102,825
That's (roughly) how many steps I took today. Which, given my very lengthy stride of 18 inches means I walked 1,850,850 inches which breaks down nicely as follows:
154,237.5 feet = 51,412.5 yards = 29.21 miles (or, if you prefer kilometers: 47.01 km).
Wow. That's a lot of walking. Since we did that all in 8 and 1/2 hours we were walking (on average) 3 1/2 miles per hour. Constantly. Sheesh! The truly strange thing is, it certainly didn't feel like we did all that walking, and I am not overly tired from said event.
We started off the morning at 8am. Uncle had to do some office work, so it was just Aunt, George, and me. We started out the day by meeting George at the Seven Arches Hotel on the top of the Mount of Olives. We stood at an overlook point that looks down on Jerusalem. From here we saw a plethora of graves. It was quite interesting — The nearest graves were Jewish graves, then down in the Kidron Valley were Christian graves, and finally, on the other side of the valley were Muslim graves. The Muslim graveyard was in front of the Gold Doors that the Jewish Messiah is supposed to enter through. The doors are sealed off, presumably, to prevent this and the graveyard is placed in front to further prevent it — because the Messiah, being a rabbi, could not walk through a Muslim graveyard without being defiled. That is information from Uncle, George said nothing about it. You might notice in the picture that it is quite windy. It was also a bit chilly. We have been enjoying quite warm weather. Getting back to Utah will be quite the shock to my system!
Here's a bit of a diagram of what I was talking about in the above picture. Ohhh... check me out, I can type on a picture! Yes, I know it's ugly.
As we walked past the Jewish graves George pointed out that there were stones on the graves. Why? He asked. Simple, according to Jewish tradition the body is buried the same day the person dies (I happened to know that information, he didn't mention
it), so not everyone is able to attend. However, when someone gets to the grave they put a stone on it to say, "I was here, and I took part of your funeral in spirit." It's kind of a neat idea. It is interesting to note, here, that this practice causes interesting issues for members of the Church whose family is Jewish. Given the rapid turn around, and the desire to not offend the family members the grave site sometimes has to be dedicated after the burial when the family has left.
Just to give you some perspective on the amount of walking we actually did, we started the day in the upper left hand corner of this picture, and ended further away than where I took this picture. However, the view is great, so it will have to serve as a good visual. Also, the path we took down the Mount of Olives wound to the left, and out of view. Yes, I should have thought of that when I was taking the picture.
154,237.5 feet = 51,412.5 yards = 29.21 miles (or, if you prefer kilometers: 47.01 km).
Wow. That's a lot of walking. Since we did that all in 8 and 1/2 hours we were walking (on average) 3 1/2 miles per hour. Constantly. Sheesh! The truly strange thing is, it certainly didn't feel like we did all that walking, and I am not overly tired from said event.
We started off the morning at 8am. Uncle had to do some office work, so it was just Aunt, George, and me. We started out the day by meeting George at the Seven Arches Hotel on the top of the Mount of Olives. We stood at an overlook point that looks down on Jerusalem. From here we saw a plethora of graves. It was quite interesting — The nearest graves were Jewish graves, then down in the Kidron Valley were Christian graves, and finally, on the other side of the valley were Muslim graves. The Muslim graveyard was in front of the Gold Doors that the Jewish Messiah is supposed to enter through. The doors are sealed off, presumably, to prevent this and the graveyard is placed in front to further prevent it — because the Messiah, being a rabbi, could not walk through a Muslim graveyard without being defiled. That is information from Uncle, George said nothing about it. You might notice in the picture that it is quite windy. It was also a bit chilly. We have been enjoying quite warm weather. Getting back to Utah will be quite the shock to my system!
Here's a bit of a diagram of what I was talking about in the above picture. Ohhh... check me out, I can type on a picture! Yes, I know it's ugly.As we walked past the Jewish graves George pointed out that there were stones on the graves. Why? He asked. Simple, according to Jewish tradition the body is buried the same day the person dies (I happened to know that information, he didn't mention
it), so not everyone is able to attend. However, when someone gets to the grave they put a stone on it to say, "I was here, and I took part of your funeral in spirit." It's kind of a neat idea. It is interesting to note, here, that this practice causes interesting issues for members of the Church whose family is Jewish. Given the rapid turn around, and the desire to not offend the family members the grave site sometimes has to be dedicated after the burial when the family has left.
Just to give you some perspective on the amount of walking we actually did, we started the day in the upper left hand corner of this picture, and ended further away than where I took this picture. However, the view is great, so it will have to serve as a good visual. Also, the path we took down the Mount of Olives wound to the left, and out of view. Yes, I should have thought of that when I was taking the picture.
posted by granola girl at 7:18 PM
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