Jerusalem is divided into two parts, the Old City and the New City, with a total population of around 147,000. The new part is surprisingly modern, in fact as much so as Tel Aviv. It is very clean, the buildings are new-looking and the streets and sidewalks broad. Old Jerusalem is the part of the city within the old Turkish wall that was built in 1541.
As we entered Jerusalem we drove through the new portion of the city to the fine new YMCA building and there met the Red Cross girls who were to arrange our tours. Lt. Shira and myself had heard that the best way to get around and see everything in the shortest time was to get together a small group of three or four and hire a private guide. So we began looking for a third person, and our victim was an army chaplain whose home is in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., but who was then stationed in Florence, Italy. His name was Major W. R. Phinney. He was a very nice fellow to go around with and didn't mind my stopping now and then to take pictures, since he was a camera fiend himself. In fact he carried two cameras with him at all times, one for black and white and one for color... So about 10:30 a.m., Wily, Chaplin Phinney and myself started out with a private guide to see the town.
We naturally headed for the Old City, and we entered the wall through the Jaffa Gate. This gate is one of the famous eight in the wall, the others being the New, the Damascus, the Herod, the St. Stephens, the Golden (walled), the Dung, and the Zion.
Practically all of the historic area of the Holy City of Jerusalem is located in the Old City, and though one might be surprised at the "modernness" of the New City, the old portion is all one would expect, and looks just like its pictures. It is a maze of narrow, high-walled, cobbled streets (or alleys) with worn steps every now and then ascending or descending to different levels, and many arches overhead. All except the very main streets are too narrow for any mode of transportation other than donkeys, but of donkeys there are plenty, and also goats and sheep. The sides of many of these narrow passage ways are lined with little native shops or bazaars selling everything from food to bright colored textiles. We saw one section that appeared to be a native slaughter house, because they were cutting up freshly killed goat meat and had piles of fresh entrails and goat heads lying around. In another spot we saw goat skins being scraped, softened and cured, all by hand of course, and in a very primitive way. Practically all of these little shops in Old Jerusalem are run by the Moslems (the Arabs), and I noticed as soon as I saw them how much more colorful and even somewhat cleaner they were than the Arabs in the native section of Cairo. In Cairo practically all of the women wear solid black dresses, hoods and veils, but in the Holy Land, and especially in Jerusalem, the women were brightly dressed in whites, red, blues and even those in black usually had some red embroidery in their shawls. They word the same style of dress of course -- ankle length with a shawl over their heads and around their shoulders -- but they were more picturesque. We saw very few of the half-face veils so typical of Egypt, and many more of the type that completely covered the face.
The first thing of historic interest that we visited in Old Jerusalem was the "Wailing Wall." It is a portion of an old wall that once surrounded Solomon's temple, and for hundreds of years Jews have been making pilgrimages there in memory of the destruction of the temple, and the downfall of the Jewish nation. There were several Jewish people "wailing" while we were there. Some young women, some old, several men with beards and wearing long ragged black coats and Mormon style black hats. And they were all leaning up against the wall and chanting or "wailing" as they read from old books written in Hebrew. They surely sounded like they'd lost their last friend. Very interesting.
We then visited what is know as the temple area. It is supposedly the place where Abraham offered his son in sacrifice 2,000 years B. C., and the site of Solomon's temple, built a thousand years later. Then in 590 B. C. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon's temple and soon after, Zerubbabel's temple was erected. About 20 B. C., the third, or Herod's temple, was begun, and this was the famous one known to Christ, the one from which He chased the money chanters. At present the Mosque of Omar, built in 700 A. D., occupies the area, and the dome of this mosque is sometimes called the "dome of the rock" because under it is a large, natural stone that Mohammedan legend claims marks the center of the world and rests on the topmost branches of a palm tree from whose roots flow all the rivers of the world. It is also claimed to be the exact spot upon which Abraham offered his son.
After a look at the temple area, our guide took us along the "Way of the Cross," or the "Via Dolorosa," which is the route that Christ followed as He carried His cross from Pontius Pilate's pretorium to the hill on which He was crucified. The "fourteen stations" were marked along the route, and as we came to each one, the guide pointed it out, and gave us a brief story about it.
As we followed the Via Dolorosa and finally entered the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which now covers the spot of the crucifixion of Christ and the tomb in which His body laid, I saw what so many people have criticized about Jerusalem. It has been commercialized so much that it is hard for people to actually be moved very much by it. When I say commercialized, I don't mean in the way of advertisements and admissions, etc., but instead I mean that it seems to me they have tried too hard to make it attractive to tourists by building altars and shrines over every little individual spot that is considered important. Everything is built up very beautifully, with many lights, paintings, marble floors, colored glass windows, statues, jeweled crosses, etc. and then in the middle of it all will be a little round piece of glass fastened in the floor about six inches in diameter, through which can be seen a rough portion of the rock under the church, which the guide proceeds to tell us is the spot on which Christ was crucified; and a short distance away, still within the big church, we enter a small shiny marble room along one side of which a very smooth and perfectly turned stone sepulcher. Above it are 13 oil lamps hung by chains, and on the walls around it are colored tapestries. The guide then tells us that Christ's body was removed from the cross and placed in a sepulcher in a nearby garden, and this is the sepulcher ... Speaking for myself, I would have been more moved had I been able to see the garden.
And yet to some people these individual spots are considered very holy. But to me a certain specific spot is not important, because no one knows for sure the specific spot anyway; instead, the general location of Christ's various activities is all that's important and interesting to me, and instead of worshiping a particular spot because that is where He stood at a particular time, I would rather worship Him and what He stood for -- and just use the historic locations to refresh in my memory some of the things He did, and approximately where and under what circumstances He did them ... At any rate, it was very interesting to see it all, because I got an idea of the general layout of the area.
We ate lunch at the YMCA at 12:30, and then had planned to hire a cab for the three of us and our guide for the afternoon tour. Instead the Red Cross girls informed us they had an empty G.I. truck not in use, so we accepted their invitation to use it and started out for the Mount of Olives. ... This to me was more impressive than the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It lies east of the city, overlooking the old part of Jerusalem to the west, and by looking east from the top of it, one can see the Dead sea. It yields a wonderful view, and the sides of it are dotted with olive trees that actually look old enough to date back to Christ's time. When you get on top you actually can visualize Christ coming up there to pray. It too is covered with small churches and shrines of various faiths, but still, as long as one stays out of them and on the open mountain top itself, he finds it quite impressive. On the highest point (I believe it is the highest), we saw a little Moslem mosque, not fancy, not decorated up at all, and no door, inside of which is the rock from which it is claimed Christ ascended into heaven. And in the middle of the rock is a small depression which some consider to be Christ's footprint; and this particular spot, although covered by a rough little Mohammedan mosque, also seemed more realistic and impressive to me than if it had been covered by a large church and fixed up with heavy large doors and lights and marble and richly decorated altars.
From the Mount of Olives we descended again to the Garden of Gethsemane which is located at the foot of the mount and faces the Golden Gate in the old wall of Jerusalem. As you recall, it was here that Jesus did so much of His praying, and here also He was betrayed and alter captured by the Roman soldiers to be taken and tried before Herod and Pilate. They say He was taken by the Romans from the garden through the Golden Gate to Pilate, and after that the gate was sealed and has remained so to this day. I believe the Jewish religion claims that their Messiah will some day come through that gate. The Garden of Gethsemane was also beautiful and impressive to me, although the actual garden area has been cut down to a small plot about 30 yards square, and the rest of the area has been covered by the large Church of Agony. In the garden we saw the old gnarled and twisted olive trees which are supposed to be 2,000 years old, and I believe it. They certainly look it. I took some colored shots of the garden with these old olive trees surrounded by flowers, and if I gave the right exposure, the slides should be very pretty. Inside the church we saw again the fancy paintings, the multi-colored ceiling, the stained windows, the marble floors and the very rich altars. In front of the main altar and surrounded by a railing was a rock about four or five feet square on which they claim Christ was kneeling to pray when He was captured. -- Wilbert.
(To be continued.)