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Israel in early spring smells of citron and oranges. Red anemones and poppies blossom amidst yellow and violet wild flowers, while green emanates from olive trees, pines, eucalyptus, ficus, avocado and grapevines. Ancient settlements bear witness to history and historical sights, and modern new quarters, as if carved into steep hills, are nestled along green valleys or stretch along the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, the Sea of Galilee or the Dead Sea. In them dwell Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Armenians… A fantastic mélange of faces, folk costumes and languages. At every step temples and holy sites. Numerically, Israel covers the surface of more than 20,000 square kilometres – of which about 70 percent is desert – and has a population of more than seven million inhabitants. |
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The picture of Israel has elements of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and a bit of Ancient Rome. But the closest to the truth is that it is impossible to compare Israel with any other place and that it simply must be seen.
Israel and Palestine are the locations of the most sacred sites for Christians, Jews and Muslims. That is where God spoke to the Messiahs and to His Son, where He handed Moses the Commandments, spoke about salvation and where he took Jesus Christ up to Him. The place of the birth, life and sufferings of Jesus Christ. The Holy Land.
The Holy Land covers up to 3,500 historical or holy sites. It is difficult to visit them all and even more difficult to decide what to see. Jat Air Lift, Jat Airways’ tour operator, has accomplished an almost impossible task by organizing a 5-day tour to the Holy Land that is excellently organized, with a professional tourist guide, and includes visits to all of the most important Christian holy sites. At the beginning of March, a charming Air Lift group in a good mood with forthcoming Easter on its mind, visited the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the Monastery of St. Saba the Sanctified (Mar Saba), Galilee, the Jordan Valley and Jericho, the Baptismal site, Capernaum, Mount Tabor, the site of the miraculous Transfiguration, Cana in Galilee and Nazareth, as well as the Sea of Galilee, the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea.
The Mount of Olives
Facing Jerusalem on its eastern side lies the Mount of Olives/Eleon (793m), were Jesus Christ frequently visited, delivered sermons and taught prayers to the Apostles, and where he predicted the last days of Jerusalem and the Apostle Paul’s rejection, the place of the Atonement and the Resurrection. On the Mount of Olives stood Virgin Mary when she witnessed Christ’s Resurrection.
The highest structure on the Mount of Olives is the tower of the Russian Monastery of Ascension. It is as high as a six-storey building and more then 200 spiral stairs lead up to the huge bell at its top. The Monastery’s port enshrines a fraction of the rock on which the Mother of God stood during the Crucifixion, which was brought here from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the 19th century. Near the Monastery is one of the most beautiful churches on the Mount of Olives – the Church of Saint Mary Magdalena that belongs to the Russian Outside Churches. The Church was built by Alexander III the Peacemaker in the 19th century. Today, it enshrines a fraction of the Holy Cross on which Jesus Christ was tortured and also relics of many holy men. Above the altar is a huge icon depicting Mary Magdalene during her visit to Rome at the moment of handing an egg-turned to the Emperor Tiberius confirming that “Christ is risen”. She greeted Tiberius saying: Christ has risen.
In a large beautiful garden of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene we met a nun Natalija who comes from Serbia.
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On the Mount of Olives there is also the Roman-Catholic Convent of the Pater Noster, Our Father, of which it is said stands on the site where everything actually began. Here, in the Cave, Jesus Christ retreated with his disciples and here they asked him to teach them prayers. This is where Christ delivered the Sermon to God i.e. Our Father for the first time. This is the place discovered by the holy Empress Helena, who built a church here in 333 AD. That church was demolished during war and the Crusaders built a new one on the same in the 12th century, which was completed by a French Princess in the 19th century. On the walls within the imperial compound, the prayer to Our Father is written in 63 languages, including in Serbian and Old Slavic, as well as in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ. Not far from this place where Christ delivered his Sermon, in the Garden of Gethsemane, there are seven olive trees that are more than two thousand years old, but are still green and bear fruit. That’s where Christ was arrested when he was betrayed by his disciple Judas Iscariot and taken in the first of his two prisons, in the house of the first priest Caiaphas. Near this site is the Church of All Nations, a magnificent basilica, but without windows so that its interior is so dark that everyone can imagine the agony experienced by Christ when he was thrown in there, suffering the world’s pain he carried on his shoulders, when God said to Him that He had to be sacrificed.
At the foot of the Mount of Olives is the Church of the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built on the site where Jesus Christ received her soul and from where angels ascended and took her up to heaven. Here is the Tomb of Saint Mary in the subterranean church illuminated only by numerous icon lamps. Behind the Tomb of Saint Mary, on the altar, is the miraculous icon of the Jerusalem Virgin Mary and also the icon of St. John of Damascus.
Jerusalem
Jerusalem, with its 750,000 inhabitants, is the largest city in Israel and the Israelis consider it their capital. Tel Aviv, the official capital of Israel, is a smaller city but with its suburbs it has the population of two million and is also the administrative, business and cultural centre of the State of Israel. Together with its fashionable suburb Jaffa, Tel Aviv is the realm of shopping, good entertainment and excellent food, which you can find in posh restaurants, a modest Arab tavern or on a small Jewish kibbutz, just one of many pleasant surprises in Israel. Israel is a high standard country, and while prices are not low there is a great assortment of choices so that one can eat or shop and not spend much money. The Israeli currency is the shekel but the US dollar and Euro are also in circulation: 1 US$ 1 is worth 3.5 shekels and 1 Euro 5.5 shekels.
Jerusalem is the Holy City of mankind. To Muslims it is El Quds – Holy, to Jews Jerusalem, their capital since the time of King David, and to Christians the site of Christ’s sufferings and the crucifixion.
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Jerusalem means the City of Peace but short were the periods of peace in its history. It was conquered and destroyed by the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Muslims, Christians, the Mameluk Turks … It is located on the Judean Hills and is more than 4,000 years old. All buildings in Jerusalem are made of stone or are covered with stone. Today, in Jerusalem, we differentiate three quarters: in the new quarters live the Israeli Jews, in the eastern quarters live the Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship and in the Old City there are Christians, Armenians, Jews and Arabs. The Old City was built in 1536 during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent and doesn’t look like the town where Jesus Christ lived, but the path of his sufferings and the site of his crucifixion are precisely mapped and reconstructed.
The Way of the Cross or Sorrowful Way, Via Dolorosa, a steep road about 100 steps along which Jesus passed carrying the Cross on which he was crucified, begins from the Lion’s or St. Stephan’s Gate and leads to Golgotha/Calvary on top of which stands the Church of the Holy Sepulchre /Savior’s Tomb/ and the Redeemer’s Church. Orthodox Christians pass the fourteen stations on this path. The first is Christ’s prison, the Praetorium, the station where Christ receives the cross on his shoulders, and the last stations include: the station where Jesus is nailed to the Cross, where the Cross with Jesus nailed to it is raised up, where Jesus’ body is taken off the Cross and then anointed on the stone plate and the station where Jesus’ body is laid into the tomb.
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