Sunset reflecting off windows on Mt of Olives

I love to photograph the Mount of Olives from above the Kotel (Western Wall). Probably the most intense boneyard on planet earth. Or maybe they never heard of it in China and India, and that's a lot of humanity. Well, we're certainly aware of the Mount of olives, and maybe to the point of obsession. And some obsessions are good, as I see it. When you figure out what is really important in life, it bodes well to be obsessed, intense, preoccupied even. No point in moping about like a damp rag in a clean-up bucket.

Live! Feel a little anguish, a little pain, yearn for something important to more than just yourself. Very good for the soul.

A remedy that lasts a lifetime, and then some.

A Window on Eternity

Hard to believe that only a few meters away from this view of the Mount of Olives you can order fat bagles, thin-crust pizza, soft ice cream, or a skull-cap embroidered with your name. That is Israel. That is Jerusalem. One foot in the 21st century, and another out of time altogether. A living, breathing contemporary city, and a gateway to eternity.

Mount of Olives from Silwan

This is a photo I took of the Mount of Olives from a slightly different angle than one usually sees, from the villiage of Silwan. Silwan is, now, mostly Arab, but the name itself is a corruption of the ancient Hebrew place-name Shilo'akh, known to the west as Shiloah, with the final guttural tossed in the gutter of pronunciation mutation. Now, that isn't the end of it, as this place-name has yet another version well-known in the west, but usually applied to the healing waters anciently at the well-visited spring: Siloam. The final 'm' came from the Greek, I think.

Silwan/Shilo'akh/Shiloah/Siloam is also home to the archaeological dig Ir Dahveed, aka City of David. This area was actually inside the walls of Jerusalem at one time, and a strong minority archaeological opinion says this may have been the temple site, and not the temple site a few hunded meters away.