Monastery of the Cross













 I made a new friend in my hostel last night, and I joined her this morning to pray at the Western Wailing Wall, and then bused to a suburb church for Saturday service. Some bus lines out side of the Islam quarter run on Shabbat. 

Then one traveling family gave me a ride to the Israel Museum. I was planning to spend a few hours there, but I determined the strong AC will put me into sleep and gave me a running nose again. So I skipped the Museum and walked via the Valley of Cross to the nearby Monastery of the Cross, which is a Greek Orthodox monastery surrounded by walls built in the crusader period on the remains of the 4th monastery.  The monastery was built over the site of the trees that Jesus's Cross made from. The fortified monastery comprises a church and living quarters. The church contains ancient murals. I can access only to a side chapel but not a hole in the ground where, according to tradition, the tree once grew from which the Holy Cross was fashioned.

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