2015-03 Mar - Guachimontones

Mound three

At only an hour outside of Guadalajara, Guachimontones sounded like the perfect day trip to visit old ruins in Mexico. It was also a chance to practice driving outside of the city. While there is probably a bus that runs to the town below, Guachimontones is still another taxi ride through the small town streets and winding, cobbled road up to the archaeological site. Entrance to the site and parking are all included in the 30 pesos/person fee.

Mound three and tomb/temple foundations

 The site itself boasts a small museum near the parking lot. This is where I started. While the museum exhibits didn't present a wealth of information, there was a film about Guachimontones showing in the auditorium; and, it was in English! One of the docents even tracked me down in the museum to make sure that I would get to see the English version. Hopefully, I have remembered enough interesting facts below.

Mound two.

Guachimontones is a a collection of "montones" or mounds. Located up the hill from the town of Teuchitlan, it is easy to see why the inhabits lived here. It is an idyllic spot ringed by mountains and overlooking a peaceful laguna below. The museum film talked about the extensive obsidian deposits due to nearby Tequila Volcano. At the time of the city's inhabitation, obsidian was used for weapons, tools and even jewelry. Another key facet of the location is the laguna below. The inhabits farmed "chiampas" or floating gardens within the laguna.

Overlooking mound two from mound one

Three circular mounds, various platforms for tombs and houses and two ball courts have been excavated thus far. Mound three is quite short, sporting only four concentric circles, while mound two rises perfectly groomed with 13 steps plus another four on top. Both mound two and three are roped off to visitors. However, mound one, which is purportedly the largest but also in shambles, is open for climbing and provides a wonderful view of the other mounds, mountains, town and laguna below.

View from ruins on the outskirts of mound one.

The small platforms around the mound once held small houses as tombs. There are other platforms that held houses. At the time, both were made of bundles of reeds that were then coated with a mud mixture. There were lots of trucks overflowing with reeds on my way to and from Teuchitlan today. I wonder if those were the same type used over 2000 years ago in Guachimontones?

Ball court

The ball courts were long rectangles with a wider section at each end. Much like the serif capital letter "I". There were no ring hoops for the participants to get a ball through. Instead, the participants had to get the ball into their opponents side. The ball could only be touched with the hips. According to the video, the ball courts were used as our court system is today: to settle disputes. It could have definitely save your life to be athletic.

Ball court on the left. Mound two on the right.

2014-09 Sep - Uruguay

2014-09 Sep - Jerusalem

Our first view of Jerusalem

This post is long overdue. There is no excuse. Yet, even this feeble blog post will do little to encompass all the magnificence that is Jerusalem. Our tour guide planned everything, every our entrance to our first city view, having our driver play "Jerusalem, Jerusalem" as we turned and saw the Dome of the Rock glowing in the afternoon sun. We stopped on the edge of town at a university and took our first photos looking down on Jerusalem sprawling below us.

Western Wall

Our first visit was to the Western Wall (also known as the Wailing Wall). Our guide explained how this was the wall closest to the Holy of Holies of the last Temple. Since the temple has not been rebuilt, Jews worship at this wall for now. The wall is separated into a portion for women and a portion for men. The genders are not allowed to mingle. In addition, on the men's side, there is a side door where copies of the Torah are kept. Only men are allowed in. Women can enter at a different entrance and peer down at the Torah. In front of the wall, people are praying and reading from scriptures, both silently and in quiet whispers. Some sway back forth in their worship. Tiny pieces of paper fill every crevice between the rocks in the wall. People believe that their prayers are stronger placed here, so much so that there are even internet services to print off and insert your prayer into the wall. Our guide gave us time here to meditate and pray. It was truly an awe-inspiring, spiritual experience. Afterward, we took a tour inside the wall. It is built onto the bedrock of Mount Moriah. We walked into former rooms that were then used as cisterns. Finally, we walked along the side of the wall in an excavated tunnel, feeling just a bit like intrepid adventurers.

Model of Jerusalem at Israel Museum

Next, our tour guide took us to the Israel Museum. Her main goal was for us to see a visual representation of Jerusalem. On the museum patio is an intricate model of Jerusalem from ~66 CE. From our first night meeting our guide in Netanye, she had been pointing out the "shin" symbol on the mezuzahs attached to our door frames. The mezuzah is placed on every door frame and has a prayer inside. Today, our guide showed us how the "shin" symbol is the geography of the city of Jerusalem. The left line is the Valley of Gahenna; the center line is Tirapol; and, the right line is the Valley of Kidron. (Here's one artist's visualization.) She pointed out major landmarks in Jerusalem as well as showing us where Jesus would have walked from his entry on Palm Sunday until his crucifixion on Good Friday. This is when we learned that the traditional sites in Jerusalem for the twelve stations of the cross are not necessarily the historical sites. In the Jerusalem Museum, there is an onion domed building that houses both the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as the Aleppo Codex. The Isaiah scroll was displayed as the centerpiece of the circular wing. Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit any other wings in the Israel Museum.

Our final and most chilling stop of the day was the Holocaust Museum. It is a very intense and extensive coverage of everything Holocaust related, from detailed historical information to a room with all the names of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Old city walls and sealed East Gate

The next day, we started bright and early on our way up to the Mount of Olives, which is currently a Jewish cemetery. Looking across from the Mount of Olives, one can see the sealed East Gate of the walls of Old Jerusalem. These walls were built by Suleyman the Magnificent in the 1500s to protect against the Crusades of Spanish emperor Charles. There's a legend that upon completion of the walls, Suleiman executed the architects since they forgot to include Mount Zion and the tomb of King David within the city walls.

Garden of Gethsemane

Next, we walked down into the Garden of Gethsemane. Within the garden, gnarled, old olive trees still live. They are fenced off to avoid visitors getting too close to these 2000+ year old trees. But, one can still walk through the garden and enjoy their beauty. On the site, there is a beautiful Church of All Nations with stunning mosaics.

Inside the basement of Caiaphus's house

Our next stop was Caiaphus's house. On this spot is now a nunnery called Saint Peter of Gallicantu. When we visited, we were the only visitors. Our guide took us down into the place where Jesus was supposedly held. In the basement of the house, we could see steps of what looked like a ritual baths as well as depressions in the floor for holding jars.