As Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
This morning we started our tour proper: following the story of Jesus through the Holy Land. Of course, this took us through the streets of Bethlehem and to the Shepherds' Field, where it is supposed that the Angel visited the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus.
(ed: Almost every religious location in the Holy Land is an approximation, and has been chosen as the spot based on a best-guess estimate after piecing together evidence from various historical documents. Even though the sites aren't pinpoint accurate, they have been chosen to symbolise where these significant events took place.)
We had a service in a cave that the shepherds would have used for shelter, and then went for a little bit of an explore in some other nearby caves. Like most significant sites in the Holy Land, the Jews, Byzantines, Muslims, Turks and Christians have all, in turn, built places of worship upon the ruins of predecessors' buildings, creating a rich history of rubble beneath the soil. Atop the hill at this particular location now stands a Franciscan chapel.
And here's another sign to add to the collection:
And then we were back on the bus and driving through the West Bank to our next destination. Despite the popular notion that Palestine is a place of strife and violence, the West Bank should be seen as a place of bustling cities, chalk and limestone hills, traditional villages and olive groves. No explosions, gunfire or sirens. The streets are full of ordinary people trying to go about their lives as best they can; similar to Israel, but just much poorer, and with a populace noticeably lacking purpose or direction.
The next location was Herod's fortress at Herodium. He built a massive fortress-resort atop a hill to overlook the surrounding area, but after deciding that the hill wasn't quite tall enough, he had his minions build it up a little (a lot) more to be even more grand. We followed a tunnel system down into the mountain to locate some cisterns and passageways used by the Jewish rebels both uprisings against rome in 70AD and 135AD. Herod's tomb was also uncovered here in 2007.
Lunch was a banquet feast in a stone restaurant called 'The Tent', and was a non-stop amazing culinary experience. Lots of flavoursome dips and bread, followed by dishes of corn, cucumber, tomato, eggplant. Then came the BBQ chicken and lamb kofta to fill any stomach recess that hadn't already fallen victim to the wonderfully exotic food. Sorry, we ate it all before I could take any pictures to share.
The last venue for the day was the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Jesus was (supposedly) born. Not even such a sacred and historically significant site can escape this trip's running gag:
From the escalators in the bus terminal, we walked about a kilometre to the plaza of the Basilica, sporting a massive Christmas tree right in front of the local mosque. The Church of the Nativity is a huge building that is an active Orthodox Church (there was a service and a funeral that happened while we visited), shared with the Armenians, adjacent to St Catherine's Catholic Church next door. The main entrance has been made smaller over the years to prevent riders or carts entering through the main doors, and is now not even tall enough to fit a regular-sized person. This has been retrospectively been labelled the 'Door of Humility', as people fold over to squeeze through the gap.
Now, for those who have romantic notions of Jesus being born in a stable on a starry December night, I've got some hard-to-hear news: it is most likely that Jesus was born in a cave, where it was acceptable for Mary to be 'unclean'. This spot is marked in a room underneath the Church sanctuary by a 14-pointed star, which pilgrims like to touch.
Not me, because: germs.
This spot is, obviously, quite the tourist attraction, and with services taking place at the same time, the whole space gets very crowded and chaotic. The Orthodox priest is quite zealous about his worship space above, and security in the Grotto below gets antsy if anyone overstays their couple of moments at the crib. It's not peaceful or serene. I'm not sure that anyone in our group found it a pleasant experiene. St Catherine's Church next door proved much less interesting to most other tourists, providing a very beautiful space to get some relief.
Last night in Bethlehem tonight. Tomorrow, we continue the story of Jesus to his childhood home in Nazareth, via the Jordan River and the Judean Desert.
(ed: Almost every religious location in the Holy Land is an approximation, and has been chosen as the spot based on a best-guess estimate after piecing together evidence from various historical documents. Even though the sites aren't pinpoint accurate, they have been chosen to symbolise where these significant events took place.)
We had a service in a cave that the shepherds would have used for shelter, and then went for a little bit of an explore in some other nearby caves. Like most significant sites in the Holy Land, the Jews, Byzantines, Muslims, Turks and Christians have all, in turn, built places of worship upon the ruins of predecessors' buildings, creating a rich history of rubble beneath the soil. Atop the hill at this particular location now stands a Franciscan chapel.
And here's another sign to add to the collection:
And then we were back on the bus and driving through the West Bank to our next destination. Despite the popular notion that Palestine is a place of strife and violence, the West Bank should be seen as a place of bustling cities, chalk and limestone hills, traditional villages and olive groves. No explosions, gunfire or sirens. The streets are full of ordinary people trying to go about their lives as best they can; similar to Israel, but just much poorer, and with a populace noticeably lacking purpose or direction.
The next location was Herod's fortress at Herodium. He built a massive fortress-resort atop a hill to overlook the surrounding area, but after deciding that the hill wasn't quite tall enough, he had his minions build it up a little (a lot) more to be even more grand. We followed a tunnel system down into the mountain to locate some cisterns and passageways used by the Jewish rebels both uprisings against rome in 70AD and 135AD. Herod's tomb was also uncovered here in 2007.
Lunch was a banquet feast in a stone restaurant called 'The Tent', and was a non-stop amazing culinary experience. Lots of flavoursome dips and bread, followed by dishes of corn, cucumber, tomato, eggplant. Then came the BBQ chicken and lamb kofta to fill any stomach recess that hadn't already fallen victim to the wonderfully exotic food. Sorry, we ate it all before I could take any pictures to share.
The last venue for the day was the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Jesus was (supposedly) born. Not even such a sacred and historically significant site can escape this trip's running gag:
From the escalators in the bus terminal, we walked about a kilometre to the plaza of the Basilica, sporting a massive Christmas tree right in front of the local mosque. The Church of the Nativity is a huge building that is an active Orthodox Church (there was a service and a funeral that happened while we visited), shared with the Armenians, adjacent to St Catherine's Catholic Church next door. The main entrance has been made smaller over the years to prevent riders or carts entering through the main doors, and is now not even tall enough to fit a regular-sized person. This has been retrospectively been labelled the 'Door of Humility', as people fold over to squeeze through the gap.
Now, for those who have romantic notions of Jesus being born in a stable on a starry December night, I've got some hard-to-hear news: it is most likely that Jesus was born in a cave, where it was acceptable for Mary to be 'unclean'. This spot is marked in a room underneath the Church sanctuary by a 14-pointed star, which pilgrims like to touch.
Not me, because: germs.
This spot is, obviously, quite the tourist attraction, and with services taking place at the same time, the whole space gets very crowded and chaotic. The Orthodox priest is quite zealous about his worship space above, and security in the Grotto below gets antsy if anyone overstays their couple of moments at the crib. It's not peaceful or serene. I'm not sure that anyone in our group found it a pleasant experiene. St Catherine's Church next door proved much less interesting to most other tourists, providing a very beautiful space to get some relief.
Last night in Bethlehem tonight. Tomorrow, we continue the story of Jesus to his childhood home in Nazareth, via the Jordan River and the Judean Desert.
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