There is always lots to look at in Jerusalem and whenever you have to good fortune to get a “view” it’s amazing what you can see. It confirms that this city is unique in the world in many ways and I do believe those who say it is exactly the center point of the world. So many revere this place and so many come to experience it.
View from our hotel, always a different view, this time towards the Old City and East Jerusalem
The most famous view of the Old City shows the Dome of the Rock and one end of the Temple Mount
Looking towards the Christian Quarter with the tower of the Lutheran Church visible
In the distance you can see the Mount of Olives cemetery where many important Jewish scholars are buried along with Oskar Schindler and others important to Jewish history. Just a little left of center in front of the cemetery can be seen the dark gray dome of Al Aksa Mosque which is located on the opposite end of the Temple Mount from The Dome of the Rock.
The two bluish/gray domes are the domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus was supposedly buried and then rose to heaven. In the foreground is the Armenian Quarter and it is totally closed off from the rest of the Old City. The Armenians do not mingle with anyone and you can’t visit the quarter. Look down into the closed in section that looks like a courtyard ringed with fortified dwellings.
To the far distance you can see the hills of Jordan.
Church of Mary Magdalene to the left and a minaret almost next to it gives you a sense of how close all of this is to each other. It’s a bit hard to tell where one quarter ends and the other begins.
The white dome of the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish quarter (more on this in another posting).
A view of the modern city to the West. In the lower left corner the red rooms are the Yemin Moshe neighborhood, the first neighborhood outside the walls of the Old City first inhabited in the late 19th century. Before that everyone lived inside the walls of the city.
Poetry Without Words 