Those walls came a tumbling down....

I decided I'd post some pics from the last couple days. Yesterday we had a free day and we walked all around Jerusalem for 8 or 9 hours. First off we went to the Dome of the Rock! I'd been really excited for it. Unfortunantly, the experience was marred by a vendor and a soldier who were up on the temple mount. They basically told the girls in our small group that they were immodest and had to buy a shawl. The thing was, our girls were dressed a lot more modestly than most of the tourists who were on the temple mount. Also, they did it to several other groups of BYU-J students, all who were dressed modestly but they came up with stupid reasons why they had to buy a shawl. The merchant indicated they would have to leave if they didn't buy a shawl and there was a soldier there as well who backed up the merchant. Anyway, it was a bad way to start off our visit to the third most holy site of Islam. I felt like they were targeting women because they don't have respect for them. But the dome of the rock was pretty, and the rest of the day was good. We headed out into West Jerusalem then, and would end up nearly walking across the whole city. We stopped by the Great Synagogue, Hekhal Shlomo, I believe, a more modern synagogue built in commemoration of the Holocaust, among other things. The then walked all the way to the parliament, the Knesset, unfortunantly, because Independence day was the next day, it ended up being closed. We didn't know because it's supposed to be open on Sunday. Oh well. A lot of walking... We walked through the artists quarter before going back to the old city, and we also went to an Armenian church, as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulchral. Also did a small amount of shopping. I was so tired I couldn't stand up by the end of the day.
Today was a sweet day, however. We went to an overlook above the St. George monastery. This is built in the canyon where the road to Jericho used to be; the one the Lord referred to in the parable of the good Samaritan. There is a Roman aqueduct there that is still standing (well, parts of it.) There was a little flock of goats there that eat the old dried grass. We could also see the traditional site of the mount of temptation from there, as well as the Dead Sea and Jericho. Jericho is the the lowest (850 feet below sea level) and perhaps oldest city on earth!. We then went into Jericho, which is in the West Bank. (They keep telling we're not going into the West Bank, and then taking us there anyway!) The flags all changed to Palestinian. We saw the "traditional" site of the zacchaeus tree (look up the story in the bible) but of course that wasn't the real tree. Then we went to the site of ancient Jericho! Ancient Jericho is built above a spring that Elisha healed in 2 Kings 2:21, and which both ancient and modern Jerusalem gets it's water. We got to go into the building that houses it. Ancient Jericho is found in a tell, or a mound where an ancient building was. In the tell there is a tower at is over 10,000 years old; the oldest building yet found! Later on, there was "glacis" (pronounced "glossy") which is a stone foundation for a wall, basically, and a middle bronze age wall that had fallen down beside it. (Joshua was from the late bronze age, but it's probably the wall stood for several hundred years, as Jerusalem's current walls have.) ANYWAY, basically it's probable that this was the wall that fell down in Joshua's time when he took Jericho.
Jericho is also the site of a city in Christ's time. We visited the ruins of Herod's summer palace. Before Herod had it it was Cleopatra's of Egypt as well. Basically it was huge and extremely ornate.  We learned about all the horrible things Herod did. Basically, he was like the most wicked man ever to live. Caesar said it was safer to be Herod's pig than his son (he killed his own son, wives, brother in law, and lots of other people, including the children in Bethlehem. ) This was also the site where Herod died, from several venereal and  other strange diseases. As recorded in the New Testament:
"But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life." (Matt 2:19-20)
One last thought. Saturday, at church, we had a fast and testimony meeting. There was a Portuguese man in a tour group who came up to bear his testimony. He said he thought by coming to Jerusalem he would have lots of spiritual experiences. He thought he would be able to feel the spirit more. But he didn't. He thought maybe there was something wrong, until he came to the Jerusalem center. Then he said he felt the spirit. I can really agree with his statements. There is really nothing spiritual about Jerusalem, as far as my personal spirituality is concerned. It is really neat to visit all these sites and I'm certainly increasing my knowledge about the Holy Land. However, personal spirituality is still based on prayer, scripture reading, going to church, and keeping the commandments- same as anywhere else. It doesn't matter if you're in Utah, Washington, or Israel, it's the same. Shalom!

You can see the ancient Roman aqueduct below me. This valley was the road to Jericho!

Yeah, just chilin' in the West Bank.

Jericho is also known as "little Egypt" due to it's heat and palm trees.

No I don't want to buy anything, but I think you're donkey is cool.

I am standing in Herod's pleasure palace- the baths are right behind me.

That triangular mound to the right of me are the remains of bricks from the middle bronze age wall- the walls of Jericho! Um, don't know what I'm doing with my hand...

Dome of the Rock!

Some guy.

Knesset

This tower (in the hole) has been dated to 8,000 BCE. Oldest structure yet found on earth. Also included in the picture is what scientists think is the hottest man on earth... ladies agree.