MEA Weekly Picture from Israel

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On the road to Jerusalem

Avir is on the road again, with walking shoes on and camera ready, catching all the best sights of the Jerusalem skyline and the Old City. The view from the Mount of Olives is one of the best places to check out. This view of Jerusalem, where every building shines white with its golden-coloured sandstone, is a sight to behold!  It is quite beautiful. Like most modern cities, Jerusalem’s architecture is uniquely different. Contemporary designs in Jerusalem are essentially Post-Modern, with lingering influences of the International Bauhaus style, as well as Functionalism, a late-20th Century reaction to Modernism, which itself was a post-World War development against established forms and designs.

There are even some old structures dating back thousands of years to Biblical times and many new structures that were built with the latest technology. High-rises weren’t always part of Jerusalem’s urban planning plan, although in its day, the Temple of Solomon rose to about 20-storys high on what is now known as the Temple Mount.

“Then Solomon began to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. It was on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David, his father.”  (2 Chron.3:1)

The Temple Mount is the trapezoid-shaped, walled-in area at the south-eastern corner of the Old City of Jerusalem. The four walls surrounding it date back – at least in their lower parts – to the time of the Second Jewish Temple, built at the end of first century B.C.E.    These huge supporting walls, partly buried underground, were built around the summit of the eastern hill identified as Mount Moriah, the site traditionally viewed as the location of where Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice and the known location of the two Jewish Temples. The gaps between the walls and the mount were filled in to create a large surface area around the Temple. Its eastern wall and the eastern half of its southern wall form part of the city wall on those sides. Deep valleys (now partly filled by debris) run outside the walls (northeast, east, south, west), thus separating the Temple Mount from and elevating it above its surroundings, both inside and outside the city.

Many people who live and work in Jerusalem, including the tens of thousands of visitors a year, never  seem to get bored with the amazing views it provides.

MEA Weekly Picture from Israel

Pictures from Israel

Click to Enlarge

Here we see Avir posing as a statue at the entrance to the Lion’s Gate. This road leads from the Old City of Jerusalem to many place including the Mount of Olives. Avir is trying to look as fierce as a lion, ready to pounce. If you look closely, you can see a pair of lions embedded in stone on both sides of the gate. The road, inside the wall, approximately one hundred metres distance, becomes the Via Dolorosa Road.

The symbol of Lions is well-known in Jewish history and in the Bible. The Lion of Judah identifies the Jewish people with Jerusalem, King David, the Nation of Israel and Messiah. Many surrounding nations at one time or other throughout history have also identified with an image of the lion. The lions which appear on the upper wall of both sides of this gate were added by the Ottomans in honuor of the Mameluke Sultan, Bybars (1223-1277), who was known as the “The Lion of Egypt and Syria”, a great warrior who conquered the Middle East, defeating both the Crusaders and the Mongols.

The Bible text attributes the characteristics of a lion, being fierce and forceful, to the Kingdom of Judah and the Messiah who would come from the line of Judah as part of the promises to the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Y’hudah is a lion’s cub;
my son, you stand over the prey.
He crouches down and stretches like a lion;
like a lioness, who dares to provoke him? (Genesis 49:9)