Rejoinder to the last part of Reminiscence from the Levant
After reading the last part of my blog on Levant… a friend commented that though the last part is high on emotion… it low on content… and not much can be made out from the blog by a person planning to go there.
I differed… if one just wants to go to Jerusalem… he will do himself a great service by picking up a guide book. He said… that is always a possibility… but then my blog can be a starting point of developing an urge to visit Jerusalem. And therefore I should give a detail of the places that I visited during the stay.
So here I go… writing a rejoinder to the last part of my blog on Levant… indicating the usual and off beat places I went and what I felt. This is beyond Al Aqsa Complex and Holy Sepulcher… as much has been written about them
* Tower of David Museum: A wonderful museum inside the old city…it is set inside the Jerusalem citadel. And a must visit… while reading the history of the Middle East I always wondered who were Byzantine, Ottomans, Ummayads, Mamluks… and then I arrived to this museum on a sunny morning… and things ceased to remain the same. The Museum captures the entire history of Jerusalem… explains it is vivid details… and clears a lots of doubts in one's mind. After visiting a lot of unscientific museums in the area… this museum comes as a whiff of fresh air.
* Garden Tomb… there have been a lot of debates around the exact location of the place where Jesus was actually crucified, buried and the resurrected. One school believes that the church of Holy Sepulcher is the place… another school however thinks that Garden Tomb is the place… set in a idyllic setting… this small yet beautiful place is managed by the Garden Tomb Association of England… the staff is very helpful and willing to show things around. The place is located just outside the Old City near the Bus Stand of the Damascus Gate. The place is closed on Sunday and after 5:30 pm on weekdays… I arrived here on Saturday evening at 5 pm…
* Old Yishuv Court Museum… a part of displaying the Jewish heritage of the city, this museum displays the life and time of the Jewish quarters in the 19th and early 20th century. A lot of artifacts depicting the day to day life of people at that point of time… the museum however doesn’t stop here. It goes on to display the life of Jews under the Jordanian occupation and then its liberation. Politically loaded, nevertheless can be visited once if one has time.
* Basilica of Saint Stephen Protomartyr… is one of the more beautiful churches that I visited during my aimless wandering on the roads of Jerusalem. One sight of it… I found it special and entered it. The Church is maintained by some French nationals and houses the relics of Saint Stephen who was one of the first martyrs in Christianity and therefore has a lot of history attached to it. Located outside the Old City on the Nablus Road, this place is worth a visit if one has time.
* Cathedral Church of Saint George the martyr… again located outside the Old City… it is a beautiful church belonging to the Palestinian Anglican order… I was lucky to arrive there when marriage ceremony was taking place…
* The Holocaust Museum… is a must visit, beautiful done… it tries to relive the horror of the ugly event in the history of mankind. It actually makes you hang your head in shame that some such thing ever happened. The place is numbing… though small
* Armenian Museum… the museum gives to a snapshot of the entire history of Armenians… but that is just a small part of the museum… much of the museum, however, is devoted to Armenian genocide… thus the museum has a strong political motive behind it. Visit it if you have time
* The Temple Institute… no one will tell you to visit the place… it is one of the best kept secret of this city… the entire institute is dedicated to tell us the history of the Holy Temple… and in the process answers a lot of questions on Jerusalem, Judaism, Crusades and early history of the region… it is a spiritual place… and a place worth visiting to absorb the history of the place.
* City of David…absolutely marvelous…you haven’t visited Jerusalem if you haven’t visited Holy Sepulcher, Al Aqsa and City of David… it is a treasure house of history… I however did not take a guided tour of the place… try and take a guided tour of the place… and it will broaden your horizons beyond imagination. And those who haven’t been there… visit their site http://www.cityofdavid.org.il
* Greek Orthodox Museum… ever since my visit to Saint Katherine monastery in Sinai… I have been fascinated by the order of Greek Orthodoxy… this museum was a great opportunity to learn everything about them… however, if not interested in their history… this place is passable.
* Rockefeller Museum… again a must visit, this place is located in the new city… and if one has to point out just one place worth a visit in the newer Jerusalem, this is it. These are not my words but words from a bunch of Canadian students I bumped into… and joined them to see the place. I was amazed by the kind of research these students had done before coming to this place… whereas I had landed in Jerusalem without any idea of the place or its history. The museum, however, changed it all.
* Last but not the least… the Solomon Quarries. Walking down the road hugging the walls of Old city… I saw a board announcing the location of Solomon's Quarries. It is said that the stones from this underground cave system were used to build the Solomonic Jerusalem. Later it became the focal point of Freemasonry… I went inside and was mortally afraid of the solitude and weird setting, I was in… I was retracing my steps back when I saw a bunch of Canadian people coming along… I tagged with them. We together saw the Freemason Prayer Hall… and a girl wondered- why Freemasons had such grim and dark places for praying and meeting. We went further down the Quarry… this place goes down and down… however after a certain point the passages are blocked by landslides. The group I was with, however, had come here earlier… they had during their last visit found a small pit leading us further down into the caves… with a warning that its dangerous and illegal to go inside. They however wanted to visit it… and this time they came prepared with torches and ropes…. Without much choice I joined them… albeit for giving them an air of wisdom and caution. We went inside… it was pitch dark… and the places consisted of mazes all around… some old stone structures… it was all man made… we must have traveled about 250 meters till we came to a dead end. One of the person was carrying a compass suggested that the direction we have traveled suggests that we are close to the Temple Mount!!!!!
These are few places that I visited during the trip… hope it build upon the urge to visit the place.
I differed… if one just wants to go to Jerusalem… he will do himself a great service by picking up a guide book. He said… that is always a possibility… but then my blog can be a starting point of developing an urge to visit Jerusalem. And therefore I should give a detail of the places that I visited during the stay.
So here I go… writing a rejoinder to the last part of my blog on Levant… indicating the usual and off beat places I went and what I felt. This is beyond Al Aqsa Complex and Holy Sepulcher… as much has been written about them
* Tower of David Museum: A wonderful museum inside the old city…it is set inside the Jerusalem citadel. And a must visit… while reading the history of the Middle East I always wondered who were Byzantine, Ottomans, Ummayads, Mamluks… and then I arrived to this museum on a sunny morning… and things ceased to remain the same. The Museum captures the entire history of Jerusalem… explains it is vivid details… and clears a lots of doubts in one's mind. After visiting a lot of unscientific museums in the area… this museum comes as a whiff of fresh air.
* Garden Tomb… there have been a lot of debates around the exact location of the place where Jesus was actually crucified, buried and the resurrected. One school believes that the church of Holy Sepulcher is the place… another school however thinks that Garden Tomb is the place… set in a idyllic setting… this small yet beautiful place is managed by the Garden Tomb Association of England… the staff is very helpful and willing to show things around. The place is located just outside the Old City near the Bus Stand of the Damascus Gate. The place is closed on Sunday and after 5:30 pm on weekdays… I arrived here on Saturday evening at 5 pm…
* Old Yishuv Court Museum… a part of displaying the Jewish heritage of the city, this museum displays the life and time of the Jewish quarters in the 19th and early 20th century. A lot of artifacts depicting the day to day life of people at that point of time… the museum however doesn’t stop here. It goes on to display the life of Jews under the Jordanian occupation and then its liberation. Politically loaded, nevertheless can be visited once if one has time.
* Basilica of Saint Stephen Protomartyr… is one of the more beautiful churches that I visited during my aimless wandering on the roads of Jerusalem. One sight of it… I found it special and entered it. The Church is maintained by some French nationals and houses the relics of Saint Stephen who was one of the first martyrs in Christianity and therefore has a lot of history attached to it. Located outside the Old City on the Nablus Road, this place is worth a visit if one has time.
* Cathedral Church of Saint George the martyr… again located outside the Old City… it is a beautiful church belonging to the Palestinian Anglican order… I was lucky to arrive there when marriage ceremony was taking place…
* The Holocaust Museum… is a must visit, beautiful done… it tries to relive the horror of the ugly event in the history of mankind. It actually makes you hang your head in shame that some such thing ever happened. The place is numbing… though small
* Armenian Museum… the museum gives to a snapshot of the entire history of Armenians… but that is just a small part of the museum… much of the museum, however, is devoted to Armenian genocide… thus the museum has a strong political motive behind it. Visit it if you have time
* The Temple Institute… no one will tell you to visit the place… it is one of the best kept secret of this city… the entire institute is dedicated to tell us the history of the Holy Temple… and in the process answers a lot of questions on Jerusalem, Judaism, Crusades and early history of the region… it is a spiritual place… and a place worth visiting to absorb the history of the place.
* City of David…absolutely marvelous…you haven’t visited Jerusalem if you haven’t visited Holy Sepulcher, Al Aqsa and City of David… it is a treasure house of history… I however did not take a guided tour of the place… try and take a guided tour of the place… and it will broaden your horizons beyond imagination. And those who haven’t been there… visit their site http://www.cityofdavid.org.il
* Greek Orthodox Museum… ever since my visit to Saint Katherine monastery in Sinai… I have been fascinated by the order of Greek Orthodoxy… this museum was a great opportunity to learn everything about them… however, if not interested in their history… this place is passable.
* Rockefeller Museum… again a must visit, this place is located in the new city… and if one has to point out just one place worth a visit in the newer Jerusalem, this is it. These are not my words but words from a bunch of Canadian students I bumped into… and joined them to see the place. I was amazed by the kind of research these students had done before coming to this place… whereas I had landed in Jerusalem without any idea of the place or its history. The museum, however, changed it all.
* Last but not the least… the Solomon Quarries. Walking down the road hugging the walls of Old city… I saw a board announcing the location of Solomon's Quarries. It is said that the stones from this underground cave system were used to build the Solomonic Jerusalem. Later it became the focal point of Freemasonry… I went inside and was mortally afraid of the solitude and weird setting, I was in… I was retracing my steps back when I saw a bunch of Canadian people coming along… I tagged with them. We together saw the Freemason Prayer Hall… and a girl wondered- why Freemasons had such grim and dark places for praying and meeting. We went further down the Quarry… this place goes down and down… however after a certain point the passages are blocked by landslides. The group I was with, however, had come here earlier… they had during their last visit found a small pit leading us further down into the caves… with a warning that its dangerous and illegal to go inside. They however wanted to visit it… and this time they came prepared with torches and ropes…. Without much choice I joined them… albeit for giving them an air of wisdom and caution. We went inside… it was pitch dark… and the places consisted of mazes all around… some old stone structures… it was all man made… we must have traveled about 250 meters till we came to a dead end. One of the person was carrying a compass suggested that the direction we have traveled suggests that we are close to the Temple Mount!!!!!
These are few places that I visited during the trip… hope it build upon the urge to visit the place.
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