Jerusalem: Part 7

The Armenian Section
This section of town is clean, quite and very nicely maintained. The churches are in keeping with Christian tradition and they are filled with mosaics, paintings and ceramics...as well as many hanging lights. Yet they are less showy and seem more austere than their Catholic counterparts. The walls of the streets seemed less marked by graffiti, an the shops and restaurants are well kept. Obviously, the Armenian people are an industrious bunch. Yet, even here there were signs of political strife...and we noticed that on several walls there were posters providing a graphic reminder of the Armenian genocide by the Turks. The poster featured photos of emaciated people surrounding a map of Armenian indicating the places where the most people were killed...and apparently the total was about 1 million innocent people that were executed by the Ottoman Empire during their occupation of the Armenian country. I was only slightly aware of this history...but I will look into it more after I return...as those posters did their job, and motivated me to find out about this sordid set of events.

All in all, the visit to Jerusalem was a highlight of this trip...and the kind of once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimages that will not easily be forgotten. Once again, I'd like to thank Yanek for his generosity, for taking the time to driveus there and show us around, and for being such a great guide. Should his second career as a model not work out, he can always earn his living by guiding folks through Jerusalem! :))