Dung Gate, Mt. of Olives and Ophel

As the tour of the Old City ended, Uri, Tali, Martin and I walked our way to the Dung Gate.  Here is a great view of Eastern Jerusalem:

As we came closer to the Dung Gate, we paused for a view of the Mt. of Olives.  The view was amazing.  A majority of the Mount is the resting place for Jewish people.

The four of us walked our way out of the Dung Gate, to find the police clearing the area ouside the Dung Gate and an empty bus in the road.  I took a picture of the bus, and noticed a back pack still on the bus (more on this in a bit):

Next we walked south of the Dung Gate, towards the Ophel.  The Ophel is known as the Inner Citadel and included the palace and royal administrative center (this is covered in the book "The Complete Guide to the Temple Mount Excavations" by Eilat Mazar).

The Ophel is located 3 times in the Bible:

"He (King Jotham) built the high (upper) gate

of the house of the Lord, and on the wall of

Ophel he built much"

II Chronicles 27:3

"Now after this he (King Manasseh) built a wall

outside the city of David, on the west side of

Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the

fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised

it up a very great height, and put captains of war

in all the fenced (fortified) cities of Judah."

II Chronicles 33:14

"More over the Nethinim dwelt in Ophel, unto the

place over against the water gate toward the east,

and the tower that lieth out.

"After them the Tekoites repaired another piece, over

against the great tower that lieth out, even unto the

wall of Ophel."

Nehemiah 3:26-27

As we walked north along the Eastern Wall of the Old City, we came closer to the Mt. of Olives.  To see the resting place of many Jewish people was amazing.  There must be 10's of thousands of graves.

I believe this is the tomb of Pharaoh's Daughter (which Pharaoh I do not know:)

We continued to walk north along the Eastern Wall, taking in the view.  We came to the Golden Gate and the Gate of Mercy:

We stood here for a minute looking at the great view of the eastern side of Jerusalem.  Here is the Church of All Nations:

Here is a great view looking eastward of the Eastern Wall towards Mt. Scopus:

As we walked back towards the Dung Gate for a bit of a rest, we noticed that the bus was still sitting in the road.  All the buses were empty and the bomb squad was on location.  After a few minutes the back pack was detonated.  That will teach someone to leave their back pack on a bus in Israel.

As the tour slowly came to an end, we walked along Ma'ale Ha-Shalom St to Mt. Zion (where Oskar Schindler is laid to rest.)  Again, we had another great view of the southern neighborhoods of Jerusalem.  This photo is looking south towards Giv'at Khananya:

Just before we headed to the parking deck, we came across this building:

In the bottom center of this photo, you will see a box on a thin wire.  This building and box was used to send supplies to the Israeli soldiers during the 1948 War (if I remember correctly.)