Zion

Mount Zion is situated to the south-west of the Old City.

The Cenacle (the Room of the Last Supper) is situated on Zion. Here Jesus together with his disciples held the Passover feast, the Last Supper, before he was arrested (Matt. 26:18-35).

This is the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, built over the ruins of Byzantine and Crusader churches in 1931.

The name of the church refers to Peter's denial of Jesus (Matt. 26:34) and taken from the words of Jesus: "...before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice" (Luke 22:61). (Callicantu is in Latin "cock crow".)

On this site the house of the High Priest Caiaphas stood. It is believed that Jesus was kept here imprisoned for some time and, later, some of the Apostles also were enjailed here.

These are the old Holy Steps, the place of the third (last) denial.

The present Dormition Church and Abbey were built between 1906 and 1910, after Sultan Hamid gave this plot of land to Kaiser Wilhelm II as a gift.

According to tradition, Mary "fell asleep" here, hence the full name of the Church: Dormitio Beatae Mariae Virginis.

When I visited the church for the first time, it was about 7 pm and the church seemed empty. Unnoticed I tip-toed down to a solemn crypt, where in the centre there is a statue of the sleeping Mary made of cherry wood and ivory.

After some time there, I heard slapping doors, steps, and then dead silence. First I thought was that I was locked! But, true or not, there was no point in coming upstairs, so I decided to stay there anyway, especially that it was so sonorously quiet around. And in a few minutes I was rewarded, as some monks in the Church started singing some solemn hymns, whose echoes sounded in unison with the spirit of the crypt!

The Tomb of David is also situated on Zion.