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The Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Continued ....
Second Day of my Holy Land Trip, Palestine, Jerusalem (E)
Your comments valuable:
My Holy Land Trip
Deir el-Sultan
Deir el-Sultan is symbolically the most important, and most honoured, Ethiopian outpost in the Holy Land. Once a place of some magnitude, and importance, it is now a shadow of its former self. It consists of no more than a collection of Ethiopian houses on the roof of the Chapel of St Helena, one of the Chapels of the Holy Sepulchre.
Perhaps the earliest important account of Deir el-Sultan was produced by an Italian Franciscan, Francesco Vernieri, who lived in the Holy Land from 1631 to 1647. Describing the poverty of the Ethiopian monks there at the time, he wrote:
“They own a place in front of the square of the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre, where there are some narrow, low and dark rooms, and there they sleep on the bare ground. They own as a church a place on Cavalry where they say that Abraham led his only son Isaac in order to sacrifice him. Inside the shrine of the Holy Sepulchre they possess a small chapel where the soldiers divided and cast lots for the clothing of Christ”
Deir es-Sultan, despite its presently reduced circumstances, comprises three chapels: The Chapel of the Three Living Creatures; the Chapel of the Archangel Mika’el; and the Chapel of Madhane Alam, the Saviour of the World, which is used as a sacristy.
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| Deir el-Sultan |
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of the most Holy sites in the Christian world, the site of the burial place of Jesus. The 12th C structure is located on the traditional site of Golgotha, the crucifixion and burial site of Jesus.
The Church was established in 333 by the Roman emperor Constantine, after his mother, Queen Helena, marked the place of Golgotha during her visit in 326AD. The site was selected based on memories of the site as an execution place, and on the existence of a garden, tombs and fragments of wood planks.
The large basilica was leveled by the Persian intrusion (614AD). The new church was built on top of it, so few remains of the foundation are left. However, this basilica is illustrated in the Byzantine mosaic map of Madaba, which was discovered in 1884 in a Byzantine church in Madaba, Jordan. This ancient map, laid out in the 6th C AD, shows the map of the Holy Land, with dozens of illustrated sites, including Jerusalem and the original basilica that once stood there. It has three doors on the front, parts of one of them survived in the current structure.
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| Holy Sepulcher, these steps lead up to the “place of the skull” where Jesus was crucified. They are part of the Crusader-era Church of the Holy Sepulcher |
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| Deir es-Sultan, home of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the Old City of Jerusalem |
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| Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem |
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| Main entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, over the likely location of Golgotha, in the Old City of Jerusalem |
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| On the south side of the church, near the entrance, is a stairway leading to Golgotha, the traditional site of crucifixion. 
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| Behind the Chapel is another narrow door which leads to a smaller chamber - the tomb of Jesus. |
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| Roman architectural works, around the focal point of Holy Sepulcher and Christendom’s most sacred place – the site of Jesus’ burial and Resurrection |
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| A view of Mary Magdalene is seen in the photo |
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| Scenes around the Church of the Holy Sepulcher |
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| Altar, in another chapel of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher |
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| The place of where Jesus is taken down from the cross. Statue of Our Lady of Sorrows next to the Latin Calvary |
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| The place of where Jesus is taken down from the cross. Statue of Our Lady of Sorrows next to the Latin Calvary |
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| The Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem at the western side of the Temple Mount |
The Western wall is a remnant of Herod's grand temple, and is the most holiest site for Jews. It attracts thousands of Jewish worshipers daily, who come to pray and lay out their problems and seek for heavenly guidance. They feel the presence of God's spirit, who according to their belief resides for thousands of years in the holy temple.
The Western wall is located on the western side of the temple mount, in the heart of old Jerusalem. It is approached from the Jewish quarter, and the closest gate is HaAshpoth (Dung) gate. The Western Wall is open to the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
The area is divided to 4 sections: a large open zone on the western side, a small section for women on the south side of the wall (there is segregation due to religious requirements), a larger section of the wall in the center for men, and a covered place in the northern side.
The walls are 20M high above the ground, with 25 layers of stones. The larger stones are in the lower layers. Another 7M (15 layers) are buried under the ground, and some of the buried earlier layers may be from the first temple. The lowest section of the wall can be seen in the northern section of the central drainage canal.
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| The north side of the wall is seen in the photo below. On the left is the entrance to the covered section |
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Extension and excavations of Western Wall in the Old City of
Jerusalem
at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount
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| Exit from the location of Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount |
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| Exit from the location of Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount |
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| The Jerusalem Archaeological Park where the location of Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount |
