Israel is a country that millions of people have been coming to for many decades to see with their own eyes the cities and places connected by the life trials of Jesus and his mother, to touch the shrines and feel with their souls, standing at the Wailing Wall, their participation in history, regardless of what nationality you are. Therefore, a trip to Israel to the holy places is a very popular tourist destination.
Jerusalem
A city that has gone through times of rise and fall, has seen different cultures and civilizations, and is a shrine for many thousands of people of different religions - this is Jerusalem. Here the redemptive feat of Christ was accomplished. Any tour of the holy places of Israel starts from here, from one of the ancient cities, the cradle of three religions - Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
The walls of the city were built by the Turks in the 16th century, and the stones from which they are built remember the times of Herod and the Crusaders. At the site of the ancient city gates, there are eye-catchingtourists Golden Gate.
According to Jewish beliefs, the Messiah was supposed to enter the city through this gate. Jesus made his entrance through them. Now the gates are walled up by Muslims so that the next Messiah cannot enter them. Many legends are connected with this gate. Guides always tell tourists and pilgrims an interesting fact that historical Jerusalem is located at a depth of 5 meters. That is, the streets of Jerusalem are in cellars.
Holy Jerusalem
The shrines of Judaism include the Temple Mount - Moriah, a holy place revered by the Jews - the Wailing Wall and a cave in Hebron. Moslem shrines include the al-Aqsa mosque, where the Prophet Muhammad was transferred before ascension to heaven by Allah. For Muslims, this is the third most important city after Mecca and Medina. Christian shrines, first of all, are places associated with the birth and life of Jesus Christ. In Jerusalem, Christ preached, in the Garden of Gethsemane he addressed the Father, here he was betrayed and crucified, pilgrims from all over the world come here to Via Dolorosa. The trip is also interesting for tourists who love traveling to historical places. However, a trip to Israel to holy places, at prices, is not always available during the Easter and Christmas periods. Usually, during this period, the cost of a plane ticket and service for pilgrims and tourists becomes higher.
Temple Mount
In the Old Testament of the Bible, the Temple Mount is mentioned as the place where the First Temple was built. It is here, according to the prophecy, that the Last Judgment should take place inJudgment Day. An interesting fact is that Jews, Christians and Muslims equally claim this shrine. What has not happened for 2000 years on this peak of Jerusalem! Jews and Christians who come to the holy places in Israel consider themselves involved in the Temple Mount mentioned in the Bible.
The history of events over many hundreds of years has made its own amendments. Now the mountain is surrounded by high walls with a perimeter length of about 1.5 km, and on the square above the old city there are Muslim shrines - the Dome over the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque. Christians and Jews can be on the Temple Mount, but praying is strictly prohibited, as well as bringing books and religious things that are not related to the Muslim faith.
Wailing Wall
Who comes on excursions to the holy places of Israel, certainly come to the Wailing Wall, miraculously survived the ancient wall of the Second Temple. There are rules on how to behave at the Wailing Wall. So, if you face the Wall, men pray on the left, women on the right. A man must be sure to wear a kippah. According to an unknown tradition, people place notes between the stones in the Wall with various requests to the Almighty. They are mostly written by tourists. When quite a lot of such notes are collected, they are collected and buried in a designated place near Maslenichnaya Mountain.
The Wailing Wall for the people of Israel is not only a symbol of mourning for the destroyed temples. Somewhere in the subconscious of the Jews, it is rather a prayer carried through the ages, a prayerexiled people for the return from eternal exile and a request to the Lord God for the peace and unity of the Israeli people.
How did they find the place of the crucifixion of Christ
The Romans, who destroyed Jerusalem, set up their pagan temples in the new city. And only in the time of St. Constantine, when the persecution of Christians ceased, in the 4th century, the question arose of finding the burial place of Jesus. Now they began to destroy the pagan temples and temples introduced by Hadrian in 135 - such is the story. Through many military expeditions, called crusades, the liberation of the shrine from the infidels took place. And after some time, Queen Elena found the place where the Savior was crucified. At the behest of the queen, the construction of a temple was begun on this site. In 335 the temple was consecrated. Historians talk about its beauty and grandeur. But less than 300 years later, he suffered from the Persians. In 1009, it was completely destroyed by Muslims, and only in 1042 was it restored, but not in its former glory.
Church of the Ascension of Christ
The most important and visited among the holy places of Christianity in Israel has always been the Church of the Ascension of Christ, or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem, first of all, come to bow to the stone on which Jesus was anointed, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The place where the temple was built and now operates, at the beginning of the first century, was outside the walls of Jerusalem, far from dwellings. Near the hill where Jesus was executed, there was a cave where Jesus was buried. According to their customs, the Jews buried the dead in caves, in which there were several halls with niches for the dead andan anointing stone on which the body was prepared for burial. He was anointed with oils and wrapped in a shroud. The entrance to the cave was covered with a stone.
The temple with many halls and passages, including the Holy Sepulcher and Calvary, is located at the end of the road along which Jesus walked to Calvary. Traditionally, on Good Friday, before Orthodox Easter, the procession of the Cross takes place along this path. The procession moves through the Old City, along Via Dolorosa, which means in Latin "The Way of Sorrow", and ends in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Tourists who come to make a pilgrimage to holy places in Israel take part in this procession and worship.
Six Christian denominations, Armenian, Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Coptic, Ethiopian and Syrian, have the right to hold services in the temple. Each denomination has its own part of the complex and the time allotted for prayers.
Gethsemane Garden
A unique sight of Jerusalem, which must be seen when visiting the holy places of Israel, is a garden located at the foot of the Mount of Olives. According to the Gospel, Jesus Christ prayed here before the crucifixion. In this garden, there are eight centuries-old olive trees, which, it is believed, could be witnesses of this prayer. Modern research methods have made it possible, on the basis of radiocarbon analysis, to determine the real age of olives growing in the garden.
It turned out that their age is very respectable - nine centuries. The researchers concluded thatall these trees are related to each other, since they have one parent tree, next to which, perhaps, Jesus himself passed. History has preserved the fact that during the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans, all the trees in the garden were completely cut down. But olives have a strong vitality and from strong roots could give good shoots. Which also gives confidence that the current trees of the garden are the direct heirs of the very ones that Jesus saw.
Birthplace of the Virgin
The visit to the holy places in Israel includes a trip to the birthplace of the mother of Jesus Christ. Not far from the Sheep Gate, almost at the exit from the city, was the home of Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna. At present, there is a Greek temple on this site. Above the entrance doors of the temple there is an inscription: “The Birth Place of Virgin Mary”, which in translation is “The Place of the Nativity of the Mother of God”. To get into the house, you need to go down to the basement, since the current Jerusalem, as the guide said, is about 5 meters higher than the previous one.
Bethlehem and Nazareth
Pilgrims visiting Israel's Christian holy sites travel to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Jesus is believed to have been born.
The temple is more than 16 centuries old. Believers come to the temple to touch the star, installed in the place where the manger stood; visit the cave of Joseph and the cave with the burial of babies killed by order of Herod.
The next place of pilgrimage is the city where Jesus spent his childhood and youth. This is Nazareth. Here in Nazareth an angel broughtGood News of the future mother of Christ Mary. Pilgrims and tourists, visiting holy places, always go to it and 2 more churches: St. Joseph and the Archangel Gabriel. Over the past decade, the Old Town of Nazareth has been renovated and the architectural beauty of the narrow streets restored.
Other holy places in Israel
The usual program for tourists visiting the holy places of Israel is very intense. You can stay in Jerusalem alone for weeks and discover something new every day. In order to somehow compress the dates and meet the allotted time for the tour, the agencies organize included tours at no cost trips to the holy places of Israel in buses, accompanied by a guide-interpreter. Of course, stops are made, there is an opportunity to take pictures for memory. From the bus window you can see the Mount of Beatitude, where Jesus Christ delivered the famous Sermon on the Mount; drive through Cana of Galilee, where Christ turned water into wine. You can make a stop in the city of Jericho, which, according to experts, is over 6 thousand years old.
Not far from the city - the Mountain of Temptations and the Forty Day Monastery, where Jesus fasted for 40 days after the baptism. The next stop is at the Jordan River, at the place where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. And the sign that swimming is prohibited here does not stop a group of tourists.
Tourist travel time passes quickly. Impressions, photographs and some souvenirs will long remind you of the days spent in holy places. And, of course, recommendations to your friends and family:"Be sure to go to Israel." There are many places that I would like to see in the Promised Land, which is why pilgrims and tourists constantly come here to touch the holy places again.
