From up in the sky, the view of the city makes the skyline look like a professional piece of art. As the plane touches the ground and we disembark, the first thing to notice is the tight security at the airport. Having no fear of any criminal offences or possession of weapons, I stay put and within a few minutes, I am out of the airport.

This was my first time to set foot in Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv, also known as the New York of Israel, has very little resemblance with a Holy Land. My expectations were already dropping by the second. The prices in shops and supermarkets are so high. The malls and gadget shops, which usually offer a better bargain, are no different. I was left with no option but to run to my hotel – The Calton. Interestingly, the most amazing hotel, which also got me off guard, is that when ‘The Carlton’ expects you, a flag of your country is hoisted right next to the Israeli flag. This made me feel right at home. With a lot of anticipation about the holy land, I couldn’t wait to get to Jerusalem. On the bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, urged on by the rhythmic rocking and the soft purring of the engine, I doze off.

"We are here,” shouted the guide. My eyes opened wide and ears sprung to attention. I half expected a miracle; after all, I was in the land of Jesus himself. The first thing that I saw was a rocky hill and a number of houses so packed together as we moved on a bumpy rocky road up the hill to the ‘Old city of Jerusalem’. Everyone was dressed in black; I felt the cold hit me after just one step out of the car. I held onto my coat as I moved forward.

Everyone seemed so calm; walking gently and it was interesting that a thousand could be so silent.

While I walked into the gates, my first glance was on the western wall. Hundreds of people place their hands on the wall to make prayer requests while also praising and thanking God.

As I approached the wall, I was handed a white cone shaped cap to place on my head before getting to the western wall. This is to show that the Lord is above me and I am gladly his servant. I walked to the wall and bowed in prayer. I asked God for the gift of life. Standing at the wall, you can follow the tradition of writing your personal prayer on a scrap of paper and stick it in one of the spaces between the large Herodias stones. I didn’t get the chance to do that as the only thing close to a paper that I had was my passport.

The people, who stood next to me cried out, prayed as they read books and sang songs of praise quietly. I also got to learn that the western wall was Judaism's holiest site. It’s a supporting wall built by Herod during his renovation of the Second Temple; 2000 years ago.

While I strolled through these ancient walls, my excitement turned into a calm and humble walk. I got to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is the holiest site to Christianity and commemorates the place of Jesus' crucifixion and tomb. The original church was built by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century and extensively rebuilt by the Crusaders in 1149. It's really a church of churches as six different Christian groups - Greek Orthodox, Franciscan (Catholic), Armenian, Syrian, Coptic and Ethiopian - share space and time for their traditions.

I walked in and saw a number of things. First was the stone on which Jesus was laid for cleaning after being brought down from the cross also known as the stone of unction, then his tomb. I didn’t have the courage to enter but managed to stand outside.

For some reason, I started crying.

I felt like standing and gazing at the tomb for such as long time but time wasn’t in my favour. Suddenly I started praying.

I felt a connection to this place but the time had come to finally walk away. I went to the Mahane Yehuda market which is a livelier place.

In this place, you can get leather bags, clothes, all kinds of Israel ornaments and most importantly, Middle Eastern delicacies, traditional foods from the many nationalities that have made Jerusalem their home. The narrow rocky pathway made me bump into people from all walks of life from merchants calling for clients while guessing their nationalities. It was interesting how each one picked a nationality for me, ranging from Nigerian, Tanzanian to Ghanaian.

With very little time left, I had to catch up with the viewpoints just to see what I didn’t get a chance to see. I climbed onto the 750 steps of the Church of the Redeemer bell tower; out onto the narrow walkway up on the dome of the Hurva synagogue. I finally got a very beautiful view of ‘The Dome of the Rock’ - a shrine in blue tile and gold, which is one of the earliest examples of Islamic architecture - and the Al Aqsa mosque. The latter is the third Islamic holiest site, and both were built originally in the 8th century by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik.I would have loved to see more of this city but time was not on my side. As I walked away, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I walked in a normal man and came out a somehow cleansed one. Holy places have a way of doing that to most of us.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw