Day 16 Jordan - Jordan River and Amman

We left Israel this morning by bus and went into Jordan.

The highlight of the day was seeing the place along the Jordan River that is the spot, or close to the spot, where Jesus was baptized.

While in the bus driving out of Israel our driver made a detour so we could see the clifts where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  We didn't get to stop though.  But you can see a lot of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were hid.  They were found by a small Bedouin boy who was throwing rocks into the caves and heard pottery breaking, and then went to investigate.

 We passed out of Israel and into Jordan and had a lengthy process getting through the border.  You had to have your Israel passport stamp on a separate piece of paper because if they saw it in your passport they wouldn't let you in.  Along the drive we saw lots of Bedouin tents and camels and donkeys.  They still live a nomadic life.

 We got to the spot on the Jordan side of the Jordan River where they think is the closest to where Christ was baptized.  Dr. Madsen also pointed out the places where Joshua and the Twelve Tribes of Isreael crossed the Jordan River and also where the prophets Elijah and Elisha crosse

 It was brown with mud and the water was warm.  We had a nice visit there and it was very peaceful.

 Then we went to the Dead Sea where we got to stop at a town and go swimming.  What fun.  The water is so salty you could hold your hands and head and legs straight up in the air, and still float.  I know because I did it.  The waves were a little choppy that day with a storm brewing.

 This is the Earth's lowest land elevation place on the whole globe, 997 feet below sea level.  It has 34.2% salinity; whereas the Great Salt Lake is only about 25% and the ocean only 3.5%.

 We had a lot of fun swimming.   But the salt was so abrasive you couldn't put your head under and my mouth burned once because I got a little water in my mouth once, and my cheeks burned from where I'd shaved that morning.  Jacquelyn got some in her eyes and had to get out, but she got back in.

Then we drove to Ammon, the capital of Jordan.  It was so different from Cairo, very modern and well to do compared to Egypt.  We ate dinner at an authentic Jordanian restaurant.  Jacquelyn didn't like the lamb, but I did.

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.

Day 14 Israel - Temple Mount

We got to see more things in Jerusalem today, and spent most of the day up on Temple Mount.

This is me at the Wailing Wall, which is the only part of the original temple from biblical times that still exists.  This was a part of the outer wall.

 Here is a view that shows the walls of temple mount from one corner.  The current walls in Jerusalem were rebuilt by muslims, the Ottoman Empire Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificient.  He had his architect beheaded afterwards because he made them too small and left out part of the city.

 We saw protesters as we were waiting in line to go up on temple mount.  They protest because Jews aren't allowed to pray up there, only Muslims. The protesters were planning to cause some trouble but fortunately they didn't get in till after we left. A day later they caused the temple mount to be closed because of some riots.

 We got yelled at by some Muslims up on temple mount.  These two ladies were yelling "Allah Akbar" real loud, over and over again, at any one that came near.  Our guide said it was a good saying, but it was not nice the way they were doing it, because they were yelling at the tourists.

The security guards up on temple mount were Israeli.  Here are three women security soldiers.  The King of Jordan has jurisdiction over the temple mount (not the Palestinians or Israeli) but Israel provides the security.

 Part of the plaza on top of temple mount.

 This is the Dome of the Rock on temple mount.  It is the third holiest spot to Muslims, where  Muhammad ascended up to heaven, after riding his flying steed Al-Buraq from Mecca to this spot.

This top of temple mount is a holy spot to Jewish and Christian people too, where the next and final temple is to built.  Most think it is right where the Dome of the Rock is located, but our educator said it's actually a little to the north on a direct line with the Golden Gate in the old Jerusalem city walls, where the Messiah will return to Jerusalem.

 Next we went to see the Wailing Wall up close.  Jacquelyn wrote a prayer on a piece of paper and put it in a crack in the wall as is the custom.

 I thought it interesting that you could see Jewish rabbi's and soldiers with machine guns praying side by side at the wall.

 We toured the Davidson Dig outside Temple Mount.  They are excavating things all over the city because there is so much history that has not been uncovered.

 This is a corner by one of the gates along the southern wall, where Neil Armstrong was quoted as saying he was more inspired standing where Christ once stood than standing on the moon.

 This is an authentic bagel we bought and ate.  Quite different from the ones we have back home.

 We went to the place where they are digging out David's City, which the the part of Jerusalem where King David had his city back in those days.

 We went down into Hezekiah's Tunnel.  It was a tunnel the Jews built through the rock to a natural spring so that they could water into the walled part of Jerusalem during a time of war with the Assyrians.

 We are in the tunnel and it had cold water running through it about knee height in depth.

 The tunnel was built 700 years ago and was 1,750 feet long, which is 1/3 of a mile.  It was really long.

 New we went to the Israeli Museum.  They had a scale model of the entire city back in biblical times.

 Everything was built out of stone back then and the city had walls around it.

 Some artifacts in the museum.

The bones of a woman and small dog (up near her head).

In the museum.

This stone was taken from Beit Lehi Cave at an archeological site where some think there is a connection with the Mormon prophet Lehi.