Steps leading to the temple mount
Christ would have gone up these steps to enter the temple


Where it is considered Jesus was born

Day 7 Bethlehem, Western Tunnel tour, Church of the Holy Sepluchre.

After talking with Melyn and Kyler we decided it would be o.k. for us to go to Bethlehem to the church of the Nativity. There is a big wall that has been put up to seperate the West Bank and the State of Israel. We had to park our car and then get a taxi to go in. As we talked to our taxi driver he explained how his family lives in Bethlehem and he lives in Jerusalem, he compared the wall to the Berlin wall, it really made me sad for his family. As we drove through you could see how Bethlehem had really been built up and had great potential but is now becoming delapitated. Our taxi driver set us up with a guide, we were happy to have someone who could tell us about the church. There is a square just outside the church called manger square, this is where people gather on Christams Eve. There are different churches within the church itself, Armenian, Roman Catholic, and Greek orthodox. Constatine's mother originally had the church built in 333 A.D. (they have some idea of where Christ was born because Herod had a church built over the area) She had "the manger" removed from the site and sent to Rome. The church was destroyed later, but they say they have unearthed part of the original floor. It was rebuilt again in 529 A.D. and is the oldest working church. It is divided into different sections, the newest is the Roman Catholic section, 120 years old. Our guide took us down some stairs, where they have an area marked by a silver star, which shows where Jesus is born. Then to the right is an area where they say the manger was. It is really decorated so you have to really look to see that you are in a cave, there are balck smudges all over the walls. Our guide then took us to see where the Christmas bells are. (They ring them on Christmas day) He then took us to an olivewood shop. The craftsmanship was amazing but the prices were a little steep, the shopkeeper wasn't very happy with us when we didn't buy much. Our taxi driver took us back to our car and we were on our way. It was really cool to be able to see, but again you could definitely feel that people were concentrating more on the place then the miracle of Christ's birth. We then went back to our favorite spot, Jaffa gate. Here we entered once again to go to the Western Wall so we could take our tour of the underground corridors (they weren't really underground back in Christ's time). It's a little interesting that these tunnels exist, because technically the arabs own the homes in Old city Jerusalem. It turns out that they secretly started digging underneath. When they were discovered digging the Arabs weren't to happy, but after a while they came to some agreement. The tunnels run the length of the Western wall up to wear Mount Moriah is. At one point they say you are right outside of where the Holy of Holies would have been. They had found a stairway leading to it right when they were caught. As part of the agreement they had to seal of the entrance to the stairway. Jackson talked to the tour guide and asked if it would have been the staircase that a priest would have taken to leave the Holy of Holies if he had an impure thought and had to leave, the tour guide said they believed that it was. They had a really interesting rendition of the way they would have built the tunnel. At one point he told us we were standing right on top of where Mount Moriah was. The kids had fun going through the tunnels. Afterwards we went to the South side of the temple mount, called the Davidson Center. Here you can see where they have done excavations uncovering streets and places where shops would have been, they also had uncovered steps leading up to the temple entrance, it was amazing to walk where Jesus literally would have walked. We were also able to walk on part of the ramparts of the southern wall. We then headed to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre hoping to see it during the day. It really wasn't too much lighter inside, the church is divided into different sections as well. Many christians believe this is golgotha, where Jesus was crucified and buried. Constatines mother Helena also had this church built to comemorate Jesus' crucifixtion and resurrection, there is a structure built within the church where a rock is that is believed to be where Jesus' body was placed. It was orignally built in 350 A.D. but destroyed in 1019 A.D. then rebuilt. I guess the church is divided and there will be fistfights among the clergy if anyone steps over the lines, they literally have steps that are designated as whose is whose. It is a really dark place in terms of light but also spirit. Jackson and I both felt uncomfortable being there, there was such a difference between the garden tomb and this church. We really didn't stay long just enough to look at the different murals, we thought about going into the structure but there was a line and I just didn't get a good feeling about it. Again I was really glad for the knowldedge I have. We then headed to Shaban's. He is such a nice guy. After getting last minute things with no idea how to get it all home, we headed back to the apartment to pack and get ready to go. I was a little nervous about going through all the security to get home, but in the end it was actually not to bad. In the end. Jared and I went to our coach seats and Jackson and the boys ended up in business on the way back. It was a 13 hours flight to Atlanta and 4 hours to Salt Lake, we finally got home a little after 24 hours. We had such an amazing time, I hope my boys are able to take from this experience for the rest of their lives. I hope you have enjoyed traveling with us. During our trip we had difficulty knowing what language to use to say thankyou, Hebrew is Toda and Arabic is Shukran. Considering the political differences it something you wanted to be careful with. A lot of times we found ourselves just saying thank you. So toda for coming along with us and shukran for your comments. Shalom!

Streets present during Christ's time

Western Wall tunnels