The Old City of Jerusalem (red area in map) is not very big. If you walked the walled perimeter, it is approximately 2.75 miles. The inside area is right at 200 acres. It is a tight space brimming with energy and people. The Western Wall (of the Jewish Temple) and The Dome of the Rock (Islam), two of the most holy sites in each religion are only several hundred feet apart. Clocking only 2.5 miles, we walked from The Upper Room, the celebrated site of the Last Supper, to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was arrested, to Gallicantu, where Jesus spent the night in prison and Peter denied Christ three times, to The Church of the Condemnation, where Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus, to the Church of the Holy Supulchre.
The yellow area on the map is mostly cemeteries and running through it is the Kidron Valley or the Valley of the Kings. The Book of Joel in The Old Testament (Jewish Torah) describes The Valley of Josaphat where Elijah “will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat…for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side”. “Josaphat” means “Yahweh judges”. The low point in the valley runs along where the red and yellow lines are close to one another. Barb and I walked basically around the perimeter and out of Old City down to Gethsemane, then up the Mount of Olives, then back to where we started. The phone showed we climbed 60 flights of stairs.
All of these places have significant importance for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each having control of Jerusalem at one time or another, sometimes respecting the other religions holy places, sometimes destroying them, killing all of their followers and rebuilding a church, temple or mosque on the site. Therefore, exact locations of some of the less significant sites might not be one-hundred percent accurate.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
This has been the most important and consistent place of Christian pilgrimage since the 4th century.
Groundbreaking for the first church was 326 and completed in 335. It was destroyed in 1009 and rebuilt in 1048.
Christ’s (empty!) tomb.
The Anointing Stone where Christ’s body was prepared for burial.
Calvary. Under the altar you can kneel and touch the place of the crucifixion.
Below the main level is the site where the cross was found during the pilgrimage of St. Helena.
St James Church holds the tomb of St. James.
Gallicantu memorializes the area where Christ was held after his arrest while waiting to appear before Pontius Pilate. Outside, the spaces are marked where St. Peter may have been as he denied knowing Jesus as well as the path most likely used to escort Jesus to Pilate.
Upper Room (The Cenacle) is the place thought have been the site of the Last Supper. Two floors below, the Tomb of David draws both Jewish and Christian pilgrims. Lots to contemplate here!
