Walk from the Room of Last Supper to Gethsemane! Through the Kidron Valley!

Premiered Apr 8, 2023

ISRAEL MY CHANNEL

In this video tour, we will see and experience entering the Jaffa Gate, Tower of David, Arminian Quarter, Zion Gate, the room of the Last Supper, Tomb of David, Peter in Gallicantu, Dung Gate, Kidron Valley, Gethsemane, Church of Nations.

So you can see a lot of police, a lot of Army people, and this is because we are in a very tense time in Israel. Someone was shot yesterday. From Lebanon  many Rockets were fired at Israel, it's a tense time right now, and that's why there's so many soldiers, policemen on the streets. Of course this is also the Holiday so a lot of people come to Jerusalem in this particular time...

...So today we're we're gonna go to those different places connected to the Last Supper and crucifixion and you will be able to see how far everything is from each other. So, it's quite a walk actually especially from get some Mana which is on the bottom of Mount of Olives to the Tower of David were supposedly was Herod's Palace and where Jesus was trialed, it's quite a walk. 

So here is the Zion Gate, the gate through which we will go. The gate to which we will go. Again built by Sulaiman the magnificent in the 16th century. And this is from the other side. Now I want you to I want you to look at this gate and you will see holes, destruction. I will tell you in a moment what it's about. It's a reminder,  it's a witness to a big battle that happened here when Israel was attacked by five countries in 1967, the Six Day War started and Israel won with five countries in six days. And of course this time gave the Jewish people for the first time to take control of East Jerusalem, because before that the Jewish people did not control East Jerusalem, and after The Six Day War they were controlling the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, they were even taking control of the Old City. 

Also, those are the bullets that were shot towards this gate, okay, let's go now to this mountain. I mainly want to go here because there is a nice view and I want you to see it, because as I told you the places that are connected with this place our traditional. They are probably not what actually is. So this is a big Lutheran Church that was built here by the Germans. You know every country that came to Jerusalem basically built a church, so you have Russian churches, you have English churches, you have German churches, and that way each country has a piece of land here in Jerusalem. This land belongs to the Lutheran Church so it's a big Church.

Okay guys, now we're gonna walk into the place where traditionally to sell that the last supper was. So what you will see is again Mosaic because it used to be a mosque and now it's like a museum. It's like a place where you come and visit. It's not a church, but it's not also a mosque, so you will see resemblance of that. 

Here's some remains that remind you that it was a mosque and also the the signs over here. Okay, I wasn't there for a long time because my camera doesn't have  good light. When I'm in rooms and there's artificial light I need to change the settings so that's why I didn't spend time much over there. 

This is a place that not a lot of people go too because they don't know you can come here but you can. And suddenly you are on a rooftop, and you have a beautiful view of Jerusalem. So we just went up on a roof of this room which we just were in the room which is called the Room of the Last Supper is where tradition says that the Last Supper happened in the roof below us. So, it used to be a mosque as you can see, here's even a minoret which stayed.

From this roof you can see a very beautiful view of Jerusalem. So, you can see in the distance there is The Mound of Olives, it's nice now with the flag you can see.  Over there is the Kidron Valley and the City of David in that direction. In that direction is the the Hotel King David Hotel. So it's a nice place just to see the Panorama of Jerusalem. It's the people that come to visit those places, do not usually know that you can come here and see the view. So over there you can even see a little bit the Dome of the Rock.

Okay, so the last place we're gonna go here is the traditional place of the burial of David. I will not be talking much when I enter the room because the second synagogue it's an active synagogue, so I just want to go in and not disturb. So, here's the synagogue with me change the settings. 

So,  everybody are in the big tomb and it was there that the Jewish people are here praying next to it. I know this place pretty well because I used to actually work here. I was doing a course in archaeological conservation and we worked on those stones there because before that the stones were covered with cement and it was very bad.

The stone was done by the Jordanians before Israel's independence this territory was controlled by Jordan, and the cement was very bad. Because it's stronger than the stone and when that happens the water starts coming out not from the cement but from the stones. So what we had to do is take out all the cement and create a special mortar instead, so this is what we did here.

Okay, so let's go now. This is this place where you get out. See guys we are still on Mount Zion, but we were there at the roof. I'm just walking around here to see what else is here. It's been a while since I've been here. I want to see because this place wasn't open like this before. 

Here you can see the backside of Mount Zion, wow, this is quite beautiful actually. See with these flowers, so nice, the trees, and wow over there the purple flowers too. This is very beautiful, it's a nice view for a day like this right. Oh, there is somebody reading something next to a tree.

It is possible that the Last Supper was happening somewhere around here, and Jesus was spending the last few moments with his disciples. Ahead of him was a very difficult time, he was to suffer greatly for the cause of all people. And he did that because he loved people so much, that he wanted to sacrifice his own life so  they may have eternal life. 

So, here's an Armenian Church over here. Behind this plant is King David's Hotel, over there. That's New Jerusalem. Okay very nice, very close too. Here is also a cemetery on which Schindler, the famous Schindler. Schindler is buried on Mount Zion. So if you ever are here in the area you can visit that to give a tribute.

We're gonna get out of this complex now and we're gonna go into the direction of The Garden of Gethsemane. This will give you also an idea how far it is all together. Cedar Tree's, how nice. This is the other side of the Church right here, so you can exercise,  workout here, and you can skip rope.

Here this is a different Road, you will see how long of a walk it is from here to the Garden of Gethsemane it takes a while. And of course on the road on the way you have discoveries. This is Jerusalem, wherever you put the shovel we will find something, that's why it's so difficult to build roads here. Once you start building all the archaeologists come and want to see what you found.

So, over there you have the Kidron Valley and downstairs we walked from Mount Zion as it is called. Although again, I have to say, this according to me Mount Zion is always the City of David, and eventually the Temple mount. Although I know that in the Bible the term Zion is used in a more general way. For example the whole Israel can be called Zion or Jerusalem. As a whole can be called Zion, so it doesn't have to be a specific place. But this is funny, in this case, because this is a mountain which is called Mount Zion. 

If we have to point to a mountain, which mountain is Mount Zion, it would have to be the City of David. This is where the history of David started with Jerusalem and we agreed that David took the Fortress of Zion, and where was the Fortress of Zion? In the city of David, we visited it yesterday, and you saw the stones.

Here you can see a lot of Jewish people going to pray, because this is also a way to the Western Wall in that direction, so you can go through this road. See how many people are going to pray. In Judaism you should pray three times, in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. Sometimes Jewish people combine the two prayers in the evening one also.

Over there you can see a church it's a Roman Catholic Church of Saint Peter in Galicanto from Latin, it means where the rooster crowed. This is the place where Peter denied, Jesus three times. It's that church, right where I'm pointing now. Like a gray Coppola this is where it is, and this is a road to the Western tunnel.

Today, it's still the whole day, it's Passover but also today starts another big holiday which is the Shabbat. Very important in Jewish life. In Jerusalem when Shabbat starts then Jerusalem, the Jewish Jerusalem, is closed. People are in home spending time with their family, this is something very nice.

You can see Jewish people walking with their children, spending time with their whole family. That's a very nice aspect of Shabbat, it gives you peace, you are disconnected from all the mobile phones, from the internet, from YouTube. You have a time just to rest. So here again another perspective on the church of Saint Peter in Galicanto downstairs. 

Over here David and the Kidron Valley is below. This is the proper Mount Zion and here you can already see the Temple Mound. We have not come from this direction yet in my videos, I don't think so I will show you this road, we can view on the City of David. 

You can look also up their walls and go to the Western Wall. There's going to be a gate through which you go through and then you are basically next to the Western Wall Plaza. But today, we're gonna go to the get Samana inn The Garden of Gethsemane, which means The Garden of the Oil Press. 

Alot of things are happening here, a lot of security, a lot of construction work, everything at once. Alot of Holidays, it's a mix. That's the Dome Gate, this is where you would enter to go to the Western Wall, but we are going further down to the valley, we walked this way yesterday, no not yesterday, on the first day of PESA tour. But, I'm doing it again because I want to do all the Christian sites that are connected with the Last Supper Friday Resurrection.

We're gonna do a detour here because I want to go to the Pool of Siloam. Yesterday, I did not go because it was a Holiday, it might be open. We are getting to the Church, this is the South of the Temple mount, and here is the City of David which we visited. 

So now, I will not be talking much about things that are in the City of David. If you are interested in learning more see my other videos. A video from yesterday would be good to see because there I talk more about the Archeology of the importance of the place.

So now we're gonna walk very close to the Arab neighborhood. This is the Sylvan neighborhood. We have some shops here, and this is the Sylvan neighborhood, and we'll walk the Kidron Valley, and get out next to the Garden of Gethsemane.  Here in the valley it's very warm, so I think I will end my tour in the Garden of Gethsemane, and tomorrow we will visit the two places that are considered to be the go for Calvaria, the Skull. The Burial side of Jesus and crucifixion and Resurrection.

You can already see where we are, this is South East End of the Temple Mount, this is the City of David where we just were since in this Arab neighborhood here. That's how it looks from the bottom of the valley, I did the video once when I was walking here, but was a while ago, and every time, even it depends when you come in the summer or you go in the spring. Every time it's different, a Supermarket.

An Asian neighborhood, and here you can see you can see the Valley. Those houses are built on a rock scarp and actually in some of them, in some places there are like holes. Those are Asian burial sites. This is of course a very uh problematic place because everything is built here without permits, people build how they like on top they build up build up so in one house a whole generation lives. Some of those houses are very old but nobody knows what is the state of the foundations of those buildings.

So here we are the Kidron Valley. We're at the bottom of the Kidron Valley. This is where we came from, in the distance you can see the Orthodox Church. Here it's the slope of the Kidron Valley. It's like going back in time now 2000 years. It feels like walking in ancient times somewhere.  

Not a lot of people come here, it's very quiet. So you see some caves, over there  the houses are built on ancient caves they are Burial sites. So as we walk here we can also remember the story of Abraham and Melchizedek. Remember Abraham was returning after rescuing his nephew a lot and as he was walking next to Salem, the King approached him and blessed him. It's not Abraham who lesses Melchizedek although he was a legend already but it's Melchizedek who is worshiping the God most high. So perhaps it happened somewhere here when they met. These are also very old burial sites of noble people. You can see where we walked and where we are now.

So, this is where where we get out. This is where the Church of Nations is or to  The Garden of Gethsemane it's salmon. So here is a view on the Golden Gate once again. Here you can see where we came from, this is where we're going.

Thank you! So once again, the View on the Mount of Olives, Kidron Valley. This is the Church of Nations, it will be probably very busy today, because it's The Good Friday. You can already see there's an active mask going on there for a moment we'll be able to then going on there let's see if we can go for a few.

We have been here before in my previous videos, but I just wanted to end here on Friday, because this is the place of the Greatest Suffering. This is the place of the Greatest Suffering of the Messiah when he was suffered that much. So let me get out a little bit because it's very loud. 

There you may not be able to hear me well, you see a person selling next to the church as it was in nation times. Next to the temple people who are selling today, also, people never change Church, Another tradition you also have olive trees here so generally, The Garden of Gethsemane could have been somewhere in this area, because there are olive trees that are very old here. There's a tradition of having olive trees here, so perhaps some are here.

Jesus was suffering in the garden before he was betrayed by Judas. And more of you Church of Nations, let me get out of the way of the group here, this is a better view. So, once again olive trees when Jesus came to Jerusalem on a donkey He was greeted with palm branches and you can see palm trees right now. 

You came from the East from there from the Mount of Olives and entered Jerusalem here on a donkey. Jesus suffered much, guys thank you for your attention. I hope you enjoyed this tour today! I'll see you on our next tour have a great day shalom.