I have taken many pictures in short spurts, and since ulpan has started, I have gotten a little behind in posting them! Right before this session of ulpan began (1st week of Aug), Mark and I did a tour of the major sites on the Mount of Olives. We walked to the Hebrew U campus and met Seth there. We then followed the ridge-line from Mt. Scopus to the top of the Mt. of Olives. We started at the Victoria Augusta Compound where the Lutheran Church of the Reformation is located. You can pay about $1 to climb to the top of the bell tower, which is the highest point in all of Jerusalem (903 meters above sea level). You have a great view and get to check out the old church bells too. We then headed to the Church of the Ascension, which is now a mosque, but it was closed, so we moved on. There is not much to see inside anyways, so I just took pictures of the outside. We then stopped at the Russian Church of the Ascension, which is now a convent as well. We weren't sure they were going to let Seth in since he had shorts on (immodest to them - he'll make the nuns stumble:), but they did. We mostly got a view of Bethany from there, and then left. Next, we stopped at the Church of Pater Noster (founded in the 4th century), which commemorates the Lord's Prayer (pater noster). You can read the prayer in over 80 languages on the tiled walls, and see the tomb of Princess de la Tour d'Auvergne, who worked there and financed the excavations. Our next stop was the Tombs of the Prophets. (A side note: most of these sites are meant to commemorate events related to Jesus and His disciple, (or in this case, OT prophets). Recent history and archeology has revealed that these sites came of out the tradition of their day, but are not THE VERY LOCATION that any particular event happened. ) The Tomb of the Prophets was the supposed resting place of the prophets Malachi and Haggai, however, even the caretaker (Pierre, a member of the Russian Orthodox Church that owns the site) will tell you that these tombs were after the time of Haggai and Malachi and were probably used to bury Christians from the first few centuries C.E. I took a number of pictures of the Jewish Graveyard on the Mt. of Olives. This is the largest Jewish cemetery in the world. It is an honor to any Jew to be buried on the Mt. of Olives, so not just anyone can be buried there - you have to be special. Seth headed back to Hebrew U, and Mark and I continued on to the Sanctuary of Dominus Flevit. The Latin name means " The Lord wept," and it is meant to commemorate Jesus weeping for Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). There were many rooms filled with ornate ossuaries (bone boxes), and they had a great view of the Old City. We stopped at the Russian Church of Mary Magdalene, which is now a convent. I had to wear a skirt they had there over my pants. The church is very visible from the Old City because of its seven golden onion domes, and it had beautiful gardens throughout the grounds. Our final stop (before the Old City) was the Church of All Nations and the Garden of Gethsemane. It has a huge gold and red facade painted on the outside portraying Jesus bringing peace to all nations. The Garden of Gethsemane is filled with many very old olive trees, and the site commemorates Jesus's betrayal and night of prayer before His crucifixion. It is a possible location of these events, but there is no way to know if it was the same spot spoken of in Luke 22 or Mark 14.