12/30/2013

Day two in the old city.  I had big plans for the day and the tours that I would take.  Unfortunately I had the wrong time and missed the tour that I wanted.  I ended up exploring a bit by myself, I did Rupert’s walk along the top of the walls, 

 

I did a tour of David’s tour. 

It is a museum of Jerusalem history but contains no original items only replicas.  The tower is named King David tower but it was created as part of the second temple and not by King David.  I also went to the Western Wall both in the standard place of prayer and the underground Tunnels where more of the wall is exposed. 

The underground tour was cool and I could see a Mikva from the 1^st Temple. Before my visit to Jerusalem I had thought that the Western Wall was part of the second Temple.  It was not.  It was the Western Wall of the platform that the 2^nd  Temple was built on.  While trying to leave the city I accidently almost walked into a Mosque. People started screaming at me. It was scary.

Facts about the old city:

It has 4 quarters-Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian Christian

The population is mostly Arab(both Muslim and Christian)

All structures are either religious, shops, or houses. 

Every time the city was conquered a new city was built on top of it so there are remnants of all periods buried beneath the current city. 

 
 
 
 
 

The poorest people in the city are the very religious Jews that spend most of the day praying and are supported completely by the charity of other Jewish communities around the world. 

A couple other distinctions that I have made while I have been here: Muslim women of all ages must not let ANY hair show whereas Jewish women only have to have a minimal head covering and not until they are married.  The difference between Halal food and Kosher food is the Kosher laws are more strict in terms of what meat and sea food is allowed and that you can’t eat milk and meat together. Many people consider Kosher laws to be a strict subset of Halal laws. But for the most part, especially in Israel, they are interchangeable.