It’s another early start today, and one I’ve been looking forward to ever since I found out I was coming back to Israel. My visit to Jerusalem almost 20 years ago was fleeting and has faded very much into hazy memory. I know I’d ticked off the key sites – the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Wailing Wall and the Dome of the Rock, which non-Muslims can no longer visit – but it had been whistle-stop and a bit random, and I don’t feel like I’d paid due reverence or attention at the time. 

It’s partly exacerbated by the fact I only had a little Instamatic camera back then and the couple of rolls of photos I took are hidden in a box and have pretty much not been looked at since... so this is my chance to take it all in again and be rather more thoughtful this time. 

It’s the same drill as yesterday; picked up in a minivan and transported to a place where we’re all allocated new groups. However this time when we arrive they seem to have a bit of trouble locating which party I’m meant to be joining. I’ve booked the day tour of Old Jerusalem but it transpires I’m the only one who has, so they ask me if I’d mind joining an extended tour that takes in all of ancient Jerusalem and also throws in Bethlehem and parts of the Palestinian West Bank as well - and they’ll not charge me any extra for it. What a result!

Another bonus is that our guide is a jovial and charismatic individual called Ami, who during the week is an archaeology professor at Tel Aviv university but at weekends takes tours as a way of escaping dusty academia. With his leather Stetson he’s like an Israeli Indiana Jones. 

Ami is full of facts, delivered in an engaging way, and as we leave Tel Aviv over the Hayarkon river (“it means Green River but is a stream compared to most European rivers”) he tells us how Britain conquered Palestine in 1917, moving north through Egypt and building the port of Haifa, thus reducing Jaffa’s importance. 

On the way to Jerusalem we drive past Ben Gurion airport, and Ami fills us in on the importance of Israel’s first prime minister (Ben Gurion) and how when he declared the Israeli state on 1st May 1948, the date the British left Palestine, a coalition of five Arab nations invaded the very next day leading to the War of Independence. 

Opposite the airport lies the city of Lydia, which was the capital of Palestine for centuries, and is the home of the tomb of St George, patron saint of many nations, not just England. A Roman soldier who converted to Christianity and fought to protect his fellow believers, the mythical dragon represents the Romans, and his war against persecution.

Ami points out olive groves, describing their importance throughout history, and identifies the Elah valley where David & Goliath fought, before we see the memorial vehicles of the Six Day War and then the Hill where Jesus first appeared to his disciples after his crucifixion. Entering the outskirts of Jerusalem we pass pharmaceutical and hi-tech companies, the powerhouse of the Israeli economy, commanding taxation rates of up to 70%, whilst vast areas of the burgeoning construction industry are staffed by Chinese workers, due to the high proportion of the Israeli population being graduates and not wanting to work in manual trades.

Jerusalem is supremely quiet; a religious city – as opposed to Tel Aviv’s more sinful reputation – we have entered on the Sabbat, so all observant Jews have remained at home, with the only traffic on the streets being essentially tourists. Adding further into the tranquillity, it’s also the 9th of Av in the Jewish calendar – the date where various tragedies have befallen the Jews over millennia so a day of remembrance. My own misfortune is yet to occur.

Whilst Bethlehem is the first proper destination on the tour, after driving past the British and Commonwealth war cemetery we stop briefly for coffee at Mount Scopus in Jerusalem by the Hebrew University which was established by Albert Einstein. With a few more travellers joining us we move on to a dramatic look-out point on the hill from which we can take in – quite literally – a Biblical panorama.

Before us lies the most contested city on earth, one square mile of sacred devotion which has been destroyed in some way, shape or form more than 90 times, and spawned endless centuries of warfare and terror. Ami brings to life its chequered past in vivid and amazing detail, describing Jesus’ last few days with an historical clarity and raconteur’s skill that is quite amazing.

His retelling of the internecine politics and corruption that preceded Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem through the Mount of Olives and the Kidron Valley, the overthrowing of the priests and money lenders in the Temple, the events of Passover night and the betrayal by Judas, followed by Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane, conviction and crucifixion, is accompanied by specific geographical detail - which he points out before us - of where it all took place and how it happened. Jesus, the social warrior and people’s hero, comes to life with a clarity that is quite inspiring.

City walls and glinting cupolas punctuate the city; here is the Dome of the Rock, over there the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, look to your left on the summit of the Mount of Olives and that’s the Church of the Ascension, to the right the Church of Mary Magdalene, trace your eyes along this line and there’s the Wailing Wall, and more and more beside. Ami’s lesson is worth the price of the trip alone.

My mind filled with a palpable sense of history, we jump into the minibus and start the drive into modern day Palestine, taking in the views of the Judah desert and Jordan Valley which Jesus walked through from Nazareth to reach Jerusalem, fasting for 40 days and nights, and in the distance we can make out Jericho, the Dead Sea and the coast of Jordan. On a clear day you can even see Amman from here, illustrating how close the two capital cities are, but the haze today means it’s hidden from view.

What is clear however is the wall separating Israel from Palestine. We cross it through a checkpoint with minimum fuss, but the division between the modern affluence of Israel and the ramshackle deprivations of the West Bank is pretty clear. Having become more and more marginalised, Ami describes the current suffering of the Christian community in Bethlehem and the wider Middle East, where persecution happens on a daily basis. Whereas 95% of the population in Bethlehem was Christian in the 1930s, it’s now just 2%, with most of the remaining community having fled for America or Europe over the past 20 years.

Ami also informs us that Bethlehem was originally the home of the tribe of Judah, the only one of the twelve Jewish tribes of the Old Testament still in existence, and in Hebrew, the name means House of Bread but in Arabic it becomes House of Meat. Christians of course know it as the birthplace of Christ.

We park up outside the Everest Hotel on the outskirts of Bethlehem and change from our Israeli minibus to two people carriers bearing Palestinian number plates, presumably to attract less attention, and we drive into the heart of Bethlehem past shops and houses, markets and graffiti, the streets and life mirroring those of town across the Middle East.

Our destination is the Church of the Nativity and once we are dropped off, we approach it by walking up Manger Street to Manger Square, where Ami introduces us to Abdalahad, a Palestinian guide and one of the few Christians left in the West Bank. He takes us first into the Church of St Katherine, where we descend underground into the grotto where, according to Christian legend, Jesus was born.

 Abdalahad explains that the grotto is now partitioned in two, with half of it being controlled by the Greek Orthodox church and containing an ancient 14-pointed star denoting the 14 generations from Abraham to Jesus, and the other half being the responsibility of the Catholics who look after the Church of St Katherine, without access to said star. It’s all the same space, with a dividing wall, but the queues for the Nativity side take about three hours to gain access whilst entering through the Catholic side, you’re in the fabled stable within minutes.

We share our space with a number of other groups, all with competing guides, one of whom is a member of the Syrian church, like Abdalahad, and heads are bowed as the Lord’s Prayer is sung in Aramaic; recited as it would have been when first spoken by Jesus. It’s somewhat hard to maintain a spiritual respect whilst your fellow guests are all busy filming on their iPhones.

Next to the birthplace of Jesus is the Chapel of the Innocents, dedicated to the hundreds of infants slaughtered by Herod as he tried to eliminate the King of the Jews, and back on ground level we walk past the Door of Humility and into the Church of the Nativity, from which the Bishop of Jerusalem celebrates Midnight Mass on a worldwide broadcast each Christmas Eve.

Originally built by St Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, it’s currently undergoing reconstruction works so sheets and scaffolding somewhat mar the reverential atmosphere. We get glimpses of an original mosaic floor from the 4th Century, and painted frescos and tiles on the walls, but the space is crowded with pilgrims queuing for hours to stand metres from where we stood in the grotto, but on the side with the multi-pointed, star-shaped family tree.

Our time is short so we head out, past the statue of St Jerome who first translated the Bible into Latin and Greek taking a mere 36 years to do so, and past a statue of St George slaying the (Roman) dragon. It’s imperative of course that we spend time in a souvenir shop so I do my duty for the local economy and purchase a Palestine fridge magnet, some olive oil and a couple of elaborately decorated ceramics.

Our drive back to the Everest Hotel takes us past St Michael’s Hotel, established by Banksy whose graffiti art can be seen dotted on buildings here and there, and then we’re back in the minibus and through the checkpoint, winding back up the hillside and along the empty roads, past the new US embassy, to an underground carpark where we start our exploration of the ancient sites of old Jerusalem…