Israel  April 4-12 2006.

The Mount of Olives rising behind the Dome of the Rock.

  

 

In Jerusalem we stayed at Christchurch Guest House, just inside the old city walls at Jaffa Gate. Directly opposite the front gate across the street, is the entrance to David’s Tower and the stone podium upon which General Allenby proclaimed the end of Turkish rule over Jerusalem in December 1917, signalling the end of the Ottoman Empire.  





Christchurch taken from the battlements of David’s Tower. The gated entrance is in the centre of the picture. 


Photo © Christchurch. 

 










Jaffa Gate at dusk.

 

 

   

The Old City of Jerusalem   is a lattice work of stone alleyways bedecked with traders stalls and shops (left).

Below:  Doing a deal with an Arab trader...
sometimes involves sitting down in his shop talking turkey over a cup of tea!

Below: The the view from the roof of the building the Arab trader's shop is in.
  
 

Yad VaShem the holocaust musueum

  
 


the exhibition route ends on an incline where you find yourself suspended in mid air looking through 
a window high above Jerusalem as if ascending out of the the evil behind into a new day.

  

The inscription is from Exodus 37:14 and reads:
I WILL PUT MY BREATH INTO YOU AND YOU SHALL LIVE AGAIN, AND I WILL SET YOU UPON YOUR OWN SOIL….’

 

 
     
  The Western Wall ('wailing wall'), just a short walk across the old city from Jaffa Gate.   
   
 

 
       

 

images of trouble past & trouble present

  
   
  Above wrecked tanks on the Golan Heights. The area was heavily fought over in both the six day war of 1967 and the Yom Kippur war of 1973.

Below the fence around the Arab administered town of Qalqilya, taken from the motorway.
Qalqilya is the westernmost point of the west bank, just 9 miles from the Mediterranean.

 
   
       
 
Gamla (Camel)   on the Golan Heights.
Gamla, symbolising the fierce opposition of the Jewish people to Roman rule, was rediscovered in 1968. Perched on a hill that is shaped like a camel's hump, the city was protected on three sides by deep ravines. It's defenders fought Titus's army vigorously and finally threw themselves off the cliff to avoid capture. 'Beware of Scorpions and snakes’ the sign said upon entering the Gamla reserve! The site includes a big vulture colony where we saw vultures gliding effortlessly around the craggy rocks.

 

   
Quneitra lookout, Golan heights. The Syrian town of Quneitra can be seen in the background, just 3 km away. 
 Galilee
   
Capernaeum
 Gamla
   
Church of the Primacy. Tabgha, near Capernaeum
This extraordinary church beside the Sea of Galilee is home to many families of swallows which swoop in and out of the windows and door.
The tradition holds that three gospel events are located here: The Sermon on the Mount (on the hill behind), the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, and the third encounter with the resurrected Lord where he said to Peter: 'Look aftter my sheep.' 
Tiberius

Bye...

 

not forgetting the yellow man....

  

at the Western Wall,


at the Sea of  Galilee