Jerusalem Tourist Trap Tips by jadedmuse

The views of the Old Walled City and surrounding area as seen from the front of the Seven Arches Hotel are some of the best in the area. For the most part these views are gratis - but you won't be alone at the top....you'll probably find some tourist buses up there dropping off the masses for their photo ops; you'll also find some local Arabs making the most of the opportunity. If you want to take a photo of this guy and his camel, it will cost you. But like anything there, you can drive the bargain and name the price. And actually it's not really the locals who are the nuisance in question - it's probably more the fellow tourists who are running around posing.

Leave a Comment

What you will find prevailing in Jerusalem - and this is true for much of the country, where holy sites are concerned - is that every time you think you're at a place where something was purported to have happened, there's another place down the road where it's also alleged to have occured.

Which is it? How do we know for sure whether Jesus walked this path, or maybe it was two alleys down....Is the golgotha rock actually under the Holy Sepulchre or is it right outside the Walled City in a recently excavated quarry that dates back a few thousand years....you enter through a doorway over which is scrawled the words "Peter's Prison"....and you feel a rush of excitement! The next day you visit St. Peter's Church on Mt. Zion and puzzle over the allegations that he was imprisoned there....but wait! Which is it? You nod respectfully to an old monk who guards an underground cavelike prison where Jesus was supposed to have spent the last night of his life, awaiting execution....an hour later, you visit another place where the same thing is believed! Outside of the Old City you visit "The Garden Tomb" - alleged burial place of Jesus Christ. But wait! Didn't you just see the Holy Sepulchre and wasn't THAT the place where he was buried and resurrected?! Which is it? Over in the Galilee area, you dip your foot in the Jordan River and visualize John the Baptist proclaiming the coming of the Messiah....until you're driving down the road to Eilat and you pass by Jericho where, along the side of the road, is a sign that leads to the place where John the Baptist allegedly baptized Jesus Christ, among others....but WAIT! WHICH IS IT???!!!

So my advice to you is to just go with the flow and enjoy the experience of just walking along sand and dirt and rock and earth that dates centuries back to a time when any or all of these things were bound to have happened....somewhere along the way.....

Leave a Comment