You Are Not Allowed To Do This…

But the results are spectacular.

These photographs capture the views from the  top of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

A group of Russian tourists waited until  official visiting hours were over at Egypt’s famous Giza Necropolis, before  scaling the enormous Great Pyramid as the sun began to set.

The Russians managed to escape the attention  of security guards at the ancient site, allowing photographer Vitaliy Raskalov  to snap pictures of the surrounding desert and the majestic Sphinx from the top  of the 455ft structure…

Rest here.

 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Row Over Water Bill

And their bank account blocked:

Standoff over unpaid water bill could result in closure of revered church believed to be site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial.

The Guardian:

One of the most venerated sites in the Christian faith, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried and resurrected, is facing a financial crisis over an unpaid water bill in a row that could result in its closure.

The church, which attracts more than 1 million pilgrims each year, has been issued with a 9m shekel (£1.5m) water bill, backdated 15 years to when the supply was taken over by a new company, Hagihon.

As a result of the church’s failure to pay, Hagihon has secured the freezing of the bank account of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, which is jointly responsible for the church’s administration.

The standoff was confirmed by the spokesman for Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, following a report in the Israeli paper Maariv. “It is completely true,” Issa Musaleh told the Guardian. “They have frozen our account. This is a flagrant act against the church.”

According to Maariv, the move has resulted in standing orders being rejected and cheques bouncing. Services which have been affected include telephones, internet and electricity, as well as companies supplying food.

“The church is completely paralysed. We can’t pay for toilet paper. Nothing. Hagihon has declared war on us,” a Patriarchate official told Maariv…

Read on here.

Thousands of Christian pilgrims and tourists jostle each day inside the gloomily lit spaces beneath the church’s dome. Despite the chaotic queues for the most revered sites within the church and the cacophony of chanting priests, tour guides and camera-clicking tourists, for many it is a deeply emotional and spiritual experience.

The original church was built on the site of Jesus’s crucifixion, which was then outside the city walls, in the fourth century.

 

The Dead Sea Will Live Again

Via Wayne Stiles:

Piles of driftwood, bleached white like old bones, surround the shoreline.

If bodies of water could be ghost towns, the Dead Sea would top the list. It’s the lowest place on earth, it’s the hottest spot in Israel, and nothing visible can live in its waters.

(Photo: Sunrise over the Dead Sea. Courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)

With a name like the “Dead Sea,” one might expect a disappointing visit. And yet, anyone who experiences the place never forgets its wonder.

Nothing on earth compares…

Read the rest here.

 

See the Holy Land

Günther Simmermacher, who is the editor of The Southern Cross, kindly sent me a link to the site See the Holy Land. It caused me to have less sleep than I would have liked to have had last night… I simply got lost in looking at all the sites in the Holy Land, and thus make the recommendation that you too go have a look-see:

Welcome to Seetheholyland.net. We hope it will encourage you to go as a pilgrim to this place where three faiths believe God entered into a relationship with the human race.

For our purpose, the Holy Land encompasses the places in the Middle East that are mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. It includes Israel and the Palestinian Territories, western Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and southern Syria.

Three points of explanation should be made:

• Seetheholyland.net looks at the sacred sites from a Christian perspective but with respect for the beliefs and traditions of all faiths. In the interests of modern Christian pilgrims, the focus is mainly on sites of the New Testament.

• We seek to be factual rather than pious. We aim to present well-researched articles written in a down-to-earth style that avoids the hype and — to coin a word — sanctimentality that descriptions of holy places sometimes employ.

• The development of this website has been prompted by a desire to inform and encourage pilgrims to the Holy Land, especially from the southern hemisphere, rather than by commercial interests. Travel agents who organise pilgrimages to the Holy Land are offered free listings, but without endorsement…

More here. Enjoy. And long for the next time to get to go to the Holy Land!

Archaeologists Discover First Temple Era Water Cistern in Jerusalem

The large reservoir is believed to have been used by pilgrims to the Temple Mount who required water for bathing and drinking.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

A large water reservoir dating to the First Temple period was uncovered  during archaeological excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities  Authority (IAA), in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority,  near Robinson’s Arch in Jerusalem.

The excavation which exposed  the reservoir is part of ongoing efforts to map ancient Jerusalem’s  entire drainage channel. The findings, together with other discoveries  from the past year, will be presented on Thursday at the 13th annual  conference on the “City of David Studies of Ancient Jerusalem.”

The recently discovered reservoir, with an approximate capacity of 250  cubic meters, is one of the largest water reservoirs ever discovered  from the First Temple period. Due to its size, archaeologists believe  the reservoir was designed for and used by the general public.

According to Eli Shukron, the excavation director on behalf of the Israel  Antiquities Authority, “the exposure of the current reservoir, as well  as smaller cisterns that were revealed along the Tyropoeon Valley,  unequivocally indicates that Jerusalem’s water consumption in the First  Temple period was not solely based on the output of the Gihon Spring  water works, but also on more available water resources such as the one  we have just discovered.”

Dr. Tvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist of  the Nature and Parks Authority and an expert on ancient water systems,  presumed that “the large water reservoir, which is situated near the  Temple Mount, was used for the everyday activities of the Temple Mount  itself and also by the pilgrims who went up to the Temple and required  water for bathing and drinking.”

She added that the reservoir’s  general characteristics typify the First Temple period and resemble  ancient water systems previously found near Beersheva, Arad and Bet  Shemesh.

Upon completion of the excavations, the IAA will examine the possibility of turning the water reservoir into a tourist  attraction.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre: Two Online Resources

Via Bible X:

ATS pro Terra Sancta have a couple of publications that they have placed online related to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The Holy Sepulchre: The Pilgrim’s New Guide. This is a small book containing some attractive pictures and helpful diagrams. You can access it here. I have included a screen capture of one of the book’s diagrams below.

The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This short four-page flyer can be accessed here.

The Holyland Magazine

The Holyland Magazine is now online with earlier editions also available.

An enjoyable read. Makes one long for the Holy Land.

HT

 

$100 Million for Biblical Tourism in Jerusalem

Bible Places Blog has some good news:

On the 45th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification, the Prime Minister’s cabinet approved spending nearly $100 million to develop sites in the city. The Jerusalem Post has limited details:

Tourism in Jerusalem dominated the agenda at the meeting, where the cabinet approved NIS 350 million over the next seven years to develop sites and infrastructure in the capital, with a focus on biblical tourism. Israel hosted 2.8 million foreign visitors in 2011.

Eighty percent of them visited Jerusalem and 30% stayed at least one night in the city.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, every million tourists add NIS 5.5 billion to the economy and create 30,500 jobs.

Approximately NIS 20m. of the tourism funding will be directed toward the Mount of Olives Cemetery.

The plan is to renovate 15,000 graves and install 150 security cameras to stop desecration and stoning attacks.

Part of the money will also go to improve the “green lung” of Jerusalem’s parks and open spaces.

The money will be used to develop the Slopes of Mount Scopus national park, next to the Arab neighborhood of Isawiya, which residents oppose because it will stop their neighborhood from expanding.

Netanyahu tasked the Jerusalem Development Authority with overseeing the development of biblical tourism sites. “[The money] will enable us to build biblical sites in the city that will enhance and explain our link to the land of the Bible, to Zion, and also allow millions of people, no less, millions of people to have a direct appreciation of Israel’s heritage as it finds expression in the Bible,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

The full story is here.

Cemetery on Mount of Olives (source)

Prison Makes Way for the Holy Land’s Oldest Church

The Biblical Archaeology Society reports:

Despite the great deal of fanfare surrounding its discovery, the third century C.E. Christian prayer hall discovered at Megiddo looks like anything but an archaeological tourist site. Likely the oldest church ever found in the Holy Land, it is located under the Megiddo prison, leading the spectacular discovery to be covered up again until the site can be developed properly. Plans have been made to relocate the prison just over a mile to the west, but the construction of a tourist site around the church has not yet begun. An international tender seeking out an investor to construct and manage the tourist site is expected this week, and will serve as a major step in making the site available to the public. Project manager Gad Yaakov expects 500,000 tourists to visit the site in the first year alone, and expects the numbers to rise over the following years. Bids on developing the site for tourists must be submitted by June 5.

The structure featured mosaics with Christian symbols such as fish and a dedicatory inscription “to God Jesus Christ.” Dated to around 230 C.E., the find was considered important enough to Israel President Moshe Katsav that when he visited Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in November 2005, he took pictures of the newly discovered mosaic floor with him to present to the pontiff.

This mosaic from the Megiddo Prison Church is one step closer to the public eye. This week’s expected tender for development bids is a major step in creating what will surely become a major Biblical and archaeological tourist site.

Read more about the tender for development.

 

Off the Beaten Track: City of David

There’s no better place this Passover to explore new excavations that have so much to do with the holiday.

Joe Yudin writes in the Jerusalem Post:

… Starting this Passover you will be able to walk the entire distance from the Shiloach (Siloam) Pool to the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. If you go before Passover begins you can walk from through the tunnels from the Givati parking lot to the Western Wall.

There are terrific guided tours given by staff at the national park. Start your tour with the 3-D movie, which gives a wonderful recreation of the City of David from Canaanite times through the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.

Go up to the roof for a terrific view of the Temple Mount and surrounding area. From there make your way down below the ticket area by way of a metal staircase between the movie theater and the ticket booth. Here you will find a huge public building complex dating back to the time of King David, uncovered by Eilat Mazar in 2005. She contends that this is the remains of the palace of King David and we can be almost certain that later Kings of Judah ruled from this spot.

Several clay seals where found in this excavation bearing names in biblical Hebrew. Notice the large stone walls from the 9th and 10th centuries BCE and the ritual baths from the later Maccabean period, then make your way down to the Area G excavations on the far side of the “palace.” Here you can view the older excavations from the 1960’s and before.

Make your way all the way down to Warren’s Shaft and you can check out the excavations of the Israelite and Canaanite underground water systems which have been explored and excavated since 1867. Near Warren’s Shaft you can see the difference between the Israelite renovations of the tunnel at your level and the original Canaanite tunnel above you.

After turning the corner you will see some relatively new excavations. In 1995 archaeologists Reich and Shukron began excavating the “Spring House” and discovered an interconnecting complex of a tower, fortress, reservoir, walls and tunnels that may have been the entry point for David’s soldiers led by Yoav (Joab) in his conquest of the Jebusites.

Go down the spiral staircase and either walk through King Hezekiah’s water tunnel (bathing suit, flashlights and water shoes required) or the adjacent Canaanite water tunnel (well lit and now dry) which was a part of the newly-discovered tower complex.

Both tunnels will eventually take you to the Shiloach Pool if you follow the signs.
In 2004, while fixing a sewer pipe, construction workers stumbled upon some long stairs a few dozen meters from where the Byzantines believed was the Shiloach Pool.

Reich and Shukron’s excavations uncovered what we now know is the pool, an important site for both Jews and Christians. For Jews this was the first stop for those coming to Jerusalem from abroad, on their way up to the Temple for the Passover sacrifice. It was here, after coming out of the desert, that they could cleanse themselves and start the ascent up to the Temple Mount.

For Christians, this site takes on another meaning. When Jesus comes to Jerusalem for the Passover sacrifice, he comes upon a blind man in Jerusalem he spits on the ground and using the spit-mud, rubs it in the man’s eyes and tells him “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam…He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing (John 9:7).”

Walk west up the hill, up the stairs just after the pool and there is a metal door. Inside you will find a narrow portion of a giant stairway built in the time of King Herod which heads all the way up to the Temple Mount. If you were to come here 2,000 years ago there would be nothing but sky up above you but today there are layers of destroyed civilizations, all from different periods of Jerusalem’s history above you. Just to the right of the stairway is a sewer with some of the stone coverings broken open. Inside Ronny Reich found remnants of the Jewish rebels battle against the Romans in the year 70 CE.

Go around the corner and check out the artist’s rendition of the pool and continue around the corner. Here is a terrific map that shows the path of the road and the drainage channel that reaches the Western Wall. The road was once lined with shops, including moneychangers, sellers of animals for the sacrifice and ritual baths. Today you may walk underground through this tunnel all the way to the Western Wall at the Davidson Center just as Jewish pilgrims once did when the Temple was still standing.