Day 15 Israel - Garden of Gethsemane and Tomb of Christ

This day we were still in Jerusalem and toured more places around the city.

This was my favorite day because we visited such sacred places and it turned into a very spiritual experience.  This is the Garden Tomb where Christ was buried and rose again in three days.

 But our first stop was the Garden of Gethsemane.  This is where the atonement of Christ took place and he took upon him the sins of us all.

 It was an ancient olive garden just outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem on the side of the Mount of Olives near the bottom.

 Christ and the disciples came there frequently.  We got some time to walk around and reflect.  The trees here weren't old enough to have been around that long; but this was the same spot, and some may be offshoots of the trees that were there back then.

 This is one of the older trees.  They get really big and gnarly.

Here's Jacquelyn at the stone where Christ probably kneeled to pray.

 Our educator, Elder Madsen, gave some excellent talks.

 Next to the Garden of Gethsemane is a beautiful church built by the Byzantines and rebuilt by the crusaders.

 Inside the church.

 Inside the church.

 Next we saw the Tomb of King David.

King David's coffin.

 Our next stop was inside the city of Jerusalem.  We met in the room where the Last Supper was held.  It was the right building and location, but had been remodeled as a church and looked different back then.  This was also a place where Jesus first appeared to all his disciples after his resurrection.

  Our next stop was St. Peter's church at Galicantn, where the High Priest Ciaphas' house used to be, where they took Jesus and he was whipped and mocked.

 This is the walk way up through Jerusalem that they would have taken him, from the Garden of Gethsemane to Ciaphas' house.

The courtyard where Peter denied Christ three times before the cock crowed.

 The highlight of the day, and maybe the whole trip was coming to the Garden Tomb where Jesus Christ did the resurrection and rose from the dead.

The tomb from a distance.

 Inside the tomb.

 In the distance we could see Golgotha where the cruxifiction took place.

 Later that evening after the tours were done, Jacquelyn and I went back into Jerusalem and walked around some by ourselves.  Then we took a tour down under the city and went on an underground walk along the base of the Western Wall of the temple, down 30-60 feet at the Herodian Period level.  We saw some blocks that were 600 tons, way bigger than any used in the pyramids.

It was a great day.