Down a small cobblestone alley in Bethany we find a tomb that dates to the time of Christ.
A very steep set of stairs goes down to the tomb.
Once all the way down you can go through a small crawl space to get into the tomb area. Here the soon to be Sister Jolley demonstrates coming out of the tomb.
Inside the actual tomb is a very small room
Beautiful garden courts and buildings surround the tomb.
Some ancient mosaic floors.
Steve reading with the students scriptures from the last week of Christ's life.
A charming ancient church around the corner from the tomb.
Here is a description of the following church.
The golden shapes in the dome had beautiful mosaics.
Around the dome of the church were these murals.
Court yards and walk ways back to the bus
Bethphage and the Triumphal Entry. This is a crusadors church built to honor Christ's Triumphal Entry. It is decorated different than any church I have been in here.
The colored murals had bright pastel images reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel.
On the lower walls were monochromatic paintings.
The ceiling had random wild flowers. It made it feel very homey like grandma's wall paper.
This is the rock that the early crusaders designated as the one Jesus stood on to mount the donkey to ride into Jerusalem. It is about 4 feet tall and has murals painted on all sides.
This is an oil painting on one of the walls.
We now go to Pater Noster a church and court yard dedicated to the Mysteries and Christ's Ascension into heaven.
This is an entrance to a cave that Christ may have taught the disciples in during his 40 day ministry
Next we go to a church-Dominius Flevit-that was built to commemorate Christ's lamenting over Jerusalem. This is a modern day view of where he may have been looking.
I just had to throw in this picture. On top of the stone walls that surround many churches they have embedded broken glass bottles to keep people from climbing over.
This church is next to a large cemetery. These are little boxes that once the body has decomposed in the larger tombs they remove and store the bones in these small boxes.
I thought this was sweet.
This is the view from inside the church.
Looking up into the golden dome.
A mosaic of a mother hen gathering her chicks.
Some fun succulents. I can't wait tell spring. I here the flowers are amazing.
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