Israel, holy places of Christianity: review, history and reviews

Israel is a country in which millions of people have come for many decades to see the cities and places connected with the life challenges of Jesus and his mother, to touch the shrines and to feel with their souls, standing by the Wailing Wall, their involvement in history, regardless of From what you are a nationality. Therefore, a trip to Israel to holy places is a very popular tourist destination.

Jerusalem

The city that experienced the times of recovery and decline, saw different cultures and civilizations and is a shrine for many thousands of people professing different religions - this is Jerusalem. Here the redemptive feat of Christ was accomplished. Any tour of the holy places of Israel begins exactly from here, from one of the ancient cities, the cradle of three religions - Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

The walls of the city were built by the Turks in the 16th century, and the stones, from which they are made up, remember the times of Herod and the Crusaders. At the site of the ancient city gates are attracting the attention of tourists the Golden Gate. According to the beliefs of the Jews, the Messiah was to enter the city through this gate. Jesus through them made his entrance. Now the gate is walled in by Muslims, so that the next Messiah could not enter them. Many legends are associated with these gates. Tourists and pilgrims guides always tell an interesting fact that the historical Jerusalem is at a depth of 5 meters. That is, the streets of Jerusalem - in the cellars.

Shrines of Jerusalem

To the shrines of Judaism is the Temple Mount - Moria, a revered by the Jews holy place - the Wailing Wall and the cave in Hebron. Muslim mosques include the al-Aqsa mosque, where before the ascension to heaven, Prophet Muhammad was transferred by Allah. For Muslims, this is the third most important city after Mecca and Medina. Christian shrines, in the first place, are places related to the birth and life of Jesus Christ. In Jerusalem Christ preached, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he addressed the Father, here he was betrayed and crucified, pilgrims from all over the world come here to the Via Dolorosa. The trip is also interesting for tourists who like to travel to historical places. However, a trip to Israel to holy places, at prices is not always available in the period of Easter and Christmas. Usually, during this period the cost of a plane ticket and the servicing of pilgrims and tourists becomes higher.

Temple Mount

In the Old Testament of the Bible, the Temple Mount is mentioned as the place on which the First Temple was built. It is here that, according to the prophecy, the Last Judgment on the Day of Judgment should take place. Interesting is the fact that Jews, Christians and Muslims equally claim this shrine. What just did not happen over 2000 years on this summit of Jerusalem! Jews and Christians who come to holy places in Israel consider themselves involved in the Temple Mount mentioned in the Bible. The history of the events that occurred for many hundreds of years has made its own amendments. Now the mountain is surrounded by high walls with a length on the perimeter of about 1.5 km, and on the square above the old city there are Muslim shrines - the Dome over the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Christians and Jews can be on the Temple Mount, but praying is strictly forbidden, as well as carrying books and religious things that are not related to the Muslim faith.

Wall of Tears

Who comes on an excursion to the holy places of Israel, by all means come to the Wailing Wall, which survived by miracle the ancient wall of the Second Temple. There are rules how to behave at the Wailing Wall. So, if you become a face to the Wall, men pray to the left, women to the right. A man must be in a bale. According to an unknown tradition, people place notes between the stones in the Wall with various requests to the Almighty. They write mostly tourists. When such notes are collected quite a lot, they are collected and buried in the allotted place at the Pancake Mountain.

The Wailing Wall for the people of Israel is not only a symbol of grief over the destroyed temples. Somewhere in the subconscious of the Jews it is more a prayer carried through the centuries, the prayer of the exiled people about the return from eternal reference and the request to the Lord God for the peace and unity of the Israeli people.

How to find the place of the crucifixion of Christ

The Romans, who destroyed Jerusalem, set their pagan temples in a new city. And only in the time of St. Constantine, when the persecution of Christians ceased, in the IV century, the question arose of finding the burial place of Jesus. Now began to destroy the pagan temples and temples introduced by Adrian in 135, - this is the story. Through a multitude of military expeditions, called crusades, the liberation of the shrine from the infidels passed. And after a while Queen Elene found a place where the Savior was crucified. At the behest of the tsarina, the construction of the church was started on this site. In 335 the church was consecrated. Historians talk about its beauty and grandeur. But less than 300 years, he suffered from the Persians. In 1009, it was destroyed to the ground by Muslims, and only in 1042 it was restored, but not in its former beauty.

Church of the Ascension of Christ

The most important and visited among the holy places of Christianity in Israel has always been the Church of the Ascension of Christ, or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem, first of all, come to worship the stone on which Jesus was anointed, to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The place where the temple is built and operates now, at the beginning of the first century, was outside the walls of Jerusalem, far from the dwellings. Near the hill where the execution of Jesus was performed, there was a cave, in which Jesus was buried. According to their customs, the Jews buried the dead in caves, in which there were several halls with niches for the deceased and an anointing stone, on which the body was prepared for burial. He was oiled and wrapped in a shroud. The entrance to the cave was covered by a stone.

A temple with many halls and passages, including the Holy Sepulcher and Golgotha, is at the end of the road Jesus went to Calvary. Traditionally on Good Friday, before the Orthodox Easter, the Cross procession is marching along this path. The procession is moving along the Old City, along Via Dolorosa, which means in Latin "Path of Sorrow", and ends in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Tourists who came to make a pilgrimage to holy places in Israel take part in this process and worship.

Six Christian denominations, Armenian, Greek-Orthodox, Catholic, Coptic, Ethiopian and Syrian, have the right to hold services in the church. Each denomination has its own part of the complex and the time allotted for prayers.

Garden of Gethsemane

A unique sight of Jerusalem, which must be seen when visiting the holy places of Israel is a garden located at the foot of the Mount of Olives. According to the Gospel, Jesus Christ prayed here before the crucifixion. In this garden grow eight centuries-old olive trees, which are supposed to be witnesses of this prayer. Modern methods of research have made it possible, on the basis of radiocarbon analysis, to ascertain the real age of the growing olives in the garden. It turned out that their age is very respectable - nine centuries. The researchers concluded that all these trees are related to each other, since they have one parent tree, near which, perhaps, Jesus himself passed. History preserved the fact that when the conquest of Jerusalem by the Romans were completely cut down all the trees in the garden. But the olives have persistent vitality and could give good shoots out of strong roots. What gives also the confidence that the current trees of the garden are the direct heirs of those that Jesus saw.

Birthplace of the Virgin

Visit to holy places in Israel includes a trip to the birthplace of the mother of Jesus Christ. Not far from the Sheep Gate, almost at the exit of the city, was the home of the parents of Mary, Joachim and Anna. Currently, this place is a Greek temple. Above the entrance doors of the temple is the inscription: "The Birth Place of Virgin Mary", which is translated as "The Nativity of the Mother of God". To get into the house, you need to go down to the basement, since the current Jerusalem, as the guide said, is about 5 meters higher than the previous one.

Bethlehem and Nazareth

Pilgrims visiting Christian holy places in Israel come to Bethlehem to go to the Church of the Nativity, erected in the place where Jesus was supposedly born. The temple is more than 16 centuries old. Believers come to the temple to touch the star, set in the place where the nursery stood; Visit the cave of Joseph and the cave with the burial of babies killed by the order of Herod.

The next place of pilgrimage is the city where Jesus spent his childhood and youth. This is Nazareth. Here, in Nazareth, the Angel brought the Good News of Mary's future mother. Pilgrims and tourists, visiting holy places, always enter it and in 2 churches: St. Joseph and the Archangel Gabriel. Over the past decade, the old part of Nazareth has been renovated and restored the architectural beauty of narrow streets.

Other Holy Places in Israel

The usual program for tourists visiting the holy places of Israel is very rich. Only in one Jerusalem can you stay for weeks and every day discover something new for yourself. In order to somehow squeeze the deadlines and stay within the allotted time for the tour, the agencies organize trip-free trips to holy places of Israel in buses accompanied by a guide-interpreter. Of course, there are stops, it is possible to take pictures for memory. From the window of the bus you can see the Mount of Beatitude, where Jesus Christ delivered the famous Sermon on the Mount; Drive through Cana of Galilee, where Christ turned water into wine. You can make a stop in the city of Jericho, which, according to experts, more than 6 thousand years. Not far from the city is the Mount of Temptations and the Forty Days Monastery where Jesus fasted 40 days after the baptism. The next stop is at the Jordan River, at the place of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist. And a sign that it is forbidden to swim here, does not stop a group of tourists.

The time allotted for a tourist trip passes quickly. Impressions, photographs and some souvenirs will long remind you of the days spent in holy places. And, of course, recommendations to your friends and relatives: "Be sure to go to Israel." Places that I would like to see on the Promised Land are many, that's why pilgrims and tourists always come here to once again touch the holy places.