JERUSALEM OLD AND NEW

The day tour of Jerusalem starts with a breathtaking panoramic overview of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and the entire Old City of Jerusalem. This is where we can imagine the glorious Second Temple just before it was destroyed in 70 CE. The Second Temple was an important Jewish Holy place of worship and gathering between 516 BCE and 70 CE.  

Continue the tour driving along Kidron Valley viewing Mount Olives, an ancient Jewish burial site. The Garden of Gethsemane is a beautiful garden with some very old olive trees which got its name from Greek. Its name is a corruption of the Hebrew words “gath-shmanin” – oil press. The Church of All Nations, also known as the Church of the Agony. It was built in the 1920s with donations from Christian communities all over the world, also known as the Church of All Nations.

We enter the Old City passing the Armenian Quarter, one of the four quarters of the old city of Jerusalem.  A large section of the Armenian Quarter is occupied by a closed compound of the Armenian Monastery.

Then we head to Cardo, the main street of the old city 1500 years ago. It was destroyed over the decades and then restored. Today, the Cardo is a vibrant marketplace full of art galleries and unique goods.

After that, we will continue through the Jewish Quarter, one of the quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem with many holy and historical sites of the Jewish people. We then proceed to the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall or Kotel.

The Kotel, or Western/Wailing Wall, was part of a big renovation project initiated by King Herod in the year 37 BCE. It is the western support wall built during this widening of the Temple Mount Plaza. The Second Temple was destroyed in the year 70 CE.  The Western Wall was the remnant closest to the site of the Temple’s Holy of Holies that was accessible to Jews.  Therefore, it became a place of prayer and yearning for Jews around the world.   

Continuing the tour we walk along the Via Dolorosa. This is the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion. We will walk past the Stations of the Cross and end at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is identified as the place both of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. 

After a short walk through the market, we exit the Old City and continue to Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, a living memorial to the 6 million Jews that perished in the Holocaust and those who risked their lives to save them.   

On Fridays, Saturdays, and Jewish High Holidays, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum is closed. On those days the tour visits King David’s Tomb, the Hall of the Last Supper, and the Garden of Gethsemane.