Jerusalem (part 1)

I stayed in Jerusalem after the work was done for several days. It was a welcome change after two weeks of work. I was able to crisscross Old City almost everywhere except of Temple Mount. Here are the pictures

Western Wall; at the right, a gate to the Temple Mount (was shut down).

Southern wall of Temple Mount with Al-Aksa Mosque at the background, an archeological park is on the foreground

The Dome of the Rock (7th century), the area next to it was mostly closed. Mount of Olives is at the background with distinctively looking Russian Church of Mary Magdalene, Garden of Gethsemane is next to it. View from the bell tower of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

Church of Holy Sepulchre from outside (View from the bell tower of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer)

The Church of Holy Sepulchre is not really a single church, but rather an assembly of churches. Technically, it is probably a single building, but divided into separate areas. I counted six Christian denominations represented there: Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Coptic Orthodox, Armenians, Syriac Orthodox, and Ethiopian Orthodox. Interestingly enough, there was no love lost between different communities and the order has been maintained by two Muslim families since the time of Saladin (12th century).

 

The tomb of Christ is sub-divided into two parts (I am not joking) with longer line of visitors to the Roman Catholic part and visibly shorter line to the Coptic Orthodox part. Greeks got the biggest part of the church including the main altar of the church. Here is the Byzantine Pantokrator mosaic in the Greek Orthodox Katholikon - compare with Pantokrator in Monreale (see Sicily trip).

 Even Golgotha (Calvary) has two altars: richly decorated main Greek altar (below) and more modest Catholic altar