Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Our last day in Israel was Palm Sunday, and while wandering around the back alleys of the old city of Jerusalem we came upon the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  According to the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains the two holiest sites in Christianity - the site where Jesus was crucified and the tomb where he was buried and rose from.  As mentioned in the previous post titled "The Garden Tomb", Protestants, including Anglicans, do not agree with this.  Therefore they do not have a presence in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Because it was Palm Sunday the courtyard outside the church was quite crowded.  Only small groups of people were allowed to enter the church at any given time so we did stay to see what the inside looked like.  Here are a few photos of the courtyard outside the church.

The courtyard in front of the church

Next door to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the Mosque of Omar.  This mosque, actually the second Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem, was built in 1193 by the Sultan of Ayyubid.  It's minaret, which I could not get a photo of, is 49 feet tall and was built sometime before 1465.

The entrance to the mosque

Looking through the entrance way to the mosque, this banner was quite conspicuous.  Funny thing though, looking through my Bible I couldn't find where Jesus ever said this!