Israel Museum and Mount of Olives!

   On the trip to Jerusalem last Wednesday, we first stopped in New Jerusalem at the Israel Museum.  One of my teachers, Benj, gave us a ‘tour’ of an outdoor model of the city of Jerusalem as it looked on the eve of the first Jewish Revolt (ca 66 AD).  The northern suburb of the model is the artists’ impressions of what it might have looked like.  A lot of information that is used to place the rest of the buildings in the model came from the writings of Josephus.  We learned about the three different walls of the city, the three different towers that Herod built, the entrances to the Temple, and the priestly district.  From the model, we went to an indoor portion of the museum that has an exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

View of the model of Jerusalem as if I was standing on the Mount of Olives

When I took this picture, I was just really hot and wanted to take a dunk in the water...later I learned that it's actually the top of the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit underneath the ground!  

   We went from the Israel Museum to the Mount of Olives, near the Augusta Victoria tower.  We were able to see the Dead Sea, the village of Bethany (modern town name- al Azaria), and Bethphage.  Since Bethany is where Jesus performed the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, we read the account in John 11. 

View of Bethany and Bethphage from the Mount of Olives

View of the Dead Sea from the Mount of Olives!

            We then headed from the top of the Mount of Olives down to meet our bus.  On the way, we stopped at the Church of the Dominus Flevit, which means the Church where the Lord wept.  We read Matthew 25 here.  The next stop was at the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations.  Inside the church is a stone where people believe the sweat and blood from Jesus’ forehead dropped.  Farther down the Mount of Olives is the Gethsemane Grotto and the tomb where Mary was laid before her soul went to heaven (supposedly).  

Garden of Gethsemane, but not the one that Jesus would have been in!  

Inside the Church of Dominus Flevit at the stone where people believe the blood from Jesus' forehead dripped.

Gethsemane Grotto

Me not knowing how to use my camera in Mary's tomb haha

Mary's tomb...a little bit better :)

From there, we finished walking down the mount to meet our bus driver and head back to the moshav!