Day 8: The Church of Mary Magdalene & the Ophel

Tianna's corresponding blog: (click here)

Today began by playing the part of the dutiful tourist. We decided to enrich the economy of the country in which we were visiting. It was time to buy some souvenirs. Actually we ended up only enriching the economy of one shop, Omar's. He is a Palestinian that has fell in love with the Mormon tourist. It was a weird experience walking into a Palestinian shop and seeing carved representations of Joseph Smith, Father Lehi, and the Liahona. Omar's real niche has been in selling Nativity scenes made out of olive wood. I decided to have one splurge souvenir and I figured why not be completely unoriginal and do what everyone else does. Besides, sometimes everyone else is right. Omar's nativities were quite beautiful and well crafted. While walking over to Omar's shop we went by the Jerusalem bus station. This spot is also well known for being the possible sight of Golgotha or Calvary, the spot where Christ was crucified. If this is in fact the spot were the crucifixion occurred I love the poetic irony of how it has changed. Now atop the crest of the skull is no longer the traditional cross but instead is a television antenna. Fitting I think since the TV holds much more allegiance in todays culture than Christ does. TV has gained its popularity through systematically killing off all that Christ taught and by crucifying him anew has now replaced him. I took the next picture with the intent of emailing it home to my mom and telling her that this was the hotel we were staying at. It didn't happen which I'm sure she is appreciative of.
We did finally make it the see the Russian Church of Mary Magdalene. This church is only open on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for a small period of time. I have been fascinated by the church from afar so I didn't want to miss seeing it up close. I wasn't disappointed, I think it is the most beautiful of the churches we have seen so far in Jerusalem. It definitely still has a Catholic flare but without being over the top like some of the others. It is quietly nestled up on the Mount of Olives above the Church of all Nations. Since it is open for such a short time I think it escapes most of the large tour groups which makes for a quieter environment.






Upon leaving the Church of Mary Magdalene we continued up a small road on the Mount of Olives which goes right by the Jewish Cemetery. I snuck in a few spots just to get a closer look. It is quite the location. We stopped at one more church only to realize that I had filled up all my memory cards. You can read Tianna's blog to hear about the adventure that followed.

These were a few friendly construction workers in the Kidron Valley.

The other tourist thing that we had scheduled for the day was to go visit the Ophel. The Ophel is an excavation site around the Temple Mount. These stones to the left show the markings that are typical of Herodian construction on the temple. The side of the stone that ends up on the outside of the wall has a simple design carved into the edge that goes around the outside. These stones used to be the upper portions of the wall around the temple. When the Romans destroyed the temple, they were under instruction to completely destroy all evidence of the temple so they pushed everything over the edge of the wall filling up the areas around the temple. The picture below shows an area that has been excavated down to the original street level. You can see the damage inflicted by the falling stones. You can also see the remains in the upper left hand corner of the picture of Robinson's Arch. Its a real shame that the Romans couldn't have left a few things intact. This arch is one of those things that I think would have been really cool to see. The corner of the wall is also known as the place where Satan tempted Christ and told him to throw himself from the corner of the temple. As you can see it would have been quite a fall. What you can't see is that the wall would have been even taller than it is now.

This was a Bat Mitzvah on the steps of the temple mount. (Jewish ceremony for girls instead of the Bar Mitzvah in case you were wondering. Don't worry I didn't know either.)

These were the original gates that led to the temple from the city of David. As you can see this is no longer a viable way to access the temple mount.

This last image was an ancient drain from the pool of Siloam. We went back to Abraham's Coin shop at the end of the Hezekiah's Tunnel hike. While walking in I saw this old drain in an area of the excavations. I thought it was quite ingenuitive and beautiful at the same time.