Nate's Adventures: January 2020

We are in Israel the place of hummus, Jesus and the Holy land itself.

It’s population is 8.712 million. It’s capital is Jerusalem. Did you know that of the population 74.2% are Jewish 17.8%, Muslim, 2% Christian, 1.6 Druze, 4.4% different and no faith. It’s located in the Middle East. It’s bordering countries are Syria, Lebanon, Golan, west bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan and Egypt.

The flag looks like this.

The flag symbolized Judaism. The blue stripes and the white background mean the Tallit ( a prayer shawl worn by religious Jews.) The blue star is the star of David from David and Goliath. His star is one of the main symbols of Judaism.

Their money is called a shekel. On the shekel are Hebrew poets. This is what the skekel looks like.

First, we went on a tour of the old city in Jerusalem… Yep, there’s another old city ;). We met our new guide, Gila, and we learned about the time line of Jerusalem here are the periods

Israelite 1100 - 586 bc
Persian 538-332 bc
Hellenistic 332-63 bc
Roman 63bc-324 ad
Jesus period 0-33 ad
Byzantine 324-638 ad
Early Islamic 638-1099
Crusader 1099-1187
Ayyubid 1187-1260
Mamluk 1260-1517
Ottoman or Turkish 1517-1917
British 1917-1948
state of Israel 1948- present

Did you know that there are 4 quarters in the old city of Jerusalem? The Jewish, the Muslim, the Christian and the Armenian quarters.

The old city of Jerusalem is the most fought over city in the world! Why is fought over? It is fought over because it is important to all of three of the religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity and has lots of sacred places. Wow, that’s cool ;).

We saw the old walls of Jerusalem. They are 4,018 meters long and 12 meters tall. We walked on the walls.

view from the wall of first city built outside the wall

view of Mount Olives

Inside the wall it is 890,308 square meters or 220 acres. We walked from the Jafa gate, which is in the Christian quarter.

walking through Jafa gate

We walked until we got to the Zion gate. Zion gate is the closest to the tomb of the founder of Jerusalem, King David. The tomb of David is a worship place for Jews and the Christians. Next, we went to the place where the last supper happened in the bible with Jesus.

David's tomb

room where the last supper took place

We went went to a jewish place where they believe you are the most closest to God called the Western Wall or Wailing wall. You can pray or write a message to God. It is the most religious site for Jewish people.

Then …… we went to a hummus and falafel restaurant. It was amazing and I got to make my own Falafel!!!!

After that, we went to a small spice market. We shot right past it to get to the last part.

Finally, we saw the path Jesus had to walk before he got nailed to the cross. (Stations of the cross) It showed where he was told he was going to die, where he got his crown of thornes and other important parts. He had to walk and cross all by himself and some people helped him up when he fell. He also saw, where his mom met him on the walk. We saw the place where Jesus was crucified, and where he rose from the dead. When we were at Jesus’s tomb we also went into a tomb of another person from the first temple.people from 536-332bc!

Place where Jesus falls for the first time

Place where Jesus sees his Mother

another place where Jesus fell but put his hand in this spot

Church of the Holy Sepulchre -where Jesus was crucified

Site where Jesus was nailed to the cross

site of Jesus's tomb

Next, we went to the Israel museum. It had stuff like ancient scrolls like the Dead Sea scrolls, in the shrine of the book and mummies from Mesoptamia or Iraq and Egypt. Did you know that the ancient Egypt created Emojis but in language called heiroglyphics? Super cool.

After that, we went to the Holocaust museum. It was a hard day. The holocaust killed more than 6 million Jews. The Nazis killed 15,000 jews a day. We saw stuff like old railroads, the things people had to wear,, Nazi banners and posters and photos of the Jewish peoples family, what the concentration camps looked like. We also heard about people's stories of survival and how their loved ones were killed. It was sooooooooooo sad! :(.

Then, we went to the Jerusalem market. It had almost everything beside electronics and video games. We had lunch there. We had a shawarma for lunch. Delicious.

Finally, we went to Tel Aviv, which means the old and the new because it's the newest city of Israel!! We saw Gila again and we went on another tour.

This is Gila our awesome guide and friend

symbol of Tel Aviv

First, we went to the the old city of Tel Aviv or Jaffa. Jaffa is a port city older than Alexandria. We saw stuff like the place were Christianity started, the port in the greek myths of Perseus were he killed the sea monster and got the girl, mosques, churches and synagogues.

Next, we went to the German district we didn't do much there but learned a lot. We saw an old garden and a really cool church.

We did a street art tour too. My favourite art was the Lego street art.

Finally, we went to the old tallest building in the middle east. (it isn't the tallest any more). We learned about the freedom of Israel. 33 countries voted for Israel and 13 voted against it. Guess what! 1 of the countries who voted for Israel was Canada!!! Also right when the British left all of the bordering countries invaded Israel. Not cool.

We went to the Dead Sea. It's the most lowest place on earth and the most salty waters. It's so salty that nothing can live there. Do you know it isn't really a sea? It is actually a lake. You float because it's so salty. They say it is actually hard to get up, but it really wasn't. It was so much fun to float.