MOUNT OF OLIVES
Read moreTo the east of the old town, the Mount of Olives (808 m) is a very important site for the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions. According to tradition, this mountain is associated with the end of time, which explains the presence of cemeteries on its slopes since ancient times. It is home to the oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in the world on its western side. The 150,000 tombs that cover this part of the mountain give it its white colour. According to Jewish tradition, the Messiah, who will bring the resurrection of the dead, will first pass through the Mount of Olives before entering Jerusalem.
Located at the foot of the mountain, the tomb of the Virgin Mary, is the first Christian site you will encounter from Derech Yerikho. The chapel was built by the Crusaders in the 12th century, on the site of an older building.
Next to it, and still at the level of Derech Yerikho, are successively the Garden of Gethsemane, or Garden of Olives, and the Basilica of the Agony. It was in the garden of Gethsemane that Jesus gathered the night before his arrest. Eight olive trees planted more than 2,000 years ago are carefully preserved. The Basilica of the Agony (Basilica Agoniae Domini), which dates from 1924, succeeded three other buildings. It reminds us of Jesus' prayer and his suffering to the point of blood. The name Church of All Nations also pays tribute to the many countries that financed its construction.
The start of the ascent to the top via the nearby street passes by the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene with its golden domes, built in 1886 by Tsar Alexander III.
Immediately above it is the Dominus Flevit Chapel. Built in 1955, it is located where Jesus would have wept before entering Jerusalem, predicting its destruction; hence its name, which in Latin means "the Lord wept".
At the end of the street, before the flight of stairs that leads to the top of the mountain, you can visit the tombs of the prophets (Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi) in an underground cavity indicated on your right.
The Pater Noster Church or Eleona (from the Greek eliaon, meaning "olive grove") was built in 1106 by the Crusaders on the site where Jesus is said to have taught the prayer of the "Our Father" to his disciples. Together with the Church of Saint Anne, the Tomb of the Kings and the Benedictine Abbey of Abu Gosh, it is part of the four French territories of Jerusalem.
Continuing in the first part of the Arab village of at-Tur you will reach the church (now mosque) of Ascension. This building, originally built in Byzantine times, on the site where Jesus is said to have ascended to heaven, was rebuilt by the Crusaders in the 12th century. It was during the Ottoman period that the church was converted into the Ascension Mosque and a minaret was added. In the building, we can see a trace preserved on the ground; according to a legend, it is the imprint of a step that Jesus left before ascending to heaven.
Returning to the stairs that brought you to the top of the Mount of Olives and walking a hundred meters, you can admire the city from the viewpoint named after the Israeli minister Rehava'am Ze'evi who was assassinated in Jerusalem in 2001.
CITY OF DAVID - JERUSALEM ARCHEOLOGICAL PARK
Read moreThe visit can begin with the screening of a short 3 D film depicting the history of Jérusaem and the City of David, for which you will have to pay an extra fee. This is not a necessity, however, because the site's interest is primarily the discovery of the different areas on foot.
The City of David, the subject of archaeological excavations since 1850, is the oldest site in Jerusalem. It was built on the ancient colony David conquered here about 3 000 years ago. From the observation terrace located near the entrance, you can see the geostrategic importance of the sites. We distinguish between the two valleys that demarcate the hill and the mountains that surround it on all sides: the Temple Mount in the north, the mount des Oliviers to the east, Mount Sion to the west and the crest of Hanatsiv Hanatsiv to the south.
A little below, you arrived in the Royal City, a zone where, at the time of the first Temple, houses were found, all of which suggest that they were inhabited by notables (especially because there was a return to private toilets). In the basement of one of these houses, we also found about fifty clay seals on which names in ancient Hebrew are engraved. These names include the name of «Gemaria ben Shafan», a royal scribe quoted by the Prophet Jeremiah (Chapter 36, verse 10). The royal quarter was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. During the first period of the Second Temple, a new wall of the city was built upstream of this excavation area, placing the ruins of the Royal City outside the limits of Jerusalem.
The route then leads to an underground tunnel (secret tunnel) which leads to the Source source at the foot of the hill, which was the main source of water supply for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This tunnel allowed the Jébuséens (residents of Jerusalem before King David was taken by King David) to join the source in case of siege without being seen by their enemies. It is also certainly through this tunnel that David took the city.
The cananéen tunnel passes next to the top of Warren's well, a large natural well dug in the rock and discovered by English Charles Warren in 1867. It descends up to the height of the source. In order to allow a large number of people to draw them simultaneously, the waters of the source were gathered in a vast basin, surmounted by fortified towers.
You will then be able to borrow the 533 m long Ezéchias tunnel which, after a journey of about 30 minutes, will take you to Silwan Pool or Shiloach Pool (Kings Basin). It is here that, according to the Christian tradition, Jesus would have healed a blind man. The tunnel is filled with water, which arrives in place up to the size: plan shoes and clothes in function and what you change. A flashlight can also be useful. If you don't want to wet, you can still ride through the cananéen tunnel. The purpose of this underground passage, built around 700 BC by the king of Judée Ezéchias, was to lead the waters of the Gihon in a basin located inside the walls, at the southern end of the city. In 1880, an inscription was discovered showing that the tunnel was dug by two teams moving to the other.
From Kings basin, it is possible to return to the entrance of the site on foot. Prefer to borrow the Pilgrim's path, another 700-metre dry tunnel, which leads to the excavation area opposite the main entrance of the site or, according to your choice, at the foot and at the end of the western wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem Archeologikal Park (this last exit was opened in 2015). This tunnel is an ancient street in stairs from the end of the Second temple period.
GARDEN TOMB
Read moreYou will discover, in a peaceful setting reminiscent of an English garden, a double cave where many Protestants are the tomb of Christ, unlike Catholics and Orthodox people who think it is in the Holy Sepulchre. It was the British Charles Gordon who, in 1883, began excavations at this place that would correspond to Jean's description (19: 41): «There was a garden at the place where he was crucified, and in this garden a new tomb. " However, according to archaeologists, this senatorial tomb of the th century B.C., which does not correspond to the "nine" sepulchre to which the Gospels refer.
MOUNTAIN SION
Read moreSouth of the Old Town, Mount Zion rises to 765 m and boasts sites revered by both the Jewish and Christian religions. Here are the main sites to see on this emblematic mountain.
King David's tomb is a sacred site of Judaism and a place of pilgrimage for centuries. When access to the Wailing Wall was forbidden to Jews after the 1948 war, it was here that they came to pray.
The Cenacle is a highly symbolic place in Christianity, since Jesus is said to have shared his last meal with his disciples here. In 1335, the Franciscans erected a beautiful sanctuary with intersecting ribbed arches.
Next door is theemblematic Abbey of the Dormition, built in 1898 by the German Benedictine order on the presumed site of the Virgin Mary's death. Its circular interior is remarkable for its simplicity and beauty. In the crypt are the remains of the Byzantine church of Hagia Maria Sionand the Crusader church of Mount Sion.
In the Christian cemetery below, you can see the grave of Oskar Schindler (1908-1974), the Austrian industrialist who saved more than 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, and to whom American director Steven Spielberg dedicated his film Schindler's List (1982).
On the eastern slope, the church of Saint-Pierre en Gallicante, a sanctuary of the Assumptionist Fathers, recalls the three denials of Peter. According to Catholic tradition, this church, built in 1931 over the ruins of a Byzantine edifice, houses the prison where Jesus was confined after his arrest.
ZEDEKIAH'S CAVE
Read moreThis cave, discovered accidentally in 1854, was identified as the one by which King Zedekiah (Zedekias), the last king of Judah, tried to flee to Jericho before the Chaldéennes armies, before the destruction of the First Temple. The cave is also known as the "Solomon quarry" because stones extracted here would have been used to build the Temple of King Solomon.
MONT SCOPUS
Read moreTo the northeast, Mount Scopus( Hebrew:Har HaTsofim ) towers 820 m above the Holy City, offering a superb view of the Old City and the Judean hills. This strategic point was used by all the armies that attempted to conquer Jerusalem. The British cemetery is located here, where the soldiers who fell in 1917 are buried. Today, however, it is primarily a university center, with the campus of the Hebrew University, founded in 1925. Mount Scopus is also home to Israel's most important botanical garden, and the tomb of Nicanor of Alexandria.