The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1945-06-07
Homes County Youth v

Oh MT. ana MIS-. "A. "A. Porter, Sr.,\'
Durant, former resident of Lexine>
ton, is at home on a 2l-day furlough,
after having spent 80 months over
He served in the Middle East,
Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, and England.
While in the Middle East he made
a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land and
other places of interest. Sgt. Porter
gives a description of his visit to the
land of Palestine.
1.-The first city to visit in the land
of Palestine was Tel Aviv, a city
very modern and beautiful in every
way. 1t was like being in little New
York I would imagine. The thing
that surprised me most was the hus-
tie and hustle of the city and the
numerous American cars. Some of
the latest models, too, as far as war
time models 60. We hired a taxi here
and proceeded on our way to Jeru-
salem, which is about an hour and
a halls drive from Tel Aviv. Pass
ing through some of the most beau
tiful country in the world, it's rolling
hills, winding streams, valleys green,
orange after oragne grove, the near
lofty mountain peaks, some of a
rocky nature, others of green vege-
tations, just made a very pretty pic
ture indeed.
We arrived in Jerusalem and put
up at the King David Hotel, and this
was quite in contrast to the little
desert tents I am so used to. This
hotel is very nice and one of the
finest to be had in the Middle East
I slept well that night, yes sir! The
next day, we hired a guide and be-
gan our tour of the Holy Lands. The
first place the guide took us to was
the Mount of Olives, which overlooks
the city Of Jerusalem. From a point
here and almost to the spot where
Christ stood when he viewed the
city of Jerusalem, after coming from
Nazareth back to jerusalem, the
first time since early childhood, we
looked upon a beautiful new Jeru-
salem, the old city and the little
town of Bethlehem. Everything
seemed so calm and peaceful; you
can imagine how I felt. Bethlehem,
our next destination, proved to be
very interesting in many ways. On
our way to Bethlehem, we stopped
and visited Rachel's tomb. And from
this point we could see the shep-
herds and their flocks, the bells of
the famous Church of Nativity it.
self (which we were to visit in next
the valley where the three wise men
first saw the morning star, signify
ing the birth of Christ. The guide
called our attention to the peculiar
of the town of Bethlehem.
The towns population has never
exceeded 5000 people. 1t is ideally
upon a mountain. exactly
dividing the green fertile valleys on
one side and the deserts and waste
land on the other. The Church of
Nativity, we visited in next. The
is said to be the Oldest
in the entire world. With
candles, just like the crusad-
.rs of old, we went to the stables
where Christ was born. A golden
star inscribed in the floor marks the
spot. A guard opened a door in the
floor and we saw some stones OF the
first church ever to be built. Once
more back in Jerusalem, we started
by foot to view the old city itself
a city that has been destroyed nine
times in the last 1900 years. The
first sight to attract our attention
was the huge wall around the city.
Here we looked upon a statue that
vas carved some 2l00 years ago and
It is still in good condition. A good
of the tower of David we had
here, also.
Even today you can only enter
this city by way Of the gate. After
entering, you seemingly 60 back and
live in the olden times, because the
who live there live to them
and away from the outside
having their WI ways and
customs of life. Each dwelling place
or abode is built as a fortress within
itself. The streets are built on a zig
gag course as a protection against
the older methods of warfare. Should
the enemy break into the inner part
of the city by way of the gate or
over the walls, he would have to
conquer one angle or turn off a.
street at a time; thus, prolonging the
enemy from the capture Of the city.
The market places are the same
types as they had in the olden times,
I would imagine. They are very
much out of date as compared to
our time, but I would say somewhat
cleaner. The first church to visit in
was the Syrian Orthodox Catholic,
the language spoken there is identi-
cal to that of Christ. From here we
down to the walls of the city