Church of the Holy Sepulchre

We stayed in a hostel Called Hashimi right inside the Damascus Gate. We soon found out it was the perfect location b/c it seemed to be a 10min walk from everywhere! We arrived late at night b/c we took buses from Cario to Jerusalem saving us around $700 but increasing the travel time by about 10hrs:) However, it wasn't that bad b/c we were able to see the beautiful desert mountains of Sinai, hang out in the gorgeous hollywood style Israeli city Elait, and see the beautiful scenery of the Dead Sea. When we woke up the following morning we walked up to the third floor of our hotel (for breakfast) and saw the most beautiful view of Jerusalem,,,We were Shocked at how small it was!!!! We ate the most delicious hummus, soft flat bread, and olives while looking at the beautiful ancient city and the mt. of olives. The funniest part of the view is that it looks like solid rooftops without streets or walkways. I thought to myself 'how do people get around? it looks like solid buildings' The city is divided into 3 basic quarters Christian, Jewish and Muslim. We had an outline of what we wanted to see in each quarter, so we ate breakfast looked out onto the city and decided what we wanted to see first.

The first place we went was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. When we stepped out of our hotel we realized why the city looked like solid buildings. All the walkways were covered with small opening every few meters to let light in. All he buildings and walkways were made of stone---it was so fascinating even to walk the streets. Since we came when most schools are opening there were no tourists. It was a little ere to walk down deserted streets in the morning hours, but we did enjoy the feeling of being some of the only ones in most of the museums, churches, and other sites.

The Church of the Holy Sepluchre is built over the Temple of the god Apollo built by the Romans when they ransacked Jerusalem in 70AD. The mother of Constantine, Queen Helena, came to Jerusalem and pointed at a bunch of sites and said Christ did this here and that there, was killed here and buried there, etc. etc. After she said he was killed and buried where Appollo's Temple stood they built a massive church and preserved it as a sacred spot with lots of relics.

The Church is beautiful and it was very reverent inside. It is divided into many chapels from many different denominations. In the past they have had some nasty battles over space and privilege. The Copts and Armenians in particular fought hard over spaces in the church and took it all the way up to the Israeli Supreme Court. They stole each others keys and all kinds of nasty things. Most of those contentions have settled now, and every morning at 4am a Muslim comes to unlock the door and open the church b/c it was decided Muslims could be a neutral mediator party.

We loved the church. As I said it was beautiful and felt special. I'm not saying I believe Christ was crucified and buried there, im not much into relics and that short of stuff, but I do think the stories are cool and enjoy seeing them and hearing them. Casey and I felt it was special that the people put so much time and energy to make a gorgeous chapel to celebrate the importance of Christ's sacrifice. We felt God's love poured out upon this place as people exercised there faith in respecting and preserving the importance of that act of love.