by Olivia Kelley
Our fifth day in Israel was spent entirely in the Old City. We started out walking through the Jewish Quarter on our way to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park. We walked through and saw some artifacts and watched a short film, before searching for places to shoot.
We made our way to the Southern Wall which stands on the south end of the Temple Mount. The original steps that Jesus once stood and taught on in his final days are still intact here. We filmed and sat on these steps while looking out at the Mount of Olives in the distance. After filming, we sat on the steps and had a short service together. Each of us was given a piece of paper to write our prayers on in preparation for the next stop —the Wailing Wall.
The Wailing Wall is on the Western side of the Temple Mount. Men and women flock there year round to pray and be close to the spot where the temple once stood. They shove their prayers on pieces of paper into the cracks of the wall. Here, we had to enter in two separate lines: men on one side, women on the other. Our bags were searched and we joined together on the other side. However, to actually go up to the wall, we had to separate as well. Men and women could not pray together. This created a problem for our film crew. We needed to film at this location, but our crew consisted of both men and women. In the end, we decided an all male crew would go up to the wall on their side and get the shots we needed. While the male crew was filming, the rest of us took turns going up to the wall to pray while the others watched the equipment. We pushed our pieces of paper into the cracks and stood silently among the men and women surrounding us.
After filming wrapped up here, we were done with our cameras for the day. We took a break for lunch in the city and then met up to go to the cardo. The cardo is known as the heart of the city. It data back to the Roman Empire and was where the central market of the city was located. It was excavated and rediscovered in the 1970s. We stood there and viewed the mosaic mural on the wall, before walking down to explore the rest of the market. We were able to walk back to the hotel from there.
After freshening up and eating dinner at the hotel, we headed down to the Tower of David Museum for a light and music show highlighting the history of the Old City. It was a fun way to end the night and the light projections and music were beautiful as we sat looking out at the Tower of David. We all walked back to the hotel together and turned in for the night.
