I live abroad and try to travel often, but Jerusalem is where I’m from. It matters not how many times I walk around the tiny old city of Jerusalem, there’s always something new and magical to be discovered. Last Palm Sunday, around Easter time, I headed over to the old city for another tour of explorations, revisiting favorite spots and discovering a few hidden mysteries. Once, I was accompanied by my passionate little sister – an experienced local tourguide of the old city for Taglit (Birthright program) and Israeli highschools, and then again later by my unbelievably knowledgeable father who extends the meaning of a “hobby” (being a tour-guide to colleagues, family and friends) into hidden realms and untold stories quite unimaginable to me. Their understanding of the history of this city and its multiculturalism is astounding. I envy them both.
So, without further ado, here’s my Palm Sunday Easter photo tour of my old city – Jerusalem.
Overlooking Dome of the Rock from the Jewish Quarter…
Overlooking the Crying Wall (/Western Wall), Temple Mount, and Dome of the Rock…
The western side of the old city walls…
Falafel at the old city…
The old city markets – Christian & Muslim quarters…
Pilgrimage
I didn’t know this but my little sister was sweet to educate me that those graffiti colors actually mean something. When you see them on the old city streets it means the person living there just came back from the once-in-a-lifetime Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest of places for Muslims.
A typical Jewish Nachman Meoman person’s house…
Church of the Redeemer, Christian quarter…
Cardo remains at the Jewish Quarter…
Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the Christian quarter…
The Ramban synagogue at the Jewish quarter… (since ~1267)
Central plaza at the Christian quarter…
Beautiful entrances and door fronts…
And… finally… just generally wondering around aimlessly and capturing the beauty of this city…
More of my discoveries that day to follow later on…
Why are the answers of all the addition computation are 1in the white board? Dose it have special meaning?
Xiaofang Pan – good question, very observant of you. I believe it’s suppose to signify that whatever your question is there’s only one answer (God). 😛
The pictures just say a lot about Jerusalem’s rich history and culture. This is one place that I would love to visit soon.