Category Israel & biblical history

Nov 3 2010

Riding to work – commuting Jerusalem style Part 3

first bit –  second section –  Third and final

…continued

Turn right from Jaffa Street…

At the top of this street is a Russian-Orthodox church dedicated in 1872 by Prince Niklai, it served a religious centre for Russian pilgrims in late 19th century.
The road turns to the left past the police station.Here, I am looking directly behind me I can see the police station, there are lots of police officers and soldiers here, so I didn’t do any pictures of the outside as I don’t think this would be popular.

I took this pic with my phone months ago.  The police station has its own outside mini archeology site, this looks like part of a plumbing system, but actually its a pillar on its side.  Not sure which age this is.

This part of the police compound was also originally owned by Russians as you can see from the Cyrillic writing top right.

This is an opticians, one of the nice modern buildings I have seen.   The outside stairs makes it a little bit lego like 🙂

This roundabout has a takeaway, a corner shop and a bakery that is popular with our office.

Turn left by the tree and up the drive way, and I am at work….

first bit –  second section –  Third and final

Nov 1 2010

In Sepia: Holyland pictures collection part 5

Part 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7

Heres some more holyland pictures in sepia…

Don’t even think of parking near me!

This cockatoo is guarding the windows of the house.

Old Peugeot car, looks a bit like the one the fictional detective Columbo used to drive.

The garden of the tomb

Part 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7

Oct 30 2010

Big spider visitor!!

Found this photo I had from last year, from my old flat.   I was just at home in the living room, and to start with I thought this was a joke rubber insect put there by my then housemate Joshua our radio announcer and journalist from Bridges for Peace.

I decided to put my (30gb hard disk model) iPod there to gauge its epic arachnid awesomeness.

This is here not for Halloween which I disagree with, not just for its questionable Pagan connections, but that its a dumb idea to send kids to knock on doors on total strangers, but actually I actually like spiders, they eat flies and bugs that spread germs and diseases like Malaria, build (but I think only the smaller ones) webs to make their prey in a clever structure, fabricated from a super strong material they make which is completely unmatched by anything man-made today.

I dont think this one was a tarrantula, as its black and not brown.   As its about 4 inches long and its legs are so big and hairy, you can hear a tick-tick-tick noise as he walks up the door frame.

I picked him up with a newspaper and threw him the bushes outside.   I get plenty of ants and bugs in my kitchen, so as far I am concerned the spiders can munch the other insects as they like, but it had to stay outside as I had people coming round later. 🙂

Oct 22 2010

Jerusalem Knights – outdoor holyland theatre

I ventured out to the old city at around 10pm after an event at my church…

The flags hung on the road signs here originally got my attention last week, so I decided to take a look, this event is a collection of actors dressed up in costumes in different parts of the old city.

The exact era they are meant to be representing I am not quite sure, as there is none of the posters or dialogue spoken by artists in English.

Its all quite exciting though, the costumes look great, and there is people swarmed into the alleys of the old city following the signs and flags that point to the path to short distance snaking around the street corners to the next artist.

There are Jews, Arabs, Christian pilgrims and foreigners of all sorts here watching what is going on.

The actors and artists are princesses, slaves, musicians, poets and all kinds.

This lady on the left is dressed up in a Covent Garden-esque style as a fountain statue, she is holding a hose pouring water into a bowl below.  There was a kid running around which I was secretly hoping she could ‘accidentally’ put her finger on the end and spray him with water but alas no. 🙂   This musician here could do an older instrument, this guitar looks a bit too modern.

Here the usual traders in the old city are doing business, albeit with a few extra twists.  There are of course the fruit juice squeezer stands and the lounges with strong coffee and smoking pipes, but the young Arab lad with this large metallic teapot on wheels caught me eye, especially when it was not tea or coffee, but this (the name escapes me) particularly pleasant middle east beverage made from hot milk, coconut, cinnamon and lots of sugar = 10 Shekels (UKP1.85)

This fella looks fresh out of a Victorian novel.   Right, the fountain in the centre looks nice illuminated in blue at night.

This was quite a nice evening walk, I may try and bring some friends out here next week as its on every thursday night in October.  If you are around Jerusalem this month check it out.

Oct 22 2010

Dead Sea Scrolls go online

Read something quite exciting on the BBC news today,  its rare they say anything positive about this part of the world,

Israel’s antiquities authority and Google.co.il are putting the Dead Sea Scrolls online.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11594674

The text in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.   I am guessing Google will include their excellent automatic translation tools in as well.

You can also see the Dead Sea Scrolls museum in Qumran by the Dead Sea.

Oct 14 2010

Kosher highway code & Middle east motorcycling expedition

Walking past an ultra orthodox neighbourhood, sometimes I see these signs a little different from other parts of town.

Driving is forbidden by religious Jews on Shabbat or on holidays, for everyone else secular Israelis, Arabs or foreigners should not drive past these signs in these neighbourhoods on those days as deemed to be highly disrespectful to this community, these signs are a reminder you are entering a religious area.

On the way home from work I saw these large high end looking motorcycles, four of them, Harley Davidsons and BMWs, just round the corner from Zion Square, where Ben Yehuda Street meets Jaffa Street.   The owners are nowhere to be seen, but the bikes have been here two days now, the plates on the bikes are foreign.   On closer inspection, they have come from Bulgaria.  Zoom on the fuel tank for their tour.  Going into Damascus, Syria, then through Israel and Egypt sounds like a nightmare to plan for your visa application though!

There isn’t a web site mentioned, a quick search with Google shows nothing, if this is your club, or you know who is doing this trip, please comment or add a link 🙂


 

 


Oct 13 2010

King David Museum, Hezekiah’s tunnels and Silwan troubles

At the weekend I went around the outer parts of Jerusalem’s old city walls.   Outside of the dung gate, is the south east corner, you head around the corner to see Absalom’s tomb and the Mount of Olives.

Here there is a junction which contains a volatile mix of neighbours.   On the corner is an archaeological dig, containing artifacts that date from King David’s time.   On the same street this is the entrance to the Arab town of Silwan.   This is a much troubled district, and the name Silwan often comes up when there is news of conflicts in this city.

On the news this week you may have seen a picture of a car with a boy in the air upside down in the air having being hit by a car in Silwan after stoning this particular motorist, it seems the Subaru driver sped up or swerved to avoid being hit by the youths.   Seems strange there happened to be someone with a camera who did such a perfect shot of this moment.  http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=190682

A few houses from the corner is this Arab shop with political message outside.

About 3 or 4 more houses across is The City of David museum which has a cinema with a 3D film of biblical history of this place and a guided tour of the buildings and a chance to go under Hezekiah’s tunnels.  I went here last year its well worth a visit.   The tunnels are a mile long of walking – in complete darkness; and, upto your knees in water. 🙂   I didn’t get a picture of the exact front part of this as there armed guards in front.   But looking through the windows you can see the nice decorations outside.

Looking behind back to the old city walls and there are about 40-50 soldiers in uniform getting off a bus.  (not visible, but just around the corner)  Glancing back to the museum front, there is a lone security guard, armed, but unusually (that I have never seen someone holding a handgun out of a holster) he has a pistol in his hand.   Again, I glance down the street to see a group of Arab kids gather outside a shop.  There is nervousness on both sides and the police and army are on alert from recent troubles.

Below you can see the green flag which has a logo representing Israel’s national parks and historical places.  Heading down this street as a foreigner to see the museums is safe but because extra security measures in place, but just a short distance down here, not past the museum where this barrier is.   Beyond this there are rowdy children throwing rocks at the fence where the historical digging is, there is rubbish everywhere and some of the cars look vandalised.

But here in the unpredictable middle east, throwing rocks can be a prelude to starting a war where each side retaliates.  This is one of the many contested bits of property here, ironic given the historic sites and archeological digs that showed who lived here long ago.

I can’t emphasise enough “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” and I do feel sorry for the Arab people that live here and are given different messages by different authorities, I hope and pray that Arab people will find their way out of darkness of the regime that governs them (Hamas and Hezbollah)  into the loving arms of the Father.

Oct 8 2010

Worship event on the Haas Promenade

The Haas Promenade, close (1.5km uphill from my house) also known as the peace park had a special event on the sunday before last.

A worship event was on with several churches and Christian organisations jointly together.   There was a speech by the Mayor of Jerusalem, and one of the city’s chief Rabbis, and this was filmed on God TV.  There was speakers from different Christian charities here and also a few Arab believers too.

This was a really good event, although I had to leave part way through, as it overlapped with the normal service at my regular church at 6pm.

Oct 6 2010

In Sepia: Holyland pictures collection part 3

Part 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7

Cafe with hand operated orange squeezer with plenty of stocks of citrus fruits.

Tourist shops in the old city.

Street path in Jewish quarter of the old city of Jerualem.

Greek graffiti in the Church of the holy Sepulchre

Part 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7