The Holy City

This weekend, Kevin and I had a rare and wonderful opportunity to walk the streets of Jerusalem. Right here in Utah!!! Thanks to our dear friend, Ken Harris, we were able to tour the LDS Church's film set of Jerusalem. This HUGE (and amazing) set is just south of us in Goshen, UT. To say it was incredible would be an understatement, but I can't think of a better word, so "incredible" will have to do.

This is a scale drawing of what the set looks like from above. This is from the program we received when we arrived.

This is the inside of the program where they had a
break-down of what each area represented.

Kevin and our friend, Kenny standing in the
"Court of the Gentiles" where we entered the set.

As we entered the set in the "Court of the Gentiles",
"Solomon's Porches" was on the right....

The doorway to the "Court of the Women" was on our left...

Inside the "Court of the Women",
which also contained part of the Temple Treasury.
This would be where the widow paid her mites
(Jewish coinage) in tithing.
I just taught this story in
Primary a few weeks ago.

Ken's prop-director created accurate replicas
of the money of the time... Roman AND Jewish coins.
These are what the "Widows mites"
would have looked like!

This was on the way towards the "Pool of Bethesda".
Ken said they used this room for
various scenes depicting Jesus teaching...

In this same room was a replica of what an oven of the time
would have looked like... Imagine cooking in that???
This was too totally cool!

The "Pool of Bethesda"
where Jesus healed the lame man...
no water in it at this time,
but amazing nonetheless!

Just off the area with the "Pool of Bethesda",
was a narrow stairway going to some upper rooms.
Here's Kevin in the doorway to those stairs.

Going up... it was easier than coming down,
let me tell you! ha ha

This was the door to one of the "upper rooms".
I can imagine it being "THE" upper room where
Jesus and his apostles had the "Last Supper".

Above the courtyard with the
"Pool of Bethesda" was this balcony.
They used this as the setting for the scene
where Pontius Pilate washes his hands
of the blood of Jesus.

The next few pictures are various areas that I found interesting...

They used this room for scenes of Jesus teaching in a
"Synagogue" (a Jewish Church).

This was the street they used to film Jesus'
"Triumphal Entry"
into the city on what became known as
"Palm Sunday".

This doorway could have led to somebody's house.

Looks like an aqueduct...

Could "THE" stable of the Nativity
have looked something like this?
I wonder....

"Golgotha"...place of the crucifixion.
Kenny said that when they filmed those scenes,
it looked and felt so real that sometimes he couldn't watch.
I don't think I blame him...

This was a marvelous adventure. What amazed me most is how real it looked and felt. The stone-work looked like real stone. In reality, it was all made of foam-block; shaped, carved, and weathered to look authentic to the time. The attention to detail was incredible. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Kenny, thank you with all our hearts to sharing this with us. We appreciate it more than we can say. You have an AWESOME job!