In the morning after leaving the hotel we took some dirty laundry down to the shop we had found earlier on Shamai Street. Then we headed up to the bagel shop on Ben Yehuda Street, where we arrived at 9.30am. The price for the meals was 91ILS.
As we were eating our breakfasts I saw a beggar I had seen the previous evening buying beer at the Cafe Creme store where I had got into the habit of buying beers. He was now begging on the mall, carrying his white-tipped cane and repeating a word I assumed translated as “Blind” to passersby, while holding out his hand for spare change. I had seen a beggar on Jaffa Street the day before who was lying down on the pavement holding out a plastic cup for change. In the old town, also, there are beggars, older women in fact, sitting near the south-western entrance to the Western Wall. Some of them shake the change in their cups to make a sound to attract people’s attention.
After eating we went back to the hotel to get ourselves ready for the day. We left the hotel at 10.15am and went to King George Street where we hailed a taxi. We asked the driver if he would use a meter and he had said, “Yes,” so we got into his car. The trip took us 10 minutes but when he dropped us off at the Israel Museum the driver charged us 51ILS. We got a receipt for the trip and went inside the museum where we talked with one of the staff about the taxi. She told us you have to insist on the meter being used because not all Israeli taxi drivers are honest (as we had already found out, to our cost). She said that if you don’t get the meter started you should ask to get out of the cab. We then paid 12ILS for an audio device that was aligned with the displays and, as before, I left my driver’s license as a guarantee of return.
We first went to the Second Temple reconstruction, which is located near the entrance. The model shows what Jerusalem would have looked like in 66AD just before the temple was destroyed by the Romans following what is called the Great Revolt. Then we went down to the Dead Sea scrolls viewing room which is called here the ‘Shrine of the Book’. The building where the displays are located is shaped like an old-fashioned beehive and it is very cold inside although you can sit down on handy ledges if you want. In the centre of the round room is an installation made to look like a classical Talmud, or scroll, that has copies of the scrolls that were found in the desert in the 1940s displayed around a lit window. There is also on display one of the terracotta containers they were found in; it is about 2.5 feet in height and about 18 inches in diameter.
The scrolls, we found out, were stored in a cave by a radical millennarian sect of Jews who held themselves apart from mainstream Jews as well as from pagans. We had seen some exhibits in the Jordan Museum that also deal with the scrolls but here the information on display was much more complete. It was clear that Jews consider the scrolls to be important from a particular religious and cultural point of view.
The other thing that was different in this museum compared to Amman was the number of pagan idols on display. In Jerusalem, these objects are displayed with adequate glosses, and it is clear that the scholarship used in the curatorial process is superior to what displays exhibit in Amman. This might be true for religious reasons, it is hard to tell, but the effect is striking. The other thing you notice in Jerusalem is the number of items that have been donated to the museum by benefactors, many of whom lived in the US. Each item has this kind of information printed on the label describing the piece, so you are able to develop a picture of the size and influence of the disapora.
We left the beehive-shaped room at 12pm and went to get some drinks in the Mansfeld Cafe in the main building. I had a Coke and a cappuccino and my friend had a cappuccino and the tab was 35ILS. The coffee was bitter and had lots of froth. We left the cafe at 12.55pm and went to the archaeological exhibits, which turned out to be spectacular. On the first visit we had walked right past this part of the museum and this time we spent hours looking around it. The exhibits cover many different time periods and many different areas. There are things from 6500 years ago and exhibits of Egyptian objects, Greek and Roman objects, and Mesopotamian and Persian objects. There is way too much stuff to see in one day and we promised ourselves that we would go back the next day after viewing the tunnels under the Western Wall, for which we had already booked tickets.
After viewing more than we could easily take in I picked up my NSW driver’s license as we dropped off the programmed audio device then we left the building and got in a cab. The driver was an older man – he must have been aged in his 60s – named Ansellem Avraham, and he drove a Mercedes. He told us that he owns his own car but that he is afiliated with a private taxi company and pays 1000ILS per month to the firm for such services as phone bookings. He quoted us 200ILS to go up to the top of the Mount of Olives and back to town the next day if we wanted, and we told him that we would think about his offer. We also told him we would need to get to the airport on Saturday, and he gave me his card and told me to phone him to tell him the time of our flight to Istanbul.
We drove past the Church of the Cross, which is located near the road back to the downtown area, and arrived back at King George Street at 2.43pm. Near Ben Yehuda Street we went into Cafe Rimon (the same name as the place in Mamilla Avenue we had eaten at the day before) and sat down for lunch at 2.55pm. We ordered an Asian salad and what was called on the menu an “umami” pizza (potato, mushroom, onion, fetta cheese), along with two Tuborg beers and a bottle of mineral water. The tab came to 134ILS (about A$60, not much more than the McDonald’s we had eaten on the first day in the city) and I added 10ILS as a tip because a waitress had brought us some Tabasco sauce to use on the salad.
After eating we went back to the hotel to rest as it was still very, very hot. A bit later I came down to the front office to ask about transportation on the following Saturday to Ben Gurion International Airport and Anton told me that there is a shuttle bus we can book that costs 67ILS per person. He then told me to make the booking the following day as you can only book one day in advance. He suggested to schedule the pick-up for 10am in order to be at the airport in enough time for the flight.
Just after 6pm I went out and picked up the laundry we had dropped off in the morning, then the two of us went out together at 7pm. At 7.30pm it was still 33 degrees Celcius and we stopped at a gelato bar at 8pm. A two-scoop tub of mint and strawberry, a single-scoop cone with pistachio, and a small bottle of water cost 41ILS. We had had a late lunch and weren’t in the mood for food.
Then we headed down to Mamilla Avenue and walked through the mall. A couple of boys aged about 12 were busking in the mall, playing an oud and a drum like a bongo that you use your hands to strike, which In Jordan is called a dabkeh. We saw a man in the mall walking a dog that had a kind of jacket on its back with writing on it. This is something you don’t see very often in Israel. There are lots of cats, especially strays, but few dogs on the street.
We turned around near the Jaffa Gate and headed back toward the hotel. On the way we stopped at our regular shop and I bought two beers (Goldstar "Slowbrew", with 10% alcohol), a large bottle of water, and a small bottle of water, for 28ILS. We got back to the hotel at 8.55pm.
As we were eating our breakfasts I saw a beggar I had seen the previous evening buying beer at the Cafe Creme store where I had got into the habit of buying beers. He was now begging on the mall, carrying his white-tipped cane and repeating a word I assumed translated as “Blind” to passersby, while holding out his hand for spare change. I had seen a beggar on Jaffa Street the day before who was lying down on the pavement holding out a plastic cup for change. In the old town, also, there are beggars, older women in fact, sitting near the south-western entrance to the Western Wall. Some of them shake the change in their cups to make a sound to attract people’s attention.
After eating we went back to the hotel to get ourselves ready for the day. We left the hotel at 10.15am and went to King George Street where we hailed a taxi. We asked the driver if he would use a meter and he had said, “Yes,” so we got into his car. The trip took us 10 minutes but when he dropped us off at the Israel Museum the driver charged us 51ILS. We got a receipt for the trip and went inside the museum where we talked with one of the staff about the taxi. She told us you have to insist on the meter being used because not all Israeli taxi drivers are honest (as we had already found out, to our cost). She said that if you don’t get the meter started you should ask to get out of the cab. We then paid 12ILS for an audio device that was aligned with the displays and, as before, I left my driver’s license as a guarantee of return.
We first went to the Second Temple reconstruction, which is located near the entrance. The model shows what Jerusalem would have looked like in 66AD just before the temple was destroyed by the Romans following what is called the Great Revolt. Then we went down to the Dead Sea scrolls viewing room which is called here the ‘Shrine of the Book’. The building where the displays are located is shaped like an old-fashioned beehive and it is very cold inside although you can sit down on handy ledges if you want. In the centre of the round room is an installation made to look like a classical Talmud, or scroll, that has copies of the scrolls that were found in the desert in the 1940s displayed around a lit window. There is also on display one of the terracotta containers they were found in; it is about 2.5 feet in height and about 18 inches in diameter.
The scrolls, we found out, were stored in a cave by a radical millennarian sect of Jews who held themselves apart from mainstream Jews as well as from pagans. We had seen some exhibits in the Jordan Museum that also deal with the scrolls but here the information on display was much more complete. It was clear that Jews consider the scrolls to be important from a particular religious and cultural point of view.
The other thing that was different in this museum compared to Amman was the number of pagan idols on display. In Jerusalem, these objects are displayed with adequate glosses, and it is clear that the scholarship used in the curatorial process is superior to what displays exhibit in Amman. This might be true for religious reasons, it is hard to tell, but the effect is striking. The other thing you notice in Jerusalem is the number of items that have been donated to the museum by benefactors, many of whom lived in the US. Each item has this kind of information printed on the label describing the piece, so you are able to develop a picture of the size and influence of the disapora.
We left the beehive-shaped room at 12pm and went to get some drinks in the Mansfeld Cafe in the main building. I had a Coke and a cappuccino and my friend had a cappuccino and the tab was 35ILS. The coffee was bitter and had lots of froth. We left the cafe at 12.55pm and went to the archaeological exhibits, which turned out to be spectacular. On the first visit we had walked right past this part of the museum and this time we spent hours looking around it. The exhibits cover many different time periods and many different areas. There are things from 6500 years ago and exhibits of Egyptian objects, Greek and Roman objects, and Mesopotamian and Persian objects. There is way too much stuff to see in one day and we promised ourselves that we would go back the next day after viewing the tunnels under the Western Wall, for which we had already booked tickets.
After viewing more than we could easily take in I picked up my NSW driver’s license as we dropped off the programmed audio device then we left the building and got in a cab. The driver was an older man – he must have been aged in his 60s – named Ansellem Avraham, and he drove a Mercedes. He told us that he owns his own car but that he is afiliated with a private taxi company and pays 1000ILS per month to the firm for such services as phone bookings. He quoted us 200ILS to go up to the top of the Mount of Olives and back to town the next day if we wanted, and we told him that we would think about his offer. We also told him we would need to get to the airport on Saturday, and he gave me his card and told me to phone him to tell him the time of our flight to Istanbul.
We drove past the Church of the Cross, which is located near the road back to the downtown area, and arrived back at King George Street at 2.43pm. Near Ben Yehuda Street we went into Cafe Rimon (the same name as the place in Mamilla Avenue we had eaten at the day before) and sat down for lunch at 2.55pm. We ordered an Asian salad and what was called on the menu an “umami” pizza (potato, mushroom, onion, fetta cheese), along with two Tuborg beers and a bottle of mineral water. The tab came to 134ILS (about A$60, not much more than the McDonald’s we had eaten on the first day in the city) and I added 10ILS as a tip because a waitress had brought us some Tabasco sauce to use on the salad.
After eating we went back to the hotel to rest as it was still very, very hot. A bit later I came down to the front office to ask about transportation on the following Saturday to Ben Gurion International Airport and Anton told me that there is a shuttle bus we can book that costs 67ILS per person. He then told me to make the booking the following day as you can only book one day in advance. He suggested to schedule the pick-up for 10am in order to be at the airport in enough time for the flight.
Just after 6pm I went out and picked up the laundry we had dropped off in the morning, then the two of us went out together at 7pm. At 7.30pm it was still 33 degrees Celcius and we stopped at a gelato bar at 8pm. A two-scoop tub of mint and strawberry, a single-scoop cone with pistachio, and a small bottle of water cost 41ILS. We had had a late lunch and weren’t in the mood for food.
Then we headed down to Mamilla Avenue and walked through the mall. A couple of boys aged about 12 were busking in the mall, playing an oud and a drum like a bongo that you use your hands to strike, which In Jordan is called a dabkeh. We saw a man in the mall walking a dog that had a kind of jacket on its back with writing on it. This is something you don’t see very often in Israel. There are lots of cats, especially strays, but few dogs on the street.
We turned around near the Jaffa Gate and headed back toward the hotel. On the way we stopped at our regular shop and I bought two beers (Goldstar "Slowbrew", with 10% alcohol), a large bottle of water, and a small bottle of water, for 28ILS. We got back to the hotel at 8.55pm.
Above: Terracotta coffins, 13th century BC, southern coastal plain.
Above: Made from clay and limestone pebble, these female deities are from the Yarmukian culture, 8000 years ago.
Above: Discovered in Nahal Mishmar in the Judean Desert, these ritual objects are made from copper. They were made 6500 to 5500 years ago.
Above: Sculpted basalt stands like this one were used in homes. The shallow bowls on top were used for ritual offerings.
Above: Violin-shaped female figurine from 6500 to 5500 years ago.
Above: From Turkey in 800BC, this candelabrum with a lamp stand on top was used in rituals.
Above: The cuneiform script cast into the candelabrum shown in the previous image.
Above: Wall relief depicting a stylised date palm flanked by protective genies. From northern Mesopotamia, 8th century BC. This alabaster object has cuneiform script carved into it.
Above: Likenesses of the deceased from 3rd century AD. From the land of what is now known as Israel.
Above: Take-away shawarma on King George Street, downtown Jerusalem.
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