Free Walking Tour of Jerusalem

I'm a sucker for free walking tours.

After waking up before dawn and sightseeing all day I thought the 5 PM walking tour of the Old City would be a good idea. Fortunately, it was. If it wasn't, though, I could have simply walked away at any point.

This tour was much smaller than the one the day before -- only 17 people instead of more than twice as many. Hilo, our guide, conducted the tour in both English and Spanish giving me a chance to catch up on notes as she switched languages.

King David established Jerusalem about 3,000 years ago. He decided there should be ONE capital for the twelves tribes, and this was it. While I was on this tour, Julie was taking the City of David tour, which she said was excellent.

The walls were built by the Ottomans 500 years ago. Things like this always look so much older. About 10% of people in Israel live in Jerusalem (900,000 people).

We started at the Jaffa Gate. If we followed the road away from Jaffa Gate, it would take us to Tel Aviv. A couple of days later when I was in Tel Aviv and saw Old Jaffa City, it clicked. After those on pilgrimages landed in Tel Aviv at the old port, it would have been a two to three day walk along Israel's main street to Jerusalem. There are eight gates into the Old City. I saw three of them. This is the only one with two gates.

Why are there two gates at Jaffa? Today one is for cars and the other one is for pedestrians. When King Wilhelm from Germany came with his carriage the carriage did not fit through the gate. As the Ottomans built the wall so he could visit, a modification was needed. 

This tour focused on the four quarters:
Jewish
Christian
Arab / Muslim
Armenian

Armenian Quarter

The Armenian Quarter is the smallest of the four. It has a number of ceramic shops. The Armenians are the first nation to convert to Christianity. In the third century they came to Jesus's Holy Land and stayed. In the 16th century the Ottomans divided the city into four quarters. Today they have their own education system and marry within. In general, they are a private group. Their entrances are hidden. We walked along Ararat Street -- named to remind people of Noah's Ark, to remind them of home.

You see a lot of Jewish people in the Armenian quarter because it is a cut-through to the Jewish quarter.

Jewish Quarter

Most Jews living here are extremely holy. They want to be near the holy sites. It is highly inconvenient to live here because you can't park your car near your home (think about that while unloading groceries). There are no yards or open spaces, and you are always annoyed by tourists (*blushing,* it is true). You can tell it is the Jewish Quarter because of the mezuzahs hanging on the right side of the doorways to mark the home as belonging to a Jewish family.

We passed through a place a few steps below street level. Hilo said it was where the Romans had their market 2000 years ago after they destroyed the second temple in 70 AD. Talk about history coming to life! We gathered on Caldo Street -- Caldo means heart. The area was covered up until about 50 years ago. Today the area boasts Roman columns and a wide street.

Our guide (not talking politics, only talking about history) said a concrete wall went up in the Old City separating the area from Jordan. The wall lasted nineteen years, and destroyed many Jewish homes. Afterwards the Jewish section was rebuilt, which is why this new part of town does not have dangling wires.

Hilo showed us a painting that depicts the "City of Creation" that shows how the city looked in the 6th century.

We saw the wall that was the outside wall. Amazing to think it was built before machinery.

Hilo talked bout the outfits we see various Jewish men wearing. According to her, 40% of the Jews in Israel are religious, but there are over 100 different types of Jews. Thirty percent of them are light Orthodox (wear kippahs, have secular friends). Only 10% are Orthodox Jews (like the man who wouldn't sit next to me on the Sherat from the airport). They wear black hats, and fur hats even in the summer; they are very traditional. They wear a black box on their foreheads to aid with praying. They have eight white strings with knots on their undershirts. Women cover their elbows and knees, and wear skirts. They eschew modern life, including the internet, TV, and smart phones. I can't imagine living that way.

Arab / Muslim Quarter

Approximately 5000 years ago Abraham came to the present day Dome of the Rock with his son Isaac to sacrifice him. This is the holiest of holy sites, the place where the three major monotheistic religions believe the world was created.

King Solomon built his temple there 3000 years ago.

The Babylonians destroyed his temple

The Israelis built the second temple here.

The Romans arrived.

The Western Wall is called the Western Wall because it was on the west side. 

In the 7th century Mohammed came here to the edge of the mosque on a pilgrimage. He tied his horse here and walked to where Isaac ascended into heaven 

Take all of this with a grain of salt, and remember someone sleep deprived was scribbling notes she is trying to decipher more than a month later.

As we entered the Muslim Quarter we passed armed guards. By this point I was so used to seeing armed guards, had the guide not pointed them out, I would not have noticed them even though they were right next door to a school.

Walked along the main street (I believe we are talking about the via Dolorosa). On the first first floor are Arab shops, above which are Jewish homes. 

The Muslim homes stand out because they have wires running all over the place. Electricity was invented long after these places were built. People tend to live here from generation to generation. If you see a mezuzah, that is a sign a Jewish family lives there even though it is the Muslim quarter.

Most of the via Dolorosa is in the Muslim Quarter. This is the street where many of the points on the Station of the Cross exist. It leads to the Church of the Holy Selpuchre.

Christian Quarter

Three hundred years after Christ's birth Constantine's mother, Queen Helena went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to identify the places where Jesus lived and died and was resurrected. The result is the via Dolorosa and Church of the Holy Selpuchre, which I covered in THIS post.

The area was built in the 4th century, destroyed, and rebuilt by Crusaders in the 11th century. Parts of it are owned by different groups today. I will defer to more knowledgeable sources, only to say it explains why there is a lack of continuity in architectural styles. Each group must agree before changes are made. Anyone who has sat on a church committee (of only one faith) knows that is an impossible task. There is a Muslim family on staff who opens and closes the door every day.

There are no signs inside the church telling you what you are seeing because it is a church and not a museum.

Inside the Christian Quarter is the Mosque of Omar -- a Muslim place of worship for the locals. 

It is that kind of city.