Within These Walls Page #3

these openings,

and there was on top of this a

pyramid-shaped stone structure,

which was the permanent abode of

the soul."

For Theo Siebenberg,

each discovery provided palpable

contact with the past and his people.

"Actually we're four floors under

the house now.

I find this probably the most

exciting part of the excavation.

Actually we're standing in a room

which goes back thousands of years,

and you can almost feel the presence

of the people

who lived here at that time you know,

King Solomon's time

King David's time."

"This is a machine gun

which was used in the war of

Independence in 1948."

"The same week I found this I was

excavating three floors lower

at the other end of the site,

and I found..."

this arrowhead in the war

against the Romans in the year 70

of the Common Era."

"So you have this whole span of..."

"Of wars."

"Right."

Absorbed by his passion,

Theo has spent fifteen years

and three million dollars creating

Siebenberg House,

the museum he and Miriam will

leave to the public.

"This was used 2,000 years ago

for crucifixion.

When you think of it...

Now take this inkwell.

You wonder what letters might

have been written

by the owner of the house..."

These artifacts will enable

future generations

to experience their connections

to ancient Jerusalem.

"This here actually is

carbonized wood

from the fire of this

house 2,000 years ago

when the house was destroyed."

"Don't touch it too often.

I see your fingers peeling if off"

"Traces of history"

Fifty years after the armies of Islam

burst like a thunderclap

across the desert to claim Jerusalem,

a Muslim caliph built a shrine

over the holy rock from

which Muhammad had ascended to

the Celestial Spheres.

This magnificent legacy has

drawn the faithful

for more than a thousand years.

Now, during Ramadan,

the Muslim holy month of fasting

and atonement,

thousands of pilgrims journey to

the Old City

for one of the Islamic world's most

important religious observances.

When prayers are over,

the throng disperses through the narrow

alleyways of the Muslim Quarter.

The family of Khalil Khalidi has

lived in the Holy Land

since the day 1,300 years ago

when his ancestor rode into Jerusalem

at the head of a column of

Islamic warriors.

Khalil has a shop in the Muslim Quarter

where he repairs furniture and antiques.

He specializes in

mother-of-pearl inlay.

His neighbor, a blind old player stops

by to pick up the instrument

that Khalil has repaired for him.

Through the centuries,

his family has provided a

succession of scholars

to Jerusalem's Muslim community.

Among their proudest achievements

and possessions is the Khalidi Library.

Founded in 1900, it consists of their

combined private collections:

Persian, English, French, and Turkish.

Khalil's uncle and cousin refer to

one of the many volumes written

by their ancestors.

"My family came to Jerusalem

with the Islamic liberation

in the year 636 B.C., 15 Hegira.

My family lived in Jerusalem

all its time,

but they were forced to Nablus

for 88 years

when the Crusaders occupied the city.

"They came back to Jerusalem with

the famous Islamic leader,

Saladin al Ayubib.

They were the political and the

religious rulers of Jerusalem."

With his cousin he examines their

remarkable family tree.

Each week Khalil goes to the

historic Muslim

cemetery outside the city walls.

"At the cemetery I go to pray

for my ancestor Muhammad Ali Khalidi.

He was the governor of Jerusalem

in the year 1808.

When I go to visit his tomb,

I feel that I am standing in front

of a great man

with deep roots in this country."

During the month of Ramadan the

Muslim Quarter pulse

with activity after sundown.

Here, where ties are old deep,

friend and family gather to commemorate

their ancestors at a mawlid.

Songs celebrating the birth of

the Prophet Muhammad

are followed by a sumptuous meal,

ending the fast they have observed

since sunrise.

Within the walls of the Old City

the ancient traditions resonate

across the ages,

binding the people of the present

with their treasured past.

Ironically, it was a Roman emperor

Constantine the Great,

who adopted Christianity as

the faith of his realm

and assured the future of

the religion.

His mother, the Empress Helena,

journeyed here three centuries

after Christ's death.

Over the sites where she believed

Jesus had been crucified and buried,

Constantine erected the Church of

the Holy Sepulcher.

Today the church is shared

by six Christian sects:

Greek, Armenian, Ethiopian

and Syrian Orthodox,

Roman Catholic, and Coptic.

The Copts have a tiny chapel at the

back of Christ's tomb;

the front chapel belongs to

the Greek Orthodox.

Among their holdings is the stone

where Jesus is thought to have lain

when He was taken from the cross.

Over the Rock of Calvary where Jesus

was crucified the Greek Orthodox

maintain a chapel.

Deep in the church near the base

of the Rock of Cavalry

is an Armenian Orthodox chapel

dedicated to St. Helena.

Medieval pilgrims etched tiny crosses

in the walls leading to the place

where Helena found what she thought

was the true Cross.

Painted on the bedrock is a ship

with the Latin inscription

"O Lord, we arrived."

It indicates that long before

this church

was built pilgrims journeyed here,

believing this to be the site of

the Crucifixion.

A mud hut village atop the roof

of the church is the only area

which the Ethiopian Orthodox,

one of the oldest Christian communities

in the Holy Land, can claim.

Control of even this modest outpost

is disputed in legal wrangles

that began in Ottoman times.

Tense rivalries between sects

have long raged

over rights to this most sacred of

Christian shrines.

Cloistered behind protective walls,

the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate

grew up

next to the Church of

the Holy Sepulcher.

Its monasteries, chapels,

and administrative offices

form a body comparable to a

miniature Vatican.

As a boy, Father Timothy felt

irresistibly drawn

to join the monks who serve here.

"I decided to join the brotherhood

because I like the aims

that the brothers have in front

of them,

to safeguard the Holy Places,

to venerate them, to have them ready

for every Christian to come also

and venerate."

Chief Secretary of the Patriarchate

and private secretary to

the Patriarch,

Father Timothy recalls the path

that led him here.

"When I was 14 years old,

a priest came once to preach

about Jerusalem.

For me that was the turning point

of my life. I said,

'Jerusalem is the place I am going

to be a priest.'

My parents wouldn't

even listen to that.

At last I said,

'If you are not going to help me,

I will never call you mother and

father again.'

Finally they decided to sign

my passport.

Then I came here.

I said to myself that I should stay

in Jerusalem for life.

I feel deeply every moment

in Jerusalem

that my life is connected with

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