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"WALK ABOUT
ZION, GO ALL AROUND IT, COUNT ITS TOWERS,
CONSIDER WELL ITS RAMPARTS; GO THROUGH ITS CITADELS,
SO YOU MAY TELL THE NEXT GENERATION THAT THIS IS GOD,
OUR GOD FOREVER AND EVER”
PSALMS 48
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When Nehemiah, a
nobleman of high rank in the court of Persian king
Artaxerxes, heard that Jerusalem’s walls were broken
down and that its gates had been burned, he begged
the king to be allowed to return to Jerusalem with a
royal order to rebuild its walls. Accompanied
by horsemen and many friends in a long journey of
nearly 1,000 miles, Nehemiah arrived in the Holy
City.
Immediately he discovered that certain local
officials were threatened by his concern for the
welfare of the city and its residents. Without
telling anyone what was in his heart, Nehemiah arose
at night to “inspect the walls of Jerusalem that had
been broken down and its gates that had been
destroyed by fire.” (Nehemiah 2:13)
With a determined stick-to-it-ness, Nehemiah
organized a big public works project and drafted
laborers from the High Priest down to simple farmers
from Jericho and herdsmen from Tekoa. He put
watchmen on the walls to protect the builders and
sounded the shofar (ram’s horn) to rally the men in
time of danger. For 52 days they toiled from
dawn till the appearance of the first stars.
To celebrate the completion of the building of the
city ramparts, there was a great assembly where Ezra
the Scribe read the Book of the Law of Moses.
Of course our present day walls are not the same as
Nehemiah’s, but not much has changed since the time
Suleiman the Magnificent commissioned the rebuilding
of the walls in 1536. (For us Jerusalemites,
this is ‘modern’ history – for you, in the ‘New
World,’ it is just 44 years after Columbus
discovered America.) |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Ramparts Walk above the Damascus
Gate |
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Just reopened, after
a closure of six years, the city ramparts walk is an
ideal way to inspect the walls and gates of
Jerusalem’s Old City. Entrance to the ramparts
is from inside the Jaffa Gate, on the left (north
side). Once you ascend the tower, you’ll be
rewarded with a singular view of The Citadel,
originally built 2,000 years ago by Herod the Great
Builder.
In 1898, the Citadel’s Crusader moat was filled in
and the wall breached in honor of the visit of
Kaiser Wilhelm II. Not content to enter
through the Jaffa Gate by foot as Omar, the Moslem
conqueror of Jerusalem, had in 638, Kaiser Wilhelm
II insisted on making a grand entrance with an
entourage of a few thousand people.
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COMING TO
JERUSALEM?
BOOK GILA for your customized private tour |
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High above the Jaffa Gate we can peer through the
loophole, designed during the Crusader period so the
archers could easily shoot out, but the enemy would
be hard-pressed to accurately target the defenders
of the city. If the enemy even attempted to
storm the city, there is an opening in the floor
which would allow the defenders to pour hot tar or
boiling oil on anyone daring to approach the city
gate. The enemy then would be extended a very “warm”
welcome!
We head north, along the wall bordering the
Christian Quarter of the Old City.
What we realize on this tour is that the Old City is
more than a collection of bazaars, churches, mosques
and synagogues. That it is a vibrant city with
women hanging out wash, kids crawling on
multi-colored jungle gyms, teens playing soccer and
pensioners tending their lemon trees and grape
arbors, all in the shadow of the familiar domes,
towers and steeples. |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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View from the ramparts above St.
Stephen's or Lions Gate |
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This one to two hour walk takes us above the
New Gate, Damascus Gate, Herod’s Gate and
Lions Gate and provides unparalleled views
of the Christian and Moslem Quarters,
Gordon’s Calvary, the Rockefeller Museum,
Mount Scopus and the Mount of Olives.
Photographers should come prepared with lots
of film or digital memory. You can
never predict what beauty or inspiration
will come your way. |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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The ramparts from Jaffa to
New Gate |
Lemon tree in the
Christian Quarter |
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About security, I asked the guard at the
Jaffa Gate whether it was safe for me to
walk by myself. With a wave of his
hand and a backward tilt of his head, he
sent me forward. It seems that very
few know that the ramparts have reopened,
for I passed only two souls on the wall-walk
– a Canadian tourist and a local jumping up
from the Lions Gate to take a shortcut home
from school.
As a precautionary measure, however, I
suggest you ascend the ramparts with a
minimum of four. Or – bring a shofar
like Nehemiah’s guards. As a further
precaution, pay attention to the closing
time when they lock the rampart gates, or
you may find yourself inspecting the city
walls by nightfall, as Nehemiah did! |
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Copyright 2006, 2012 Gila Yudkin. Permission
needed for any reuse. |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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View of Gordon's Calvary
from the ramparts |
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Gila Yudkin,
who calls herself a Connecticut
Yankee living in King David’s Court, has
been walking the ramparts since they first
opened to the public in 1979. If you'd
like to sing on the ramparts, choose your
favorite from the best-selling Israeli folk hymns
CD, "From
the Bible for Revival." My
favorite is "Todah," sung by Haim
Moshe to a Turkish melody. This fits
the mood of the ramparts which was
commissioned by Turkish Sultan Suleiman the
Magnificent in the mid-sixteenth century. |
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Coming to Jerusalem
soon? Are you coming from very
far away and want every minute to matter?
Would you like to experience both the authentic
and the traditional sites, yet you are most
interested in finding the venues where you can
quietly be transported back in your imagination to
the time of Jesus? David? Abraham?
Make every minute matter while you "Explore
Jerusalem's Soul" with
Gila's Guide.
This up-to-date PDF (Adobe Acrobat) 46-page guide
gives you the Top Ten places to meditate on the
Bible, the Top Ten lesser-known churches worth
visiting, the Top Ten most rewarding roof-top
views and the top Ten places for Middle Eastern
food. More...
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More on Jerusalem: |
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Hyssop: holy land
spice |
Walk to Gethsemane |
Holy Land Model |
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Veronica's handkerchief |
Gates of the Old City |
Temple Mount
excavations? |
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Robinson's Arch |
Mary meets Elizabeth |
Priestly benediction |
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GILA
YUDKIN
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TCHERNIKOVSKI
64A
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JERUSALEM
•
ISRAEL
gila@itsgila.com
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