I've always felt that to have a complete Jerusalem experience I needed to visit the Dome of the Rock; the Islamic mosque on the Temple Mount that is an unmistakable icon of the city. By the time I arrived in Jerusalem's Old City yesterday the Dome of the Rock was closed to visitors, but to be sure I had a chance to see it, I made it my first priority this morning.Actually visiting a place always brings it to life for me. I don't know what I expected to see when I got to the top of the Temple Mount today, but what is up there is somehow different than what I had imagined. Besides a smaller, drab mosque on the South end of the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock is the only structure of real significance up there (of course what I consider significant may be different from what historians consider significant). After passing through security I walked through the gate at the top of the temple mount to a stone pathway leading to the plaza that the dome sits on. Like the garden tomb, the top of the Temple Mount is relaxing to visit because it's so much quieter and so much less crowded than the narrow, bustling alleyways filling the Old City below. As I type this I'm almost laughing at myself because all I write about these days is what is relaxing and what is not, but after seventy-two jam packed days of travels, I'm starting to get a little tired and anything relaxing is more than welcome.
My Lonely Planet book mentioned that the Dome of the Rock might be the most photographed building on earth, and it's easy to see why. The colors and textures of the building contrast so well with each other and the building is so photogenic, especially when viewed from the Mount of Olives with Jerusalem's Old City as a backdrop. I must have snapped a hundred pictures of the thing today and I'm sure a lot of them are the same that other people have taken before, but to me they're creative and original because they're mine. Also, just a side note, but I wonder if the author of my Lonely Planet book considered that the Taj Mahal is also photographed quite often. Maybe the Dome of the Rock is the second most photographed building in the world.I walked in a complete circle around the Dome of the Rock, sure to see it from every angle possible, then walked back through the tree-lined pathway below the plaza and crossed through one of the gates back to the Old City.I had to make at least one more visit to the Wailing Wall to people watch, and since it sits directly below the Temple Mount, there was no better time to see it than after visiting the Dome of the Rock this morning. There were a lot more people at the wall today than yesterday afternoon, and nearly all of them were local Jewish worshipers. I watched several Jewish men bow and pray in front of the wall, as well as some older men who read out of holy books (the Talmud, perhaps?) and passionately uttered Hebrew prayers in the direction of the wall. I know the Wailing Wall means so much to Jewish people all over the world and many people save for years just to visit it once or twice, but I didn't feel any need to pray at the wall while I was there. I hope that's not a bad thing. I respect people who believe that they should travel to the wall to pray at great effort and great expense, but I don't believe the same way those people do. Again, the wall was significant to me because of it's cultural and historical value, not because it was any kind of religious pilgrimage for me.After beginning the day with a famous Islamic site and a famous Jewish site, it felt appropriate to visit one of the many famous Christian sites around. I walked back through the Old City and out Lion's Gate until I reached a small, fenced plot of land with ten or fifteen gnarled olive trees growing on it. Nobody knows exactly where the actual Garden of Gethsemane was, but tradition holds it to be just outside Lion's Gate at the site I visited today. A few of the trees in the Garden looked to be only twenty or thirty years old, but many of them were so twisted and distorted that they looked as if they had been sitting there for hundreds of years. I tried to imagine what garden might have looked like on the night of Christ's sacrifice. Back then there was very little to Jerusalem besides just the Old City. I'm sure the Garden of Gethsemane would have felt a lot more remote and isolated than it does today.The Garden of Gethsemane sits at the bottom of the Mount of Olives, and from the top of the Mount of Olives visitors to Jerusalem can see the greatest view of the city, which also is probably one of the most recognizable views in the world. It took about a half-hour to hike to the top of the hill and I hung around up there for about another half-hour to enjoy the sight and take a few pictures. The golden dome of the Dome of the Rock mosque is easily the most distinguishable feature of Jerusalem's skyline, and it's backdrop is hundreds of ancient buildings made of the light beige limestone that is typical of architecture in the area.It has been a lot of fun for me during the last two days to get familiar with the layout of Jerusalem. In just the short time that I've been here I already know where the Temple Mount is in relation to everything else in the city, I know how to navigate through the narrow, winding souqs and which routes are fastest, I know where many of the historical sites are inside and outside the Old City, and I know a Palestinian cafe where I can get good falafel for only six shekels. When I came in 2000 I just followed the tour group around like a kid would follow his kindergarten teacher, I didn't really get to know the streets and layout of Jerusalem. While traveling independantly there is no other option than to familiarize myself with the places I visit, and I like it that way because it means I've really gotten to know a lot of famous cities and regions all over the world.
Museums are such a sterotypical thing to visit while traveling, so my philosophy is that if I'm going to visit a museum, it had better be either one with a lot of character that is very different from other museums, or it had better be one of the most famous, renown museums in the world. Jerusalem's Tower of David Museum that is housed in a fortress at Jaffa Gate roughly fits the first of those two criteria. The Tower of David Museum, also called the Citidel, is a collection of ancient artifacts collected from Jerusalem and a description of Jerusalem's history from it's early beginnings thousands of years before Christ through the British Mandate and establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. By the time I reached the museum this afternoon I was pretty worn out, and although I read most of the placards that described the city's history, only a handful of the sentances acutally registered. In a nutshell the museum emphasized to me that Jerusalem has been the most disputed piece of land in the history of the world and that the conquests of Romans, Muslims, Crusaders, and others has resulted in several different historical periods and a complicated mix of cultures and ideas. The literal translation of “Jerusalem” means “City of Peace”, and the irony of that name became even more distinctive to me after the visit to the Citidel today.
While traveling I like to do at least a few things in each place that are different from the mainstream tourist trail. Nothing I've done in Jerusalem is too different from what other visitors do when they come here, but my visit to Zedekiah's Cave this afternoon was probably at least a little different. Zedekiah's Cave is an ancient underground quarry that stretches for hundreds of meters beneath the Old City. The quarry, which wasn't rediscovered until the 19th century, is believed by Freemasons to be the place where King Solomon obtained his rock for the temple. Jews believe that it was not Solomon, but Zedekiah who used the quarry. Either way, it was interesting to walk through. I wouldn't call it a must-see attraction for Jerusalem, but I don't think most visitors wander around in underground caves when they come here, it's just something to do that's a little different. As I walked through I noticed a sign in the main chamber of the quarry saying that Freemasons meet annually in the underground chamber in regognition of King Soloman, who they believe was the first real Mason.I looked around for a nice sit-down place to eat tonight but ended up heading back to the Palestinian place for more falafel. Sometime while I'm here I really will get some quality Israeli food, but for the time being a pita-filled falafel is good for the belly and for the wallet.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Dome of the Rock
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2 comments:
Michael,
We went through Zedekiah's tunnel. Probably a different place than where you were. It had a stream going through the whole tunnel. You sound like you are getting tired. Just think of all the time you will have to relax when you get home and before you start school
Once again, thanks for the memories! I love Israel. If you get a chance, the BYU Center is really neat. However, it is above the Garden of Gethsemane and I know you were just there. We used to stop at what we called the green door bakery, an old hole in the wall (literally) that you would notice coming down the hill from the BYU center. There was a man cooking up the best pita bread, served hot. Have fun!
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