Unfortunately, I wasn't always able to do as little as I might have liked. Within about a week of my arrival, one of Michal's roommates started asking pointed questions about how long I'd be staying (the other roommate is cool). Hoping to avoid precipitating a confrontation so soon after my arrival, Michal and I agreed that I should take a trip away from Jerusalem for a few days.
Right, we agreed. That's the party line and I'm stickin' to it. In any case, it was off to Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
Tel Aviv is the modern, fast paced and international counterpart to Jerusalem. It's a great place for the rich, young and beautiful to get drunk. As such, it doesn't have much to offer the budget backpacker.
The skyscrapers of Tel Aviv rise north of the old city of Jaffa.
Jaffa, on the other hand, is a nice little port city just a few kilometers south of downtown Tel Aviv. It is one of the oldest ports in the world: archeological evidence indicates the central hill has been occupied since around 7,500 B.C.E. Its natural harbor has been in use since the Bronze Age and its conquest is mentioned in an Egpytian letter dating to 1,440 B.C.E. It is also mentioned several times in the Old Testament, most memorably as the port of entry for the Lebanon cedars used in the construction of the second temple in Jerusalem. It was also the first stop in the Holy Land for most European pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, etc.
A panorama from the seawall. Click to view giant.
Unfortunately, nearly 10,000 years of continuous occupation tends to bury and destroy previous contructions. This here is.. a wall. It's a couple of thousand years old, but underneath it is.. another wall! An older wall! Riiight.
Imagine here the triumphal entry to the Egyptian fort that guarded the harbor. Ok, then, moving on..
Hey, that's kinda nice.
I was planning on being in Tel Aviv/Jaffa for four or five days, until the next weekend. But it was too chilly to hang out on the beach, too expensive to get drunk and pretty though Old Jaffa may be, it is really tiny. After one night in Tel Aviv, I walked down to Jaffa, took a bunch of pictures and bought some really tasty hummus, which I ate on the seawall. Monday night I was online kvetching to Michal: "There's nothing fun to do, and it's really expensive." "Oh, sorry.." "Can I come back early?" "You mean like earlier in the day on Thursday?" (the weekend in Israel is Friday and Saturday) "No, like, tomorrow." "Um, I guess if.." "Great! See you tomorrow!"
And so after only a few days I was back to my cozy, peaceful existence in Jerusalem. Michal's roommate may have won a battle, but I won the war.
And so here are a hodge podge of photos taken over the next couple of weeks in Jerusalem.
Fake Christmas trees for sale in old Jerusalem.
Now, wait a second, let's stop and think about this. Christmas is a major Christian holiday and Jerusalem is Christianity's holiest city. Ok so far. Buut.. Christmas trees are essentially pagan symbols that originated in Medieval Europe. Even the date we celebrate Christmas was probably selected to coincide with pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. "A spoon full of sugar.." and all that.
So, to review: 2,000 years ago an unruly Jewish carpenter gets killed in Jerusalem at the behest of the established powers. After surviving a couple hundred years of Roman persecution, the emperor converts and things start looking up. However, it's more than a thousand years after the reign of Constantine that the use of Christmas trees is first documented in (the regions now called) Estonia, Latvia and Northern Germany, at which point Jerusalem was firmly in the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Five hundred years further on the Brits have kicked out the Turks only to hand the whole steaming mess over to the Zionists, who despite numerical and territorial inferiority have managed to put together a nice little open, tolerant Western-style democracy.
All of which makes it possible for this shopkeeper to overcharge for a pile of green-painted plastic. You couldn't make this up if you tried.
A pile o' spices topped by a miniature Dome o' the Rock.
The Damascus gate, aka the Shechem Gate (Hebrew שער שכם), aka the Gate of the Column (Arabic باب العامود). Many occupiers, much history, many names. The Roman gate has been excavated below this iteration (which was constructed by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1542) and is a good 5 meters below modern ground level.
There was all sorts of construction blocking the view when I was there, but keithwills took a pretty nice shot of it.
For the Christmas Eve Shabbat dinner (it happened to fall on a Friday and there happened to be a pot luck planned) I made a pumpkin pie. From scratch. Including the pie crust. Without a cuisinart. In a rectangular pan.
Hell yeah. It takes a real man to bake this well.
Old Jeruslam is very much a living city.
It is also surprisingly quiet and deserted away from the main thoroughfares.
A column base decorated with Crusader crosses located at the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus purportedly healed the sick.
The pool and associated churches were only excavated in the 19th and 20th centuries, before when New Testament references were believed to have been fabrications. But archeologists found the location and disposition of the pool and surrounding structures to precisely match descriptions in both the Old and New Testaments. Hmph. Who'd a thunk?
The sun sets on a minaret within the compound of the Temple Mount. Soon the call to prayer will float out across Jerusalem.
The Dome of the Rock by night.
Another night view of the Dome of the Rock, this from outside the city walls. In the foreground, ruins of Medieval constructions.
A night view of the walls surrounding the Jaffa Gate.
Coming soon: more Jerusalem miscellany.
Right, we agreed. That's the party line and I'm stickin' to it. In any case, it was off to Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
Holy shit, a floating tree.
Tel Aviv is the modern, fast paced and international counterpart to Jerusalem. It's a great place for the rich, young and beautiful to get drunk. As such, it doesn't have much to offer the budget backpacker.
Jaffa, on the other hand, is a nice little port city just a few kilometers south of downtown Tel Aviv. It is one of the oldest ports in the world: archeological evidence indicates the central hill has been occupied since around 7,500 B.C.E. Its natural harbor has been in use since the Bronze Age and its conquest is mentioned in an Egpytian letter dating to 1,440 B.C.E. It is also mentioned several times in the Old Testament, most memorably as the port of entry for the Lebanon cedars used in the construction of the second temple in Jerusalem. It was also the first stop in the Holy Land for most European pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, etc.
I was planning on being in Tel Aviv/Jaffa for four or five days, until the next weekend. But it was too chilly to hang out on the beach, too expensive to get drunk and pretty though Old Jaffa may be, it is really tiny. After one night in Tel Aviv, I walked down to Jaffa, took a bunch of pictures and bought some really tasty hummus, which I ate on the seawall. Monday night I was online kvetching to Michal: "There's nothing fun to do, and it's really expensive." "Oh, sorry.." "Can I come back early?" "You mean like earlier in the day on Thursday?" (the weekend in Israel is Friday and Saturday) "No, like, tomorrow." "Um, I guess if.." "Great! See you tomorrow!"
And so after only a few days I was back to my cozy, peaceful existence in Jerusalem. Michal's roommate may have won a battle, but I won the war.
And so here are a hodge podge of photos taken over the next couple of weeks in Jerusalem.
Now, wait a second, let's stop and think about this. Christmas is a major Christian holiday and Jerusalem is Christianity's holiest city. Ok so far. Buut.. Christmas trees are essentially pagan symbols that originated in Medieval Europe. Even the date we celebrate Christmas was probably selected to coincide with pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. "A spoon full of sugar.." and all that.
So, to review: 2,000 years ago an unruly Jewish carpenter gets killed in Jerusalem at the behest of the established powers. After surviving a couple hundred years of Roman persecution, the emperor converts and things start looking up. However, it's more than a thousand years after the reign of Constantine that the use of Christmas trees is first documented in (the regions now called) Estonia, Latvia and Northern Germany, at which point Jerusalem was firmly in the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Five hundred years further on the Brits have kicked out the Turks only to hand the whole steaming mess over to the Zionists, who despite numerical and territorial inferiority have managed to put together a nice little open, tolerant Western-style democracy.
All of which makes it possible for this shopkeeper to overcharge for a pile of green-painted plastic. You couldn't make this up if you tried.
The pool and associated churches were only excavated in the 19th and 20th centuries, before when New Testament references were believed to have been fabrications. But archeologists found the location and disposition of the pool and surrounding structures to precisely match descriptions in both the Old and New Testaments. Hmph. Who'd a thunk?
Coming soon: more Jerusalem miscellany.
Always fun to read and see!
ReplyDeleteWell done Cliff Notes of history made even better with pictures!
ReplyDelete