Morning in the Old City (Part Two)

Our experience of the Via Dolorosa culminated, of course, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is in all likelihood the actual place of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection:


There we read John 19:28-42, and then visited and prayed at the site of the crucifixion (where the bedrock at the top of Calvary has been left open to sight around the altar):


And the "stone of unction," where tradition says Jesus' body was laid to prepare for burial after coming down from the cross:


And, "close at hand" as the Gospel says in John 19:42, the site of the most momentous event in human history, the tomb of Jesus, marked by "the edifice," a boxlike chapel within the church (it's a big place). There, in a Crusader chapel built on Byzantine foundations and revered from the earliest days of Christianity, is this altar commemorating the resurrection:


From this church of staggering antiquity and importance, we set out again:


From the most sacred spot (apart from each believer's own heart) in Christendom we walked to the holiest place in Judaism, and prayed there at the Western Wall:


Many of us placed written prayers in the cracks in the wall:


After a time of prayer there, we made one last stop before lunch at the southwest corner of the Temple and in the Davidson Archaeological Park that has been added just a few years ago:


It's truly amazing how many sights, sounds, smells, and experiences a single morning in Jerusalem can hold! We boarded our bus again and were soon on our way to a delicious lunch outside the Old City.