18. The First Station of Via Dolorosa-the traditional site of Antonia Fortress where Pilate judged Jesus.

Photos: 10 April, 2009

Today, the compound of Al Umariyah Elementary School.

17. Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Mark-an alternate 'Last Supper Room'

Photos: 22 March, 2008.

16. The Sanhedrin Tombs (1st century AD).

 Photos: 20 March 2009

Located in the ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Sanhedriya, these burial niches are often ascribed to the members of the Great Sanhedrin (the 71-membered supreme court of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus)! The graves are also known as “the Tombs of the Judges" and “Tombs of the Righteous”. Although the Sanhedrin tradition is from 15th century AD only, these burial caves are from the Second Temple Period (1st century AD). Today, there are around 80 rock-cut tombs in the complex and most of them lie in a derelict state, or at least that was the case when I visited the site.

Location:
Look for the entrance to 'Sanhedriya Park' on 'Ha Admorim Leiner Street' (near the intersection of Giva'at Moshe and Sderot Golda Me'ir Streets). The Sanhedriya Tombs are scattered inside this small park.

15. The Immovable Ladder of the Church of Holy Sepulcher.

Photos: 10 April, 2009 (Good Friday)

What makes this ordinary looking ladder made of cedar wood so special is that it has remained in this exact spot on the facade of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for more than 250 years! The earliest known report about the ladder is from 1757 and it has never been moved from this position except on two occasions, both relatively  recently on 1997 and 2009. Wikipedia has more details about the ladder here.

14. Roman Column (1800 years old)-a lamp post for a bar in Jerusalem Old City.

Photo: 7 May, 2010.

This early 3^rd century AD Roman triumphant column was discovered in 1885. Today, it serves as a lamp post of a bar in Jerusalem Old City. The Latin engravings on the column are dedicated to Marco Junio Maximo, an emissary of the 10th Legion under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (145-211 AD). Remember, the same legion under the command of Titus was responsible for the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in the year AD 70. 

Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor translates the inscription: "M(arco) Iunio Maximo leg(ato) Aug(ustorum) Leg(ionis) X Fr(etensis) Antoninianae C. Dom(itius) Serg(ius) str(ator) eius". He further writes, 'The inscription honours Marcus Iunius Maximus, Legate of the Augusts (i.e. the emperor Septimius Severus and his eldest son Caracalla), which implies that he was the governor of the province of Judaea, and Legate of the Tenth Legion Fretensis. It was erected c.ad 200 by one of his aides, C. Domitius Sergius Honoratus. After participating in the capture of Jerusalem in ad 70, the Tenth Legion was based in the city for over 200 years, occupying the area that is now the Armenian Quartern' (The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700, 5th Edition, 2007, p.66-67).

Location

The Roman column is located very near Jaffa Gate. Look for the second side street to the Christian Quarter, which is to your left while entering the Old City from Jaffa Gate. A few feet inside the street, you should find 'New Imperial Hotel' or 'Versavee Bistro, Bar & Cafe’; the column is in the middle of their courtyard with a flag/lamp post on top of it advertising ‘Bar & Café’!

THROUGH THE LAND OF ISRAEL III-Time for a new avatar?

There was a time when when this blog was uploaded with more than 250 posts per month, and it has declined into a meager 1-2 posts now. The main reason for such a downfall is because I don't live any more in the ’Holy Land’ to walk ’Through the Land of Israel'. Moreover, I didn't want an abrupt ending to the blog. An alternate option for me is to widen the area of exploration outside Israel to Europe with a special emphasis on the Jewish heritage monuments and Holocaust memorials. Since Jewish diaspora in Europe is immensely spread out and my resources and time are limited; I would be most content if at least some of the major Jewish sites in the continent are covered. As a starting step, I am uploading one of our recent adventures in Norway to trace the background of a young Jewish girl Ruth Sakolsky who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Story of Ruth Sakolsky (1940-1943).

13. The Underground Western Wall

Photo taken from the Western Wall Tunnel looking down into an excavated area. You can see how deep the wall is going down.

The upper two photos are from the Western wall Tunnels and the bottom two are from the men's prayer room inside the Wilson's Arch.The white structures are parts of the plastic chairs kept over the opening.

Photo: 3 July 2009 (Western Wall Tunnels) and 7 May 2010 (Wilson's Arch)

In its entirety Western Wall of Temple Mount has a length of 1600 feet, a height of 105 feet and built with 45 layers of stones from different periods. However, most of the original Western Wall is hidden behind residential structures built along its length. Today’s Western Wall or the ‘Ha Kotel Ha Ma’aravi’ is only 187 feet long, 62 feet tall and consisting of 28 courses of stones.  Not many are aware that a big share of Western Wall is hidden underground today. In fact, 43 feet of Western Wall made of 17 layers of stones from Herodian Period are concealed beneath the modern ground level. You can see this hidden segment of Western Wall from a few glassed openings inside men's prayer area behind Wilson's Arch and in the Western Wall Tunnels.

Location.

The Wilson’s Arch is on the left extreme end of the men’s section of the Western Wall, while visitor’s face the wall. In the prayer area inside Wilson’s Arch, look for the glass covered openings close to the Western Wall. You have to take the guided tour inside the Western Wall tunnels to see the other openings.

12. The Small or Little Western Wall (Kotel Ha Katan)-1st Cent. BC

Look for the Hebrew sign in the upper photo; the lower photo is from the Sha'ar Ha Barzel Street

Entrance to the Small Western Wall

The tunneled passage to the small Western Wall

Remember that only the basal two layers (large stones) are from the Heodian Temple
Photos: 16 December, 2009.

The original Western Wall is about half a kilometer long (488 meters), but most of which serve today as walls of Arab residential buildings from the Mamluk and Ottoman era. The modern Western Wall (the Kotel) is only a 57 meters (187 feet) exposed section of this ancient wall from the Second Jerusalem Temple. However, few are aware of a ‘Small Western Wall’ (Kotel Ha-Katan), located just 200 meters north of the Kotel, inside the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Kotel Ha Katan is an exposed (i.e., with no houses covering it) segment of the Western Wall inside an Arab residential area of the Old City. Interestingly, the Kotel Ha-Katan is considered even holier than the Kotel since it is believed to be closer to the ‘Holy of Holies’ of Jerusalem Temple than any of the stones in the popular Western Wall. In fact, it is the second closest spot to the Holy of Holies (outside of the Temple Mount) where Jews can pray, the closest location is inside the Western Wall Tunnels. The Kotel Ha Katan is also much lower than the Kotel and lies on the same level as the Temple Mount itself. In Kotel Ha Katan, only the two lowest level of stones date from the Second Temple period, whereas in the main Kotel, there are seven rows from the same period. 

Despite being a site holier than the main Western Wall, the Kotel Ha Katan is visited by only a few worshipers, mainly because of its sensitive location inside the Muslim Quarter of Old City and its much smaller and narrower size (it is only 8 meters/25 feet long and 3 meters/10 feet wide) compared to the main Western Wall Plaza (57 meters/187 feet long and 38 meters/125 feet wide). Arab residents, who call it Rabat el-Kurd, use it as a passageway. For general tourists, the existence of such a wall is relatively unknown and a bit tricky to locate.

Location

To reach the Small Western Wall from the Western Wall Plaza, walk north (into the Muslim Quarter of the Old City) through the Rehov Ha Gai (El-Wad Street). Skip the first junction (you will see Suq al-Qattanin/Cotton Market Street, on your right and Hebron/Al-Halediya Street on your left) and keep walking in the El-Wad Street until you reach the Sha’ar Ha Barzel Street (Iron Gate Road) on your right. Go up to the end of this street which goes to the Bab el Hadid (Iron Gate), one of the entrances to the Temple Mount. Remember to take the narrow street to your left (Rabat el-Kurd) just before the Iron Gate. You should see an arrowed Hebrew sign in the turning saying L’Kotel Ha Katan (to the Small Western Wall), the way leads into the tunneled entrance to the Kotel Ha Katan. See the following map for a better picture. 

                                                                      Courtesy-Google Maps 

11. Judean Desert from Jerusalem.

 Judean Desert from Augusta Victoria Bell Tower

 Augusta Victoria Lutheran Evangelical Church of Ascension and its Bell Tower

Photos-25 August 2009

Judean Desert from Hebrew University Mount Scopus

Photo-11 December, 2009

Jerusalem is a city with several viewpoints; the most famous of them face west to the historic old city. However, Jerusalem is surrounded from the east by a dry desert, the Judean Desert which stretches up to the Dead Sea. I am told that if you are very lucky, it is possible to see the brilliant blue of the north of the Dead Sea from Jerusalem, provided you find a good viewpoint and more importantly a clear and bright sky. Dead Sea is approximately 35 km east to Jerusalem, but there is an altitude difference of 1200 meters. An ideal viewpoint to see the Judean Desert from Jerusalem is the bell tower of Augusta Victoria Church. Located at the summit of Mount Olives, the 50 meters tall bell tower gives an excellent view to the Judean desert, but there is the cost of climbing 223 sprightly steps! I wasn’t lucky to have a nice weather that day so you can see the photos are not clear. The Hebrew University campus in Mount Scopus is another choice, but the best spot I believe would be the 64 meters tall bell tower of the Russian Orthodox Church of Ascension in the Mount of Olives. Unfortunately, the bell tower is opened only once a year and I have not seen so far any pictures from the Russian Orthodox Bell Tower towards the Judean Desert.

Location

The bell tower is part of the ‘Augusta Victoria Lutheran Evangelical Church of Ascension’ (1910) located on the north side of Mount of Olives. The church is part of the Augusta Victoria Hospital located on Martin Buber Street. If you are using public transport, the best way is to get down at the hospital stop using Arab Bus No 75 from Damascus Gate.