To begin my trip of a few days here, I entered Israel’s Tel Aviv airport on a flight from Egypt in late Frbruary 2020. We are all familiar with increased security after 9/11/2001 but I was surprised at the suspicion that I was viewed with from customs/immigration at the airport. Thinking back from now (I am writing this blogpost in 2025) I understand that this is a nation constrantly vigilant. Still, I was taken aback.
I went to my hotel, the venerable King David, named after
the Biblical King David. It is a storied
hotel, opened in 1931 and
built with locally quarried pink limestone It is located on King David Street
in the center of Jerusalem and overlooks the Old City and Mount Zion. Ithas traditionally been the
chosen venue for hosting heads of state, dignitaries, politicians and
celebrities during their visits to Jerusalem.
My first decision was to take myself on a walking tour of
the Old City. Meandering through the old
city was pleasant enough, but after the vigor and verve of Egypt, even the
market and the jumble of streets seems sterile.
It’s impossible to go into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
also known as the Church of the Resurrection, and not be
moved. I lit a candle in the chamber
where Christ’s body was laid out (by tradition) and the display of Golgotha’s
rocks with the opening under the table you can stick your hand in and feel the
air was interesting. (Not sure if you can do this today….) The church was built
in the 4th century in the Christian Quarter of the Old City.
Photo courtesy Britannica
Interior of the church
The mystical business is alive and well in Jerusalem. If you haven’t felt moved before, you surely will be touched by some sense of a Great Being here. The candles, smoke, smells, bells, black garbed ladies, tourists in a trance-like state, scowling priests at imagined heresies, murmured prayers, swinging scepters, etc – all combine to assault the sense, overwhelm reason, remove the mind and overall get you ready for the Holy Spirit to grab you – if you want
One good thing about doing this walking tour of the old city was getting a few
hot tips – such as the info that you can only go to the mosque at the Temple
Mount from 8:30-9:30 a.m. And so, I
did, on Monday early. I wanted to have a
peek at the bar mitzvah’s at the Wailing Wall (also known as the Western Wall) early
on Monday too, but I was disappointed not to see any hoopla, just some small
clusters of people. According to Britannica,
it is the only remains of the retaining wall surrounding the Temple Mount,
which is the site of the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem, held to be
uniquely holy by the ancient Jews. The First Temple was destroyed by the
Babylonians in 587–586 bce, and the Second Temple was destroyed by
the Romans in 70 ce.”
But after running the Israeli gauntlet a few times – inspection of bags and metal-detector-arches both going in and going out – I went up the path to the green door and into Temple Mount.
The Mount is really
spectacular, and the walk that the rocks upon which Mohammed stood were well
illuminated and mystically-visable through a wooden screen. For Muslims, Temple Mount is known as
the Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and is the location where
the Prophet Muhammed’s ascended to heaven. Temple Mount houses the Al-Aqsa
Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, and the Dome of the Rock.
When my hotel-arranged-for guide showed up, he was pissed off that I’d done these things on my own, but I explained that I needed the help of a guide to do the hard things; the easy things I could do on my own! Here is the map of our stops that first day out of Jerusalem.
We drove to Bethlehem
on my insistence. When we got there, we
could not enter. I was horrified to see
the tall fence around the city, but my guide explained that the city was
primarily occupied these days by Palestinians, and they were “contained.” I searched the internet now (June 2025) to
get more clarity, and this is what AI said: “Bethlehem is partially
surrounded by the Israeli West Bank barrier, often referred to as the
separation wall or security fence. This barrier, constructed primarily of
concrete and fencing, is a controversial structure that has sparked significant
debate and impacted the lives of Palestinians in Bethlehem.”
Like most walls that
separate factions, there are protest paintings and notes. These are current ones.
To be fair, this separatism was
the result of the Oslo accords. Briefly
(AI): The Oslo Accords were a pair of agreements signed by Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 1990s, aiming to establish a
framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The first
accord, known as Oslo I, was signed in 1993 and focused on mutual
recognition and a five-year interim period for self-governance. Oslo II, signed
in 1995, further detailed the structure of Palestinian self-rule and expanded
it to other areas of the West Bank. Ultimately, the accords aimed for a
final peace treaty resolving issues like borders, Jerusalem, refugees, and
settlements, but this was never achieved.
Our next stop was Massada; that
was very worthwhile.
Massada is a rugged natural fortress, of majestic beauty, in the Judaean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. It is a symbol of the ancient kingdom of Israel. There, a dramatic event unfolded during the First Jewish-Roman War. After a lengthy siege by the Roman army, the Jewish defenders, rather than surrender, chose to commit mass suicide in 73 or 74 CE. More information at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1040/
It’s a huge hulking rock!
When you get to the top, these
are the ruins that you’ll see.
Image courtesy of UNESCO/
Leila Maziz
You can see the view from
the top of Massada; there is a platform at the top left of the photo. Image courtesy of UNESCO/ Leila Maziz
That’s me, on the viewing
platform!
Here is what the Jewish defenders
saw, when they looked down… huge Roman camps!
Photos courtesy of holylandphotos.org
Today you can take a cable
car to the top, but during the siege, the soldiers created this and other ramps
for their attack.
Massada aerial view; photo courtesy of Andrew Shiva
Overall, the rich experience
of Israel is an armchair experience in fact, because it is the great and many
stories that lend interest to a trip here.
Massada was a good example. From
the top of the “tell”, it was possible to get a really good feel for how
desperate the people felt as they saw the Roman camps increase in numbers and
in size, and the slow and steady construction of the ramp up the mountain. Of all the sights I saw in Israel, this
impressed me the most.
Our next stop was Qumran
National Park. Qumran is an
archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park.
It is located on a dry marl plateau about 1.5 km from the northwestern shore of
the Dead Sea, about 10 km south of the historic city of Jericho.
The ancient city….
According to the World
Heritage Convention of UNESCO, “The site, identified by some scholars with the
biblical “City of Salt”, was occupied mainly during the Greco-Roman period (ca.
150 BC-68 AD). The community that inhabited Qumran is generally identified with
the Essenes, a religious sect, which lived in isolation in this region west of
the Dead Sea.
Qumran became
internationally well known in 1947, when a Palestinian shepherd called Mohammad
al-Theeb discovered in a cave a series of scrolls, which were known later on as
the Dead Sea Scrolls. The cave, then called cave no.1, was excavated in 1949.
Below is a photo of Cave No 4. Scrolls
were found in many caves at Qumran.
The dates of these scrolls
range from the II century BC to 68 AD, but mostly dated from the first century
BC. The study of the Scrolls developed into an academic discipline known as
Qumranic studies. It provides us with valuable information about the history of
Judaism and the early phase of Christianity.
The excavated site is composed by a large complex of buildings,
including communal facilities, a sophisticated water system, a library and a
large cemetery. The Dead Sea Scrolls constitute one of the major archaeological
discoveries of the 20th century. They incorporate the earliest known
manuscripts of the Bible as well as other important historical documents
describing the life of the Essene community. At the same time, they are a main
source for the study of the history of Palestine: the Dead Sea Scrolls have
shed light on Judaism and the roots of Christianity on the shore of the Dead
Sea.
The scrolls, of course, are
no longer in Qumran, but here is what some of them looked like (see above)… For more info on visiting Qumran, go
to https://www.hike-israel.com/nature-in-israel/qumran/
We drove by Jericho, but did
not stop. And silly me, thwarted again by “the region's unique political and
security situation”, as this separation strategy is called. Today, AI
warns anyone who searches that “While some roads are under full Israeli
control, others are in areas governed by the Palestinian Authority. Jericho
itself is within the Palestinian Authority.
So back to the King David Hotel. It was already a full day of driving and time was up.
On our second day out, the guide started with a visit to Bet She’an.
“In the 12th century B.C.
Egyptian rule reached its peak in the country. Bet She'an became a key
administrative center in the north. This house served as the headquarters of
the Egyptian governor. The bathhouse included a square hall (20 x 20 meters)
that served as the frigidarium (cold room). The room's wall and floor were
covered with marble slabs. In one of its walls was a fountain and in the other
walls were niches for statues. Fragments of statues were found in a pit below
the bathhouse; they are a life-sized young Dionysus, a nude Aphrodite, an
emperor wearing armor and an Athena. The main part of the bathhouse contained
rooms and halls, including a caldarium heated by a hypocaust. A large latrine,
with a colonnaded courtyard, had rows of evenly spaced stone toilet seats along
its walls, and drainage channels beneath them.”
Photo and commentary
courtesy of Dennis Jarvis
Excavation is still going on….
Next, we went in the
direction of Nazareth. I must
comment, however, on how fortunate Jesus was to be from Nazareth. It really is the prettiest part of the
country and in these days, one of the best developed agriculturally. The guide
said that most of the irrigated fields we saw, many of them carved out of the
desert area between Jericho and the Sea of Galilee, were the result of hard
work. This view of the Jezreel Valley nearby
Nazareth gives you an idea of the agricultural production here.
Photo courtesy of Jenny Ehrlich
Photo courtesy of Lea Jersonsky
The central terrace has
the Shrine of the Báb, one of the main religious
sites of the Baháʼí Faith.
Photo courtesy of Eitan
Bloch
The Druze villages between
Tiberius and Haifa, in my opinion, are little more than a tourist trap.
Photo courtesy Anglo-list.com
Learn more about the Druze
at https://www.giltravel.com/blog/wonderful-druze-villages-in-israel/
And that’s the end of the
trip.
Four busy days in Israel, and
that’s all I need to see, for the rest of my life. Leaving Israel was an ordeal. I was searched and questioned three times,
and not in a friendly way. I really don’t
think I’ll go back.
