Jerusalem was considered for centuries to be the center of the universe. The most famous figure in the history of mankind, Jesus Christ, fulfilled his divine mission in this city. This self-guided tour will retrace the steps of Jesus to show you some of the holiest places in the world.
1) Pater Noster Church
Pater Noster Church is a Christian Byzantine church that dates back to 400 AD. It is said that in this place Jesus taught his disciples how to say the Lord's prayer, which begins with the words Our Father, which in Latin translates as Pater Noster. This church is without a roof. It is said that the cave under the church is where Jesus and his disciples prayed but nobody is sure.
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2) Chapel of the Ascension
Chapel of the Ascension is both a Christian and a Muslim holy place. People believe that it was from here that Jesus rose into heaven. At the right is a mosque, Zawiyat al-Adawiyya. It was built in the Crusader architectural style with Muslim features.
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3) Garden of Gethsemane
Gethsemane is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem most famous as the place where Jesus and his disciples prayed the night before Jesus' crucifixion. According to the New Testament it was a place that Jesus and his disciples customarily visited, which allowed Judas to find him on the night of his arrest. According to the Eastern Orthodox Church tradition, Gethsemane is the garden where the Virgin Mary was buried and was assumed into heaven after her dormition on Mount Zion. The Garden of Gethsemane became a focal site for early Christian pilgrims. It was visited in 333 by the anonymous "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", whose Itinerarium Burdigalense is the earliest description left by a Christian traveler in the Holy Land.
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4) Dominus Flevit Church
Dominus Flevit is a Roman Catholic church located on the Mount of Olives immediately facing the Old City of Jerusalem. Here, according to the 19th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus, while walking toward the city of Jerusalem, becomes overwhelmed by the beauty of the Second Temple and predicting its future destruction, and the diaspora of the Jewish people, weeps openly. One of the newest churches in Jerusalem, Dominus Flevit sits atop an ancient site. During construction of the sanctuary archaeologists uncovered artifacts dating back to the Canaanite period, as well as tombs from both the Second Temple and Byzantine eras.
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5) Bethesda
Bethesda is the name of a series of pools in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem, on the path of the Beth Zeta Valley. The history of the pool began in the eighth century BC, when a dam was built across the short Beth Zeta valley, turning it into a reservoir for rain water; a sluice-gate in the dam allowed the height to be controlled, and a rock-cut channel brought a steady stream of water from the reservoir into the city. Prior to archaeological digs, the Pool of Bethesda was identified with the modern so-called Fountain of the Virgin, in the Kidron Valley, not far from the Pool of Siloam, and alternately with the Birket Israel, a pool near the mouth of the valley which runs into the Kidron south of St. Stephen's Gate.
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6) Dormition Abbey
Dormition Abbey stands on Mount Zion. This is said to be the place where many biblical events took place: among them, the Last Supper. The first Christian church was founded here and the Virgin Mary is said to have lived in this place. The Abbey was built by the Germans. The Abbey is known for its mosaics and the wood-and-ivory statue of a sleeping St Mary, mother of Jesus.
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7) Notre Dame de Sion Ecce Homo Convent
Notre Dame de Sion Ecce Homo Convent is a historic place. It is here that Roman soldiers tortured Jesus before He was crucified. It is an obligatory stop on your tour if you want to see history come alive.
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8) Via Dolorosa
The Via Dolorosa (Latin for Way of Grief or Way of Suffering) is a street, in two parts, within the Old City of Jerusalem, held to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion. The Via Dolorosa is the modern remnant of one of the two main east-west routes (Decumanus Maximus) through Aelia Capitolina, as built by Hadrian. The current route has been established since the 18th century, replacing various earlier versions. It is today marked by nine Stations of the Cross; there have been fourteen stations since the late 15th century, with the remaining five stations being inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The route is a place of Christian pilgrimage.
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9) Garden Tomb
The Garden Tomb, located in Jerusalem, outside the city walls and close to the Damascus Gate, is considered by some to be the site of the burial and resurrection of Jesus, and to be adjacent to Golgotha, in contradistinction to the traditional site for these - the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The earliest detailed investigation of the tomb itself was a brief report prepared in 1874 by Conrad Schick, a Swiss antiquarian, but the fullest archaeological study of the area has been the seminal investigation by Gabriel Barkay, professor of Biblical archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Bar-Ilan University, during the late 20th century. The tomb has two chambers, the second to the right of the first, with stone benches along the sides of each wall in the second chamber, except the wall joining it to the first, and along the back wall of the first chamber; the benches have been heavily damaged but are still discernable.
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