Jerusalem Old City Tour

We begin the Jerusalem Old City Tour with a bird’s eye view across Jerusalem from Mt. Scopus. From here we see beyond the Old City walls to Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock. We drive down the mount passing an ancient Jewish cemetery and stop at the Biblical Garden of Gethsemane and the stunning Church of All Nations. Then we see the Kidron Valley where monumental Jewish tombs have stood for centuries. We approach the Old City passing by the Dormition Church on Mt. Zion.

The tour visits the Room of the Last Supper. Here Christ ate with his Apostles on the eve of his crucifixion. This room is also called the Upper Room as it is on a floor over the site of King David’s Tomb. The Jerusalem day tour enters the Old City Armenian Quarter via the Zion Gate and we pass the Armenian Church of St. James. Your tour guide will tell you about the fascinating Armenian culture before we move on to the Jewish Quarter. Here the tour pauses at the Byzantine-era Cardo. This excavated 1,500-year-old street was once Jerusalem’s main thoroughfare.

At the Jewish Quarter, we stop to see the sacred Western Wall. As the last surviving part of the Second Jewish Temple, the Western Wall is the holiest Jewish landmark in the world. Here we join others who come to place a prayer note in the crevices of the ancient wall. Next, our tour of Jerusalem Old City retraces the course Jesus took as he carried his cross to Calvary – the Via Dolorosa.

We arrive at the sacred Holy Sepulchre. This 4th-century church holds the last few Stations of the Cross including Calvary where Jesus was crucified and his burial tomb. The vast structure is shared by several Christian denominations and has more than 30 chapels. The tour of Jerusalem Old City comes to an end but not before we have some retail therapy in the traditional Old City bazaar.