Temple Mount and Bethlehem

We made it to the temple mount today, after several days of visiting sites very near it! We waited in line about an hour to get in, but it was worth it. The Dome of the Rock is not opened to visitors anymore, but we really enjoyed walking around it and seeing the temple grounds.

As we waited in line, it was fun taking more pictures of the city wall and the pretty spring flowers. It was also less painful than when we're queueing on our own, because Daniel explained things while we waited. It dulled the pain of line standing!

The Al-Aqsa mosque is also closed to the public, but I suppose that just saved us a lot of time standing in line!

There were so many beautiful architectural features on the mount, mostly not from the time of Christ because things from 2000 years ago are buried. How does that happen? You don't dust for a couple of years and forget your house was there?

Daniel showed us where the temple was actually located to the side of the Dome of the Rock.

Ed was asked to demonstrate the goat sacrifice that was allowed to escape into the city. He put his heart and soul into the act, but ended up being a 'scapegoat' anyway!

We left the city through the Lion Gate. We're been here long enough that we're getting to actually know our way around and the names of the different gates (somewhat)!

Our next stop was the Israeli Museum where they have a scale model of the old city at the time of Christ. It was really interesting, took us back in time, where we could see the second temple before it was destroyed in 70 A.D.

They also had a really nice display of the dead sea scrolls in the museum. This roof is supposed to simulate the pottery in which the scrolls were found.

We had some yummy schnitzel sandwiches delivered, and we ate on the bus to save time as we drove to our next site.

We were happy to see we got the same yummy candy bars we had a few days ago in our lunch. They are like a Kit Kat Twix bar. I wish I could read Hebrew to see what the name of it is!

Our next stop was Bet Shemesh, where I think Crystal played the part of a sacrificial maiden, but I'm not sure, as sometimes I zone out in the middle of the story! Fortunately, she was not sacrificed!

The Bible story that happened here was Samson and Delilah. That's an interesting story, if you read the unabridged version! We also enjoyed getting close to a herd of sheep for the first time!

Moving on to the Valley of Elah, we heard the story of David and Goliath. Daniel gave us all slingshots, and we had lots of fun seeing how far we could launch a rock! It was like rock skimming without a stream!

Ken looks like he could have had a good shot at taking out Goliath!

After having a little fun, we settled down and talked about some of the advantages David had going into the fight. One, he knew the Lord would be with him, and two, he knew the Lord had blessed him with a terrific aim!

Next we went up to Bethlehem to the church of the Nativity. It had not benefited much from being in the West Bank, and was in a pretty sad state of disrepair. Hopefully, the restoration efforts will be nice, but it seems discombobulated, being shared by three different churches.

We went down into the grotto where St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin. This was the first step in making the Bible more accessible to the people although it was a long time before the printing press!

We didn't see the grotto of the supposed birth of Christ, as the line was really long!

We ended the day visiting the National Diamond Center. We learned that cutting and selling diamonds is Israel's 2nd busiest industry! After we saw the prices we derided to forgo purchasing any diamonds in favor of taking another big trip like this one!