This old city.

You can enter from one of the 5 gates into this old city and immediately you will feel thousands of years of historical events that shaped us today.  Lined with limestone from the ground to the highest structure, you indulged in the amazing architecture that remains standing since it was built, some aging over a millennia.  The narrow ally ways are lined up with small merchants creating a beautiful blend of scents of indigenous foods, desserts, spices, and coffee all linger as you walk from one block to the other.  As you approach the city center, you will find yourself in the old market swarmed with tourists visiting from all parts of the world.  Some are there for pilgrimages, some to enjoy history, and some to get in touch with ancestry.  Gift shops, religious shops, restaurants, and cafes all gathered up in little spaces.  One would feel the power of a struggle to define an identity in this city, the power of theology, and the might of a military.   Despite your origin or reason to visit you will feel this sense of exuberance, a feeling lingers over you with the amazing part of the world this is.  What you read in History books or in novels does not portray the power rising from the narrow ally ways, or the feeling of satisfaction for you presence there.  It’s most amazing at noon when all theologies raise their voice.  The sound of bells, carried by the call the to prayers, echoed by the horn. They all come together, and at that moment, peaceful emotions are raised while the chaos of daily life moving about in its normal pace, yet there you stand floating like an angle, and observing the beauty of our history. Regardless of the bloodshed associated with it, or the years of oppression many suffered.  As the heart of the city keeps beating the drums of history, history continue to be written there, in many instances covered in blood and crimes, yet always has the feeling of peace.  It has several names by different believes; yet they all cherish it for the same reason, named it after what it should be, not for what it is.  Despite what it created or how it became, once you walk through it, you will always have this sense of peace.