Our last day. Old City and the Wailing Wall

It was our last day in Israel.  Tuesday, Oct.18th. It kind of felt like a climax that on our last day we had a tour of the Old City and the Temple Mount. The bus dropped us off at the Dung Gate. As it was still a Jewish holiday, the area of the Wailing Wall (or Western Wall as the Israelis prefer) was super busy. Many devout Jews went to the Wall to pray for a blessing.

Here the men and women were separated as we go through security.

This is the sight we saw at the Wall. At 8 in the morning there were already many people. The men were on the left (as it was closest to the Holy of Holies) and the women had a much smaller space on the right.
Many carried a palm branch to commemorate the Feast of Booth. The haircut of this boy shows that he is the son of an Ultra-Orthodox Jew. Those Jews study the Torah, do not pay taxes and do not have to serve in the army.
Not all Jews have the same skin colour. Most of them were praying and chanting. It felt strange to make pictures here, but we were just one of the many tourist who were doing it. We were told to wear long pants and have the shoulders covered out of respect.
On the women's side. See all the little papers in the cracks. Actually, quite sad that they believe that that is how the Lord hears (reads?) their prayers.

We walked down to the archaeological site. Much quieter here! On the pictures it doesn't seem very interesting, but with Sam's explanation, it made quite a 'picture' for us, he made us see it as it was in Bible times.

The place we are standing here, is the original temple wall and above us you can see part of the Hulda Gate, which led to the court of the gentiles. It was the main entrance of the temple and the Lord Jesus and the disciples undoubtedly walked here. The wall on the left was part of a city wall and was build later. When walls were rebuild, the same stones were used but first cut smaller for easier building. The biggest stone used in Herod's temple was 14 meters long by 3.5 by 3 and weighed about 600 ton.
Walking on some of the very same stairs as in Bible times. (Many were reconstructed)

After this we rushed up the ramp at the women's side of the Western Wall to the Temple Mount. Our Muslim bus driver (his name was Muhammad) had a 'cousin' who worked here and who told us that if we hurried up we could get in as it was only open till 10 in the morning.

We were awed by the size of it. The total of this area, which is the same as the temple area used to be, is 35 acres or about 450 by 270 meters.

We always assumed that this was a mosque but it is actually only a shrine where the rock is that was supposedly the stone where Abraham sacrificed Isaac and where the prophet Muhammad stood when he was believed to have ascended into heaven.
Still another side of the large area. The actual mosque 'El Aqsa' is on the southern side.

On the northern side is a school for the Muslims. At that corner we exited the site.

All in all we did quite a bit of walking and sometimes we supported each other a little.
To be continued... (it was a long day :) )