Jerusalem

The walls of the Old City. Base of the Tower of David. Near the Jaffa Gate.
This picture describes Jerusalem perfectly. Young kids with automatic weapons, and lots of old people wearing ridiculous tour group hats that are always standing in the middle of the narrow streets. The Tower of David. The main route leading up to the Jaffa Gate.
Jaffa Gate. There are 7 open gates into the Old City. This was the one closest to my hotel. Zion Gate. Yep, those are a bunch of bullet holes from the 1948 Israeli War for Independence when the Palmach tried to take control of the Jewish Quarter (unsuccessfuly). The Dung Gate. The entrance to the Western Wall Plaza is just inside.
Damascus Gate. The current structure was built in 1542 by the Ottoman Suleiman the Magnificent. New Gate. Built in 1898 to provide access to the Christian Quarter for a visiting German Emperor. Herod's Gate. Leads to the Muslim Quarter, and is located pretty close to the Damascus Gate.
Lions' Gate. The starting point of Jesus' last walk from prison to crucifixion. Lions' Gate decorations. You think they're lions, right? Nope - they're leopards. Idiot. IDF soldiers at the Damascus Gate.
Some really good hummus. Falafel, tahini, and hummus. Pomegranate juice.
Saladin (right) meeting with King Richard the Lionheart (left). Legend is this is the tomb of one of the designers of the city walls. Legend has it he had the two main architects killed because the walls didn't encompass Mount Zion and the tomb of King David. Another theory is that Suleiman didn't want anyone to capture the architects and learn how to breach the walls during an assault.
Jaffa Gate entrance. Building outside the Old City. Christian building outside the Old City.
City plaza. Walking through a souk. A little advertising for Sandeman's Free Tour.
Looking out at the Mount of Olives from a Jerusalem rooftop. You can barely see the dual domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Because the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is pretty much surrounded by building on all sides and Jerusalem streets are narrow and winding, you never really get a good look at the entire structure at once.
Church entrance in the Aremenian Quarter. Wandering through Jerusalem side streets. A mosque undergoing renovations.
IDF soldiers. Using my spying techniques to sneak pictures. City walls. All of the current wall was built in the 1500s. The walls that would have been up during the Crusades were razed in 1219 by the Sultan of Damascus. It was pretty common during the Crusades - if you didn't think you had the men to hold a city or castle, you would tear down the walls so that the enemy would have to wast time and resources to rebuild.
Hagia Maria Sion Abbey (more commonly known as the Church of Dormition). Mamluke era gate. The stalactite looking architecture that screams out Mamluke design.
The Jewish Cemetery on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. The line to get on to the Temple Mount. Tourists are only allowed to go on the Temple Mount 7:30am - 11:00am and 1:30pm - 2:30pm, and never on Fridays. City walls near the Dung Gate.
Lots of stairs in Jerusalem. Stained glass. St. George slaying the dragon.
Church of the Redeemer, a Protestant church near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Church of the Redeemer entrance. The church stands on the site of the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller back during the Crusades when Jerusalem was in Crusader hands.
Souk entrance. Looking down souk Aftimos. Another view of the Church of the Dormition, near the Zion Gate.
Church of St. Anne, a Crusader church built in the 1130s. Famous for the acoustics, religious tour groups are always singing songs inside. The ruins of the Bethesda Pools, where people believe Jesus healed a paralyzed man.
Crusader Church of St. Mary. The remains are in the Jewish Quarter of the city, near the Western Wall Plaza. The surviving arch.
Damascus Gate. During the crusades, this would have been the northern gate of the city with a road leading to Damascus. City walls built directly on top of the bedrock. This would be what you'd be assaulting as a Crusader trying to take the city.
The bazaar by the Damascus Gate. Why wouldn't you buy normal looking mannequins? Right... good luck with that.
The Garden Tomb, which some people claim is the real tomb of Jesus instead of at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Inside the tomb. There's a little bit of a resemblence to a skull in the rockface, which would match the Bible description.
Zedekiah's Cave. Also known as Solomon's Quarries, because some people think the stones for Solomon's Temple were quarried from here. The Order of the Masons still hold ceremonies in the caves.
City walls near the Jaffa Gate. See "LEG X FR" on the 4th line? This is a marker of the Roman Tenth Legion Frentensis, which conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish Temple in the first century A.D. The Tower of David.
Jaffa Gate. Pilgrims arriving at the Port of Jaffa would follow the road and end up here. A legend says that every conqueror of Jerusalem will enter the city through the Jaffa Gate. When Wilhelm II of Germany visited in 1898, the Ottoman rulers breached the wall and made a road so that he could enter and believe he was going through the Jaffa Gate when he really wasn't. Now it's an inlet for traffic into the Old City. This was the original gate, at a right angle to the city walls for defensive purposes.
Ben Yehuda Street - a pedestrian mall with lots of shops and places to eat. Ben Yehuda Street on Saturday morning during the Shabbat. It's a ghost town. Even this major street was completely empty on the Shabbat. Eerie.
Outside the Old City. Walking to the Jerusalem central bus station. Not sure what this is. Yamakas.
My hotel - Montefiore Hotel. Nothing fancy. But great location a block from Ben Yehuda street and a short walk from the Old City.

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