Walking Our Feet off in Jerusalem

Tuesday, our main goal after breakfast and coffee, was to see if we could get onto the Temple Mount. It is only open to non-Muslims a few hours a day, and not even always then, as we discovered when we went to Jerusalem with Sarah, Nina, and Julia. That day, there were unspecified "problems," and the keepers of the ramp (a bunch of heavily armed soldiers) weren't letting anyone go up.

Our hotel was on Saleh Ad-Din street, just outside Herod's Gate. On the way there, we saw this gentleman, whose coffee was likely much better than the cappuccino-machine coffee at the hotel. We shoulda tried it, but we were on a mission.

As seems to be very common, poring over our Old City map rapidly provoked a young man to ask if we needed help. Many people seem eager to practice their English. With his help, we quickly found the security gate to the Western (aka Wailing) Wall, crossed the plaza, and found that we were in luck! The ramp to the Temple Mount was open, and there were only a few people going up. Many Jews will not go there, for various reasons, so it was not crowded.

The first thing you see is the Al Aqsa mosque. There were groups of mostly women studying or praying in the shade close to the walls, and we were, not surprisingly, not allowed to enter even the portico.

This is the front entrance of Al Aqsa.

Much more prominent, and built upon an even more raised platform, is the Dome of the Rock. This is a shrine, rather than a mosque, and is built around the rock that all three major religions consider to be holy. For Jews and Christians, it is the rock in which Abraham was prepared to sacrifice Isaac, but stopped at the last minute by an angel. in Islam, it is the rock from which Mohammad made his night journey to heaven. It is probably also at or very close to where the first and second temples stood.

The thing in the foreground appeared to be a place to wash the feet before entering the shrine.

The Dome of the Rock is a wonder of decoration, especially the gold plated dome, which had originally had a much thicker layer of gold that was sold to pay off some caliph's debts. The current gold leaf was donated by King Hussein, who sold one of his houses in London to pay for it,

The little dome off to the side is known as the Dome of the Chain. According to Wikipedia, Muslim tradition has it that King David used to judge people under the dome by having the accused hold onto a chain that hung from the dome. If they weren't struck dead, they were telling the truth. Since it was built by Saladin in the 7th century, long after King David, this account is obviously apocryphal.

Since non-Muslims cannot enter the big Dome, the little one had to do. In addition to the prayer niche on the side, there was a marvelous inlaid stone floor, 10 columns (each with a different style of capital), and a spectacular mosaic and gold ceiling.

It is hard to convey the sheer size of the Temple Mount compound. The picture gives only a taste. The plaza was extended from its original size by King Herod, who added collonades surrounding 3 sides that hold up the outer part of the plaza. It is one of the walls from this extension that is now revered as the Western or Wailing Wall.

We were kicked off the Mount promptly at 11 a.m. and found ourselves back in the Arab quarter of the city. Near the church commemorating the spot where the Virgin Mary is believed to have been born, we found this lovely sign in Arabic.

From there we navigated with a few false turns to the Jaffa Gate and the Tower of David Museum. The fortification called the Tower of David is a misnomer, as it was built much later than David's reign. The oldest bit is the leftmost tower in this picture which is thought to be one of the three towers of Herod's palace, probably the Phasael Tower.

The octagonal tower to its right has this cute little dome on top. David remembers having read that it dates to the British mandate period.

The museum is interesting both from the building itself, which is the result of constant building and remodeling, from Herod, through the Byzantine period, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, the British, right down to today, if you count the various railings constructed to keep visitors from falling backward thought centuries.

The minaret shown here was built by the Ottomans in the 17th century on top of an earlier Mamluk structure. Somewhat incongruously dubbed the "Tower of David" (as is the entire fortification) it has become a symbol of Jerusalem.

In addition to the structure itself, the museum has a number of interesting exhibits, both permanent and temporary. Among the highlights of the permanent exhibits are maps and models showing Jerusalem in various time periods.

In the time of King David:

Solomon's extension to include Mt. Moriah, where he built the first temple. The wall shown is the present-day Old City wall, for reference:

And even a map of Warren's Shaft, Hezekiah's Tunnel, and the Siloam Pool, which we visited the day before.

Various replicas of archaeological finds, such as this ancient fist bump between Abraham and Melchtzedek, the king of Salem.

And there were a couple of fanciful temporary exhibits, including one called "Suspicious Objects" (i.e., anything new and unusual), which included this cake pan that one could use to bake a map of Jerusalem with its Arab, Christian, Jewish, and Armenian Quarters, complete with knife so you could slice and dice it as you pleased. There was also a cool wooden-block model of the Dome of the Rock that could be rearranged in various ways to make the Second Temple, the Dome, or even a Byzantine (I think) church.

And an exhibit called "Threads" in which 10 Israeli fashion designers were asked to create outfits for 10 historical women important in the history of Israel. Most were pretty dreadful (I sometimes wonder what curators were thinking), but this dress was pretty cool, especially since the raised parts of the white fabric were actually Hebrew letters. It was designed for Hemda Ben Yehuda, who along with her husband, was instrumental in the revival of Hebrew as a modern language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, before totally collapsing, we circumnavigated the city from the Jaffa Gate to the Dung Gate, which took us past a couple of rock-cut tombs built right into the base of the wall.

Just inside the Dung Gate, we visited the Davidson center and Ophel Archaeological Garden. Located just south and southwest of the Temple Mount (you can just see the dome at the top of Al Aqsa peeping over this wall), the Ophel is obviously an area with tremendous historical significance, from the time of Solomon onward. The half-hidden arch at the corner of these two walls is part of the old Hulda Gate, which was closed up and covered when Herod extended the Temple Mount. Much of what we saw were remains of an Omayyad palace. But I have to admit that by this time, one old rock wall was starting to look much like the next.

We left via the Dung Gate again, and continued our multi-day circumnavigation of the walls by re-entering at the Lion's Gate. Interestingly, this involved walking through a Muslim cemetery built close under the walls and overlooking the traditional Jewish burial grounds on the Mount of Olives.

Yesterday, we tackled two museums in the newer part of Jerusalem, Yad Vashem and the Israel Museum. Neither allowed photography inside the exhibits, so there isn't much to show. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, was a moving and overwhelming remembrance of the hell in the ghettos, concentration camps, cattle cars, and death marches perpetrated by the Nazi regime. Perhaps not the best place to visit only a week and a half before visiting Germany! The grounds of Yad Vashem have various memorials to resistance fighters, the Garden of the Righteous Among Nations, and this cattle car actually used to transport Jews to the death camps, donated by Poland and mounted by the Israeli architect Moshe Safdie.

We had little time in the Israel Museum, but we did get to see the new reconstruction of Herod's tomb, as well as the exhibit of Dead Sea scrolls. Then we had to leave to retrieve our luggage from the Joint and catch a train back to Tel Aviv. Our original plan to catch a ride back with Dina was foiled by the meeting she was scheduled to attend having been moved from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

 

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