Jerusalem

Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Jerusalem

King David’s Royal City

Rugby Tours To Jerusalem

Video Credit – Ministry of Tourism

There is no town as Biblical as Jerusalem, but it was neither built nor named by the Israelites.

Remnants of a Canaanite town called Salem date back to the early bronze age. First Biblical mention of this place is in Genesis 14:18, where Abraham and Melchizedek meet.

The name Jerusalem occurs first in Joshua 10:1 and the city of Jerusalem was conquered, sacked and apparently abandoned by Israel, Judges 1:8.

Still, it remained occupied by Jebusites and it was originally located in the territory of not Judah but Benjamin, Judges 1:21.

Four hundred years later David conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites, annexed it and made it his capital.

By the time the Hebrews had a say in it, the name Jerusalem had been long established.

Most likely, the original name, that sounded something like Urusalimum or Ursalimmu, meant Foundation of Salem.

During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured recaptured 44 times and attacked 52 times.

The part of Jerusalem called the City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th millennium BCE, in the shape of encampments of nomadic shepherds.

Tour Information

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS

Our Popular Inclusions for a Rugby Tour to Jerusalem

Spend hours at all the various markets Arab and Jewish.
Walk in Jesus’s footsteps along the Via Dolorosa.
See the tomb of Israel’s King David.
Tour the old walls of the city then take the underground tour beneath.
Walk down to the Western Wall and say a pray for your lost ones.
Behind the Western Wall visit the Dome of the Rock most important mosque outside Mecca.
Time to remember the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Museum.
Visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
There’s no time for rest when walking around the Old City.
Museum lovers will enjoy all the cultural museums that are on offer.
Take a days trip out to the Dead Sea and experience floating on water.
Pop into the Church of the Nativity and relive history.
The Stalactite Cave is well worth visiting deep under ground.

Jerusalem - Rugby Tours To Jerusalem, Irish Rugby Tours

Western Wall

The Western Wall, Wailing Wall or Kotel and known in Islam as the Buraq Wall is an ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.

It is a relatively small segment of a far longer ancient retaining wall, known also in its entirety as the “Western Wall”.

Originally erected as part of the expansion of the Second Jewish Temple begun by Herod the Great. This resulted in the encasement of the natural, steep hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount.

For Muslims, it is traditionally the site where the Islamic Prophet Muhammad tied his winged steed, before ascending into paradise.

Dead Sea

The Dead Sea, Sea of Salt is a Salt Lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River.

Its surface and shores are 430.5 metres below sea level, Earth’s lowest elevation on land.

It is 304m deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. With a salinity of 342 g/kg or 34.2% in 2011, it is one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water.

9.6 times as salty as the ocean and has a density of 1.24 kg/litre which makes swimming similar to floating.

This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish, hence its name.

The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean Basin for thousands of years.

Was one of the world’s first health resorts for Herod the Great.

Also it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilisers.

Dead Sea - Rugby Tours To Jerusalem, Irish Rugby Tours

Dome of the Rock

Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.

It was initially completed in 691–92 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik during the Second Fitna.

Built on the site of the Second Jewish Temple, destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

Unfortunately it collapsed in 1015 and was rebuilt in 1022–23. The Dome of the Rock is in its core one of the oldest extant works of Islamic architecture.

Its architecture and mosaics were patterned after nearby Byzantine churches and palaces although its outside appearance has been significantly changed.

Once in the Ottoman period and again in the modern period. The addition of the gold-plated roof was in 1959 – 1961 and again in 1993.

Western Wall Tunnel Tour

The Western Wall Tunnel is a tunnel exposing the full length of the Western Wall.

It is adjacent to the Western Wall and is located under buildings of the Old City of Jerusalem.

While the open-air portion of the Western Wall is approximately 60 metres long, the majority of its original length is hidden underground.

In 19 BCE, King Herod undertook a project to double the area of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This was to incorporate part of the hill on the Northwest.

In order to do so, four retaining walls were constructed, and the Temple Mount was expanded on top of them.

These retaining walls remained standing along with the platform itself after the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.

Since then much of the area next to the walls became covered and built upon.

Part of the Western Wall remained exposed after the destruction of the Temple.

As it was the closest area to the Temple’s Holy of Holies that remained accessible, it became a place of Jewish prayer.

British researchers started excavating the Western Wall in the mid 19th century.

Charles Wilson began the excavations in 1864 and was followed by Charles Warren in 1867–70.