Jerusalem, Israel (Wailing Wall, Temple Mount, Dome of the Rock)

The Western Wall also known as the Wailing Wall.












Double click on the picture to read the sign that is posted near the Wailing Wall. (Click on any of these pictures to enlarge them)


















On my first trip to the Wailing Wall











Second trip to the Wailing Wall.















There were a lot of groups gathering for daily prayer.

















Me making my way to the Wailing Wall on my second trip to the Wall. I am the one in the black shirt and the white Kippah on my head and the the water hose coming out of my backpack.










Me praying at the Wailing Wall.












Me on top of Temple Mount. In the background you can see the Dome of the Rock (Haram Esh-Sharif Mosque)














We were turned away from going up here on our first visit to Jerusalem but towards the end of our trip we came back early in the morning when no one was around and went up and got some pictures of it.

































Me and my travel buddy Doug.


































Me outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The inside was very interesting.
On the inside a marble slab covers the rock on which Christ's body is believed to have been laid.












This is the room where the last supper took place. Mount Zion

The gate going into Old Jerusalem through the Muslim Quarter.

Soldiers patrolling Old Jerusalem.

A guy named Josh that we made friends with. I was invited to dinner at his home on my next visit to Israel

Helping a local Arabic vender in Jerusalem get his cart up the steps. He was at the bottom struggling when I first saw him.

On our way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on our first day in Israel

Jordan River where I was Baptized & Sea of Galilei

The Jordan River where I was Baptized.



















I was baptized by a guy who is a Pastor of a church based in Texas. He comes to Israel for a couple months a year.


























The Sea of Galilei.

Sea of Galilei

Bethlehem & The West Bank

The Church of Nativity in Bethlehem













The spot were they claim Christ was born











On the bus headed to the West Bank. We had to catch a bus in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem that would take us to the West Bank.

Pictures from the road while driving thru the West Bank

Dead Sea on the Israel side

The Dead Sea












The salt on the rocks.








Floating in the Dead Sea was amazing. You couldn't sink if you tried.

Standing on the site where Sodom use to be located.

Tel Aviv, Israel

Nazereth, Israel

I spent a half a day in a Arabic Hospital in Nazereth due to some bad food in Egypt the day before. They put four bags of fluid in me.

Masada, Israel

Masada (Hebrew for "Fortress") are the ancient ruins on a mountaintop in the Judean Desert. Located about 30 miles southeast of Jerusalem and rising above the shores of the Dead Sea, Masada is the most visited of all archeological sites in Israel and one of the most popular climbs. This fortress can be reached in several ways... (1) from the east via the original and steep "snake path," (2) from the west on a path built from the old Roman ramp, offering an easier climb or (3) by cable car.
After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE by the conquering Roman army, 1,000 Jewish zealot resistors and their families fled Jerusalem and took over this remote mountaintop. Under their leader, Eleazar ben Jair, they withstood a 2-year siege by the Roman Tenth Legion.
Then, in 73 CE, the Roman governor Flavius Silva marched against Masada with the Roman Tenth Legion. They established camps at the base of Masada, laid siege to it. Later they constructed a rampart of thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth against the western approaches of the fortress [see left portion of photo] and, in the spring of the year 74 CE, moved a battering ram up this ramp and breached the wall of the fortress
When the Zealot leader, Elazar ben Yair, saw the end nearing, he gathered his people and together they chose death with honor by their own hands rather than being captured alive and becoming slaves to the Romans.
Today, Masada has become a symbol for freedom and independence. Recruits to the Israel Defense Forces Armored Unit swear the oath of allegiance in an annual ceremony on its summit. Their defiant cry...Masada will never fall again!