Via Dolorosa, Monday 9-28-09

So on Monday I went into the city after being told that we were cleared to go in, and we did Via Dolorosa.

For those of you who don't know, Via Dolorosa is the traditional path that Christ walked through the city of Jerusalem on the last days of His life. There are many stops along the way, and we went and walked it for our religion class here.

The first stop we made was The Birth Place of the Virgin Mary.....does anyone know where Mary was born? I'm pretty sure that Biblically it wasn't Jerusalem. But, alas.....there are places like that all over the city, that have you thinking... "ummm, really? seriously guys?" But we went in, and looked around in the chapel area. Then they had stairs down into the cellar and lower. It was interesting. Definitely weird, and cave-like. I feel like there's a lot of places we crouch down into or crawl into or descend into here. Cave-like places that have been cut out of rock. It's fun.
This is us going down into the cellar :)

This is me in front of the shrine/altar to the Virgin Mary.

Anyway, then was the first official stop on the tour, which was the Church of the Condemnation and the Church of the Flagellation (the second stop). That place was beautiful. You walk into the courtyard in the Old City, and it's open and there is ivy climbing up the wall, and beautiful lighting and old corinthean columns that are actually from Roman times. Another interesting fact: In Jerusalem and the Holy Land in general (also in Egypt, come to think of it), they don't care if you touch things. I touched columns and artifacts from roman times the other day. No big deal. I guess they figure that if they've made it this long, they'll make it at least another couple hundred years, even if people touch them. Sweet philosophy, right? I get to touch Roman artifacts!
This is the Church of the Flagellation, which has some cool symbolism in the carvings of Christ's last week.
Just some beautiful archways. This courtyard really is beautiful.

The crown of thorn, in the dome of the Church of the Flagellation.

Me in the church....there were people worshiping and crying, so I didn't feel that it was appropriate to smile really big.

This is me, touching a Roman Corinthian Column...oh yeah baby.

Next we went along the road, and we saw the place were Pontious Pilate supposedly said the "behold the man" quote. It's called the Arch Ecco-homme. Not a whole lot to see, just a beautiful arch that is in a beautiful, old city with beautiful rock walls everywhere. You know how it is.. :)

The Arch Ecco-Homme...

After that we kept walking, and the next stop was where, traditionally, Christ fell for the first time. They have the rocks that are original, that are the Roman rocks. They have them all over the city. It's interesting...you'll be walking on fairly even stones, despite them still being a little cobble-stone-like, and then all the sudden there will be a patch about 5 or 10 yards long and wide that are big stones, with much more grout in between them, that aren't even. Those are the original stones. They have preserved some of them from the time of Christ. It's really, really cool.
This is stop III...Now that we were out of the Muslim Quarter, all the places are marked. So this is the fall of Christ.
These are the stones that are from Christ's time. They are much bigger and have more space in between them than the newer stones.

That's Kyle and Kira, the people I went on Via Dolorosa with. There are these little chapels all along the Via Dolorosa commemorating the different "stops."

This is stop IV, where traditionally it is said that Mary was with Christ and helped Him..

This is stop V, where Simone of Cyrene was chosen out of the crowd to help Christ carry the cross. Also, because of the commotion the day before on the Temple Mount, there were tons of Israeli soldiers everywhere.

This is stop VI : "According to tradition" (you hear that a lot here) a woman offered Christ a cloth to wipe his face on it, and an imprint of His face was left on the cloth, and is (of course) somehwere and a relic and what not. So, not scriptural, but here you go.

This is stop VII, where Christ fell for the second time. There's not a lot on some of the stations, just the marker on the wall.

Stop VIII: This is where "according to tradition" Christ encountered a group of pious women on His journey with the cross.

Stop IX: This is the "traditional" site of Christ's third fall.

Okay, the next five stations (10-14) are all in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I'll try to explain them as best as I can. They're where Christ was stripped of His clothes, nailed to the cross, His death, the removing of His body from the cross, and lastly putting His body in the tomb. It's interesting, there's no marker for the Resurrection. I just realized that. And not only that, but this Church is far away from where we, as members of the church, believe Christ's tomb to be. This church is inside the city walls, which is specifically against what the scriptures say, but there you go. This is "according to tradition." Gotta love it. Here are some pictures.

This is the courtyard to the Church...you can't see the dome from the actual site, but that's how you can pick out the church when overlooking the city. You can kind of see a ladder under the window on the right, just above the arches. It's sitting on one of the sills there. When they divided up the church between all of the different denominations that are all inside the Church, someone got the sill, someone got the window, and someone got the ladder. So, now they can't agree or get a long long enough for anyone to take it down, so I guess it's been sitting there for years and years and years. It's part of the site-seeing now :).

This is the stone that Christ body was laid on....traditionally. These people are kissing it and worshiping it. People sometimes pour water on it and soak it up and put it back in bottles to take home with them. It's very interesting and humbling to see people worship it so faithfully. Definitely different than my personal beliefs, but you at least have to respect their faith.

This is inside the Church. There are a lot of little rooms that different denominations all hold church and their own personal worship in. Kind of interesting. They all find the place holy.

I don't think I got a good picture of the outside of the actual Holy Sepulcher, but this is what's inside. A shrine....and a different denomination has the place where the head of Christ lay, so it's sectioned off apart from this part, where His body lay.

Anyway, after this we went back to the center, after making a few shopping stops :). I bought a widow's mite! A real Roman coin that is 2000 years old :). Yay!

Anyway, that is Via Dolorosa. I hope you enjoy!

I'm going to keep working on updating other things. This week was a crazy one, with homework and field trips and etc. So I'll try to get more Egypt done soon. Love you all!