Holy places

The great sacred sites of Israel all possess extraordinary power, mystery, and beauty.

The holiest of holy places of Israel is The Western Wall in Jerusalem old city. The Western Wall is part of a vast retaining wall built by Herod around the Temple Mount, this is the most visible structure remaining from the Herod's Temple carved border, are testimony to the physical grandeur of the ancient Land of. The massive stones of the Wall, each with its perfectly Israel. Over the centuries, this enduring fragment of the Temple complex has come to symbolize the indestructible attachment of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. For more than 1,000 years, under Islamic governments, the Jerusalem Western Wall was the closest point that Jews were permitted to approach to the place where the ancient Holy Temple of Jerusalem once stood. Because of the sanctity of the Temple Mount itself, very observant Jews do not go farther than The Western Wall to this day.

Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is an Islamic shrine, built in A.D. 691. It is believed to have been the altar or foundation stone of the First Temle and The Second Temple. According to Jewish tradition, the rock was the altar upon which Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac.

Jerusalem is a sacred place for Christians as well. Overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem from the east, The Mount of Olives offers a sweeping vista of the entire city. Here, Jesus wept at a prophetic vision of Jerusalem lying in ruins; in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the lower slope of the mount, Jesus was arrested. An encampment site for Jewish pilgrims in ancient times, the Mount of Olives contains Judaism's most important graveyard in Israel.