Wild Thyme Entering Jerusalem

n enticing smell of wild thyme assaults my nostrils as I walk down the new Mamilla Mall towards Jaffa Gate and approach the old walls of the Holy City.

An enticing smell of wild thyme assaults my nostrils as I walk down the new Mamilla Mall towards Jaffa Gate and approach the old walls of the Holy City. (Click to enlarge photo.)

I wonder what the Crusaders would have smelled, over and above themselves, as they approached the Holy City hundreds of years ago?

A more important quandry for me is spiriting myself back 2,000 years and wondering if I would have been in the crowd waving fronds of palms when a messianic character, who, until three years prior, had been a poor, day-labourer working on building the new cities in Galilee for the Roman Governor and the Jewish Elite?

I’ve nearly finished reading the new book, ‘Zealot’, by a Moslem author, Reza Aslan, on the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. He has placed Jesus in the historical context of life at that time, and his research corroborates (or not) the Evangelists’ accounts and ties back to the Old Testament. It’s been a great learning curve on the eve of this trip.

Michael at the Dome of the Rock

I stop for a freshly squeezed glass of pomegranate juice in the alleyway in the Markets (so far, so good)

Click to see a few photos from this first afternoon in Jerusalem.