Arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.
Montefiore Windmill, about 10 minutes walk from my hotel.
View out over the hills beyond Jerusalem
First view of the Old City walls
More walls -- the Old City has had many sets of walls but the current lot were built about 450 years ago by Suleiman
Bit of zooming in on East Jerusalem and the infamous wall
Not sure. Looks like a mosque :)
City walls and mosque tower
Jaffa gate (on the right) from just inside the walls
David's tower -- largest of the citadels built into the walls
Quiet streets in the Armenian quarter
Archways over the streets, I assume at one time they supported something
Roman columns on the Cardo, which 2000 years ago was the main street through the city
Synagogues ...
... and mosques ...
... and, err, doors
Orange trees!
The Western Wall
Instructions on how not to get yourself in big trouble at the Western Wall
This shot gives an idea of the size of the blocks used to build the wall. Some of them weigh up to 30 tonnes, apparently.
Western Wall with the golden dome of the mosque on Temple Mount behind it.
Mosque dome, Temple Mount.
One of the souqs of the covered streets in the Muslim quarter
Building over the street on the Via Dolorosa.
Long-since disused but still decorative doorway
More columns from another part of the Cardo, demonstrating how the Romans would've used them to create a covered walkway
Quiet and scenic in this part
Monasteries and churches were tucked away all over the place in the Armenian quarter
The ubiquitous Jerusalem Cross is a common motif in the Christian parts of the city
The church of the Dormition on Mount Zion. Allegedly the place where the Virgin Mary died
And it's got a nice door
Another nice church type thing, just outside the city walls, on Mount Zion
The Montefiore windmill again
Modern buildings just outside the Old City in West Jerusalem
Jaffa Gate from outside the city walls, with last year's 40th Anniversary of Reunion advert proudly displayed
Just within Jaffa Gate
Sometimes you're forcefully reminded that the British were once in charge of Palestine
The Armenian quarter is very ... well, Armenian
Supposedly a replica of the great menorah that was in the First Temple
The black dome of the mosque on Temple Mount
And a minaret
The golden dome
Archaeological excavations outside the walls
The Tomb of Zecharia (on the right) and the BeneHezir Tomb (on the left) in the Kidron Valley. The Mount of Olives graveyard lies behind them.
Big old Orthodox church in the foothills of the Mount of Olives, by the garden of Gethsemane
Instructions on how to get to places
The Church of All Nations, at Gethsemane
Tombs again
The Tomb of Absalom
Bene Hezir tomb
The Golden Gate -- supposedly the gate by which the Jewish Messiah will enter Jerusalem when he arrives. The Muslims had a cunning idea to foil his plan -- they bricked up the gate!
The Grotto of Gethsemane, a natural cavern which was supposedly one of Jesus's favourite praying places
Inside the Grotto. It's just a very simple, plain chapel.
St. Stephen's Gate. The only gate still open on the eastern wall, and it leads straight in to the Via Dolorosa so is packed with pilgrims following in Jesus's final steps
Typical Jerusalemmy scene, really
Found a quieter place
Outside the Old City, in the Yemin Moshe neighbourhood at the foot of the Montefiore windmill. A very exclusive address these days, apparently.
Palm trees
The Great Synagogue
A bendybus! It's just like being back in London :)
The original Knesset building ...
... which is very unassuming
Flowerdozer. I like :)
Heading for the Dead Sea, as soon as you leave Jerusalem eastwards the landscape changes
Bedouin goat herders
They stole their road signs from the Bible, I reckon :)
A camel in the Judean desert. How more Middle Eastern can you get? :)
Desert road
That city in the distance, beyond the small stand of trees, is Jericho. Oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world.
Date palms planted by a kibbutz
Cute little metal characters
Somewhere up in those mountains is Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered
First view of the Dead Sea
The rock on which Massada was built
Cable car up to Massada
Like I was really going to walk up *that* -- 300 metres high in scorching mid-day desert sunshine
It's just so ... deserty
Looks almost like the grand canyon
View from the top of Massada, with the Dead Sea 300 metres below
Another view from the top
Ancient ruins on Massada
It's hard to convey either the size of Massada, or the incredible aridness of the place
This gives a tiny idea of what it might have been like 2000 years ago
Strange salt-desert formations behind the coach park
There are still some remnants of decoration and mosaic left
The remains of the rampart which the Romans built so that they could take Massada
Long, straight desert road
Dead Sea resort
Another palm tree plantation
Bloke with bread on his head outside the Damascus Gate back in Jerusalem
A building, not sure what
This was the (Christian calendar) anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. The Palestinians had promised peaceful protests, the Israeli police and IDF were taking no chances!
In the garden at Golgotha
The skull-shaped rock at Golgotha, just like wot it sez in the Bible
Yep, it's a skull
Street scene
There was some American bloke called Bush in town, so the flags had been put out and the roads emptied
And these guys (security service of some kind) were riding around all over town, machine guns slung casually over their shoulders
Trees wot I liked
Tel Aviv. First view of the sea
A big building with a duck on top
Colourful park
Is it America, or is it Israel?
One thing Tel Aviv most definitely does have, is fantastic beaches
Surfer dude
Hotels in all shapes and sizes ...
... and colours
We're back to the "looking like America" theme
Banksy-esque graffiti
Lots of interesting buildings ...
... and pretty boulevards
With the old(ish) ...
... and the definitely new ...
... and the spiky!
I stumbled upon some kind of open air free festival, kind of like a Tel Aviv version of Notting Hill Carnival :)
Lots of partygoers
and a band
A ruined old building, rebuilt good as new. You can't even see the joins :)
This is what it actually is, but as I was there on a Saturday the museum was closed
Surfing
Jaffa
Jaffa, closer
The Ottoman clock tower in Jaffa
Nice roadside cafe scene
Bricked up old mosque entrance
And another minaret
Looking back towards Tel Aviv from Jaffa
The old Governor's house in Jaffa
St Louis monastery
Door to St Peters church
Inside the church
Temporally closed? I bet the Doctor's been involved in this :)
The rock where Andromeda was chained so that the sea monster could eat her up, until that pesky Perseus came and rescued her
Another mosque in Jaffa
Jaffa is full of winding and picturesque streets
Jaffa harbour
A cool building
Unusual statue
St Peters church, again
The Wishing Bridge
And here was my star sign :)
More pretty streets
Streets
Streets ...
... and arches
Oh yeah, Jonah set sail from Jaffa on his fateful journey. So here's a whale
Now this I definitely *didn't* expect to find!
I do like these doorways
A tree
Back in Tel Aviv, and surfers on scooters were a common sight
One of the many fabulous Bauhaus / Modernist buildings scattered all over Tel Aviv
Bela Lugosi's not dead, he's just running a bar in Israel :)
Lizard thing
Another unusual building
