And from the bus station, a 30 shekel (c£5.40) round-trip to Jerusalem.
We cabbed it (with a very chirpy driver, who pointed out the Knesset, the Prime Minister's office on Gaza Street - cue laughter) who dropped us, surprisingly close to open countryside
at the entrance to the old city and the Western Wall...
Access to the Wall is divided into a women's and men's side
and the tunnel of the right-hand side leads into Temple Mount, a walled area inside the Old City containing the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Mount's significance for Jews and Muslims arises from the heart of the Rock being the "Foundation Stone". Jews traditionally regard it as the holiest spot on Earth; some Islamic scholars believe that the rock is the spot from which Mohammed ascended to heaven.
The silver-domed Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam. The earliest building was a small prayer house, completely destroyed by an earthquake in 746AD, as were several successors. The present day mosque dates from 1035.
Apparently "Jerusalem's most recognizable landmark" is the 7th-century blue-tiled octagonal Dome of the Rock. The oldest existing Islamic monument, it's a masterpiece of Byzantine architecture; the dome was most recently re-covered in 1993 with 80kg of gold (King Hussein of Jordan reputedly sold one of his London houses to raise the necessary US$8.2m).
Visitors for the "afternoon slot" only get an hour on the Mount and so it wasn't long before we exited via the Bani Ghanim Gate at the north-western corner
and joined the Via Dolorosa, Path of Sorrows, with the fourteen Stations of the Cross on the route which Christ is said to have walked
The Via itself has unsurprisingly become more commercial than devout!
The last few stations are contained within the beautiful Church of the Holy Sepulcre.
including the fourteenth station, the tomb where the pious weep and prostrate themselves
Especially lovely is a chapel below ground : Golgotha, believed to be the site of the crucifixion
And, out into the sunshine again, we found the walls
and a super-sleek tram back to the bus-station home
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