite my previous visits to the Holy Land as a singleton, this was only my second visit there, as well as my beloved's first, as I had visited this abbey in 1993. As its name suggests, which means Sleeping, it's supposed to house the tomb of Mary, the mother of Jesus, sleeping in death as she awaits the resurrection of all believers. However, the authenticity of the site I have reservations, and this is why.

At the foot of the Mount of Olives, there is the Tomb of Mary, an underground church close to the Garden of Gethsemane. This is an Eastern Orthodox church used by the Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and Syrian groups. Like with the Dormition, the body of Mary isn't there either. I visited the Tomb of Mary in 1993, but I couldn't take Alex in 2000, as it looked to be closed to the public. However, there is also a tradition that Mary accompanied the Apostle John to Ephesus in Turkey, and she died there while she was in her fifties.

Alternatively, she wasn't buried, or even died, but was taken bodily to Heaven; this is known by the Catholic term The Assumption of Mary. It was a tradition going back to the Church Fathers of around the second or third Century AD, but it wasn't finalised as official Catholic doctrine until Pope Pius XII in 1950.

I find all this of interest, how these traditions parallel those of the Muslims, whose Quarter is also part of the Old City. The bones of their prophet, Mohammed, lie in the tomb in Medina, Saudi Arabia. However, two traditions say that he ascended to heaven. One was from the Kaaba in Mecca, or nearby, and he ascended on foot on a ladder. The other tradition says that he ascended to heaven on horseback from Al Quds, where the Dome of the Rock now stands at the Haram Al Sharif. However, unlike Mary, it is said that Mohammed returned to Earth before he died.

It's stories like these that we often receive ridicule from the secular world, whether educated in science or not. But as I became very familiar with the sites in the Holy Land, and especially in Jerusalem, I could understand the basis of such traditions. They keep hope for the afterlife ongoing.

However, on one Sunday morning, we attended a Christ Church service, just inside Jaffa Gate and facing the Citadel Archaeological Museum. This was an Anglican church with Hebrew flavouring. While the service was held, the Call to Prayer rang out from the minaret of a nearby Mosque. We tried to drown it by singing aloud.

Entrance to the Tomb of Mary near Gethsemane, 1993.

In the Tomb of Mary, 1993, I encountered a tour group.

However, one afternoon, we were walking along Jaffa Street when I was thinking; Is it possible to board a bus for a day trip to Eilat? The idea grew on me, and I shared my idea with Alex, who was with me. She, too, was keen. After asking at the Egged Bus Station, I found out that there was a four-hour journey to Eilat from Jerusalem, a trip 315 km (196 miles) long, departing at 8.00am.

The morning of the next day, we made our way to the bus station and bought return tickets for the journey. The return journey to Jerusalem left Eilat at 4.00pm. This allowed us four hours in Eilat, where I had an opportunity to snorkel over the corals of the Gulf of Aqaba, a finger of the Red Sea.

The monotony of the bus ride was broken by a twenty-minute stop at En Gedi, on the western shore of the Dead Sea. Due to Alex's pregnancy, we didn't bathe in the Dead Sea, unlike during my previous visits. Instead, we admired the view across the ribbon lake, the lowest body of water in the world, around 425 metres below sea level in 2000. At present, the level is still falling due to the industrial use of the water. Alex and I looked across the Rift Valley, where the lake sits, and saw the mountains of Jordan on the other side, a phenomenon running along the whole of the Gulf of Aqaba, the Negev desert, the Dead Sea, the River Jordan, and the Lake of Galilee.

Around noon, we arrived at Eilat Bus Station. As we walked through the town itself, I wasn't too impressed. Despite existing during the days of King Solomon, around 960 BC, Eilat appeared as a modern town with the runway of Eilat Airport cutting through the town itself. Further down, its beach was lined with huge, multi-storey hotels. This beach is on the "fingertip", the most northern stretch of the coast, where it's possible to walk to the border with Jordan, and the town of Aqaba.

We caught the bus to the Coral Beach, close to the border with Egypt. Despite it being October, the resort was under a cloudless sky, and we bathed in warm sunshine. The rich blue finger of sea was backed by the pink mountains of Jordan, the section of the Rift Valley once occupied by the Biblical nation of Edom.

A hotel served Coral Beach. It was here that a public locker room was located, along with a snorkel hire kiosk and shop. It was here that I had to submit my passport to rent the equipment. I also bought an underwater camera. However, Alex felt a little low about not snorkelling with me, but not only had she never snorkelled before, but I was also concerned about her unborn child. After all, to legally impregnate her after 47 years of childlessness was a miracle! A wonderful miracle!

For the next hour or two, I relived my Great Barrier Reef experience. I took a break in the middle, and we enjoyed a picnic at the pierhead, with the waves splashing gently against the structure. After that, we strolled along the beach to digest the food before my second session underwater, peering at the beautiful tropical marine life so close under me.

Click here for the Index link to the main Biography covering Weeks 123 to 128.

Photos of Jerusalem Churches and Secular Life.

Christ Church Anglican.