Immersed myself in history through Old City --- Western Wall (Wailing Wall) above and below

I took the convenience totally by granted!! With Notre Dame Hotel being located right opposite to the Old City, I basically saw the Old City each day when I exit the hotel and passed by on my way back. With less than 5 minutes walk, this allowed me easy access to the Jaffa Gate of Old City when ever I want. The wall and gate barricading the Old City is especially pretty during sunrise and set due to the golden sunlight reflecting off the yellowish stones that made up the whole structure. 

See the amazing golden colour on the wall of Old City during sunset time

see the colour changes on the wall of Old City at different time of day

Wall of Old City at night

Jaffa Gate

Old City - near Tower of David

Tower of David

The Old City has many gates access, but the easiest one to find the Information center was Jaffa Gate. The wall barricading the Old city somewhat reminds me of The Great Wall of China, probably because of its similar stone structure and colour. 

One thing I noticed were the heavily armed police that were patrolling the area, actually I wasn't sure if they were police or army soldiers as they had bulletproof vest and they were heavily armed. When I said heavily armed I mean HEAVILY with AK and stuff (pardon me with my lack of knowledge on guns' names). They actually reminded me of the outfit and equipment I bought many years ago when I was into playing war game every weekend with my friends in Hong Kong. And there were many female police officer too, I admired them totally as these women soldiers had to carry the heavy loaded equipment while they do the patrol. 

At first, I thought they will look dead serious and they must be the people you do not want to mess up with, but you would be surprised as they seemed very relax, some were actually standing around playing with their iphones, and some chat happily with their colleagues. I was quite nervous when I passed through the checkpoint (first one so far when I got to Old City) but I came to realisation that it was just a standard thing there, checkpoints were everywhere, malls, major attraction etc. So there was nothing to be worried about really and after my first checkpoint experience, I learnt that I just have to walk through it with bag readily open for inspection, oh and make sure you have a big smile and try to say shalom to the soldiers so that you get an easy way out haha. In fact, they were very friendly bunch, despite their heavily armed outfit but they were very friendly to tourists. While I was at the checkpoint, 2 soldiers greeted me with big smile and asked me if I wanted to share their lunch. yeh I knew it was a joke but they were friendly indeed, as one of them were eating shawarma.

Police cars on patrol

heavily armed police officers / soldiers from army patrolling the area

Instead of focusing on visiting by quarters, since Old City is made of four quarters, The Armenian, Muslims, Christian and Jewish. I planned my route by sites.It is quite insane when you think about the complexity of culture and religion mixes between the 4 groups, being clustered one next to each other in a closed knit community surrounded by 4 main walls. But I guess this is why it is the holiest place on earth? 

Thanks to Peray's recommendation on seeing Western Wall tunnel as a must, I pre-booked my ticket for this 75minutes tunnel tour, one that takes you underneath the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall. The tunnel way or in fact more like a city to me that sits underneath the Western Wall was definitely larger than I thought, with water ways and many stairways that seemed to lead down and even further beneath the tunnel ground. The Western Wall tunnel tour was fascinating, the explanation by our guide was good and entertaining and you will definitely not fall asleep. This tunnel tour definitely opened up my eyes to a whole new world. Thumbs up totally!!! And this was no hard walk as well, the whole tour was easily paced walk with many stops throughout. It was also interesting to learn how, why and when the Old City was built, the purpose and the significance it had for the different religious groups that lived there.

The tunnel tour was 30NLS - good price for a guided tour

Our tour guide with perfect English

 

person praying at the Wall inside the tunnel

One would also see how sacred the Western Wall is for the Jews, because even underneath the wall there were many Jews praying and putting little pieces of paper into notches on the walls in the tunnel just like what they do against the Western Wall above the ground. There were also many hebrew bibles lying around inside the tunnel for people to read and pray even though the tunnel was dimly lit by the light bulbs underneath the ground.

for reading and praying inside the tunnel

Hebrew bible provided inside the tunnel

written prayers into the cracks of the wall inside the tunnel

Jewish women praying inside Western Wall Tunnel

me attempting to take a self portrait

this shows how narrow in some parts of the tunnel can get but with amazing stone texture

I actually went back to the Western Wall twice, with the first time missing out on going into the women section to see the Wall at a closer distance and feel the actual atmosphere, so I went back on another day to re-visit it. I've never seen anything like this before, there were women holding up the smallest hebrew bible you can imagine, praying, weeping against the wall and most Jews were walking backward away from the wall when they had to depart. It was a custom to do so, well as for myself being a tourist, I just walked away normally after I finished seeing The Wall. It was also here where you could see Israeli Jews in fascinating black costumes, braided ear hairlocks, long beards, fury hat etc (biggest one you could imagine),

All in all, The Western Wall was easy to find in the Old City, and you are most likely to walk past it many times when you are venturing through the alleyways of Old City whether you are just shopping and trying to find the right gift for your return in the Muslim quarter souq, or you are on your way to Dome of rock or you are walking the Way of the Cross. 

water fountain for cleansing your hands before visiting Western Wall

Jewish Women praying at the Western Wall

written prayers into the cracks of the wall

Just me visiting the Western Wall

Israeli Jewish family walked by

Men section on left and women section on right at Western Wall

Jews praying at The Wall

this photo was taken on my visit to Western Wall, and all the Israeli Jewish Men were dressed up in the white gown

close up shot of the Western Wall men section

elevated view looking down the Western Wall men section

So these were my experience at the Western Wall above and below and after finally finished writing this post, I'm actually dying to have a felafel sharwama now.....