Here’s a way to get a better feel for one important area of the city.
Picture downtown St. Paul. Spread out just south of I-94. You can probably picture the Cathedral at the top of Summit Hill (with that great view toward downtown). Now, imagine a wall around the entire downtown area. Elevate it a little more than it is, as if it were on a higher plateau. Then make a deep, severe valley between the downtown area and the Cathedral, starting at let’s say near the Xcel Energy Center following all the way down 7th St., then rising much more steeply of an angle up the other side of the hill toward the Cathedral – quadruple the present size of the Summit/Cathedral hill. Steeper, higher. With an even better view.
If you can do that, you have a pretty good perspective on what Jerusalem is like in relation to the Mt. of Olives. The picture I took above can show you what I mean. The arrows I’ve drawn on it will highlight other areas I’ll mention.
To leave the Eastern side of the city, you would take The Lions Gate (more popularly known as “St. Stephen’s Gate” for the last 1900 years, since the saint was supposedly stoned just outside the gate -- in the photo, see the black arrow (clicking on the photo should enlarge the view) about ¾ of the way over to the right, a higher promontory portion of the wall, right by where the dark grassy area is separated by the whiter tombstones in a cemetery farther to the right). From there, a person simply goes down a hundred feet to the bottom of the hill, then starts walking up the steep road on the slopes of the Mt.of Olives across a busy road. It is all…..well…..just “right there”. And is more challenging to the calves than anything I’ve experienced – even in San Francisco.
The very first place you hit at the bottom of the slope of the hill is the Garden of Gethsemane, so close that you could almost throw a ball back over the wall of the city. It is that close. (In the photo, you can see the Church of All Nations -- see other black arrow -- on whose grounds the Garden of Gethsemane lies. The area of the garden is nicely kept, but is very small. No more than 100 x 100 feet. Closer even than the St. Paul Cathedral parking lot is to the Cathedral on Summit Ave., and perhaps not quite as big!
There is good reason to believe this is exactly where Jesus spent the last night (Holy Thursday) after the Last Supper, for a variety of historical and topographical reasons. Of course no one can pinpoint the exact square footage of ground he might have occupied, and the trees there today, while very old and gnarled, were possible not the same ones there in the Garden that night (though some horticultural archaeologists say some might very well have been there at that time!)
It is amazing to lean on the iron fence that surrounds the gate, and peer into the garden, and just imagine all that went on that. It is a very moving place indeed.
Next post…..I’ll share the photos I took.
Picture downtown St. Paul. Spread out just south of I-94. You can probably picture the Cathedral at the top of Summit Hill (with that great view toward downtown). Now, imagine a wall around the entire downtown area. Elevate it a little more than it is, as if it were on a higher plateau. Then make a deep, severe valley between the downtown area and the Cathedral, starting at let’s say near the Xcel Energy Center following all the way down 7th St., then rising much more steeply of an angle up the other side of the hill toward the Cathedral – quadruple the present size of the Summit/Cathedral hill. Steeper, higher. With an even better view.
If you can do that, you have a pretty good perspective on what Jerusalem is like in relation to the Mt. of Olives. The picture I took above can show you what I mean. The arrows I’ve drawn on it will highlight other areas I’ll mention.
To leave the Eastern side of the city, you would take The Lions Gate (more popularly known as “St. Stephen’s Gate” for the last 1900 years, since the saint was supposedly stoned just outside the gate -- in the photo, see the black arrow (clicking on the photo should enlarge the view) about ¾ of the way over to the right, a higher promontory portion of the wall, right by where the dark grassy area is separated by the whiter tombstones in a cemetery farther to the right). From there, a person simply goes down a hundred feet to the bottom of the hill, then starts walking up the steep road on the slopes of the Mt.of Olives across a busy road. It is all…..well…..just “right there”. And is more challenging to the calves than anything I’ve experienced – even in San Francisco.
The very first place you hit at the bottom of the slope of the hill is the Garden of Gethsemane, so close that you could almost throw a ball back over the wall of the city. It is that close. (In the photo, you can see the Church of All Nations -- see other black arrow -- on whose grounds the Garden of Gethsemane lies. The area of the garden is nicely kept, but is very small. No more than 100 x 100 feet. Closer even than the St. Paul Cathedral parking lot is to the Cathedral on Summit Ave., and perhaps not quite as big!
There is good reason to believe this is exactly where Jesus spent the last night (Holy Thursday) after the Last Supper, for a variety of historical and topographical reasons. Of course no one can pinpoint the exact square footage of ground he might have occupied, and the trees there today, while very old and gnarled, were possible not the same ones there in the Garden that night (though some horticultural archaeologists say some might very well have been there at that time!)
It is amazing to lean on the iron fence that surrounds the gate, and peer into the garden, and just imagine all that went on that. It is a very moving place indeed.
Next post…..I’ll share the photos I took.
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