King Solomon’s Temple – 1st May 2010
Yes, this was it. The biggest trip I was looking forward to most in my stay in the Middle East. Jerusalem: The epicenter of the three biggest religions in the world. The center of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. A city that is literally oozing with history at every street and every corner. Needless to say, it was an amazing experience. My friends and I left for the city early Thursday morning. (We skipped class, ohh what rebels!) The drive to it isn’t that bad, but the longest portion of the trip was at the border. In order to be able to visit Syria, we can’t go to Israel. (Technically, we can’t have an Israeli stamp in our passport.) Because this is not the first time Jordan and Israel have come across this problem, there is a special policy in place that keeps us from getting our passport stamped. The only trade off: being questioned for an hour by Israeli authorities. (Why are you studying in Jordan? Why are you studying Arabic? Why do you want to come to Israel? Where do you want to go in Israel? Who are you traveling with? Where are you staying? Etc.)
After the checkpoint we then took a bus from the border to Jerusalem and awaited our first sight of the old city. It finally came as we passed through a tunnel. As we exited it, BAM! There were the old city walls to our left with the Dome of the Rock shining in our eyes. A friend of mine even let out a squeal. Our driver let us off near the northern end of city by Damascus gate. The first thing we did was track down our hostel, which was in the center of the city, located in the Christian quarter. (The Old City is made up of four quarters: the Christian, Armenian, Jewish, and Muslim quarters.) However, it turned out to be a little harder than we thought it would be. Our hostel was on St. Marks Road. However, the term “road” is a little different in the Old City than say, modern times. Within the Old City, there is only a small handful of roads that can be categorized by the modern definition of a road. Looking at the photos below, the average road in Jerusalem was a pathway between buildings where people, and sometimes carts, could pass through. I like to describe the Old City in Jerusalem as a 3-D city. What do I mean by this? The average city, say Minneapolis, is roughly a 2-D city. Minneapolis is based on a 2-D plane. Daily business, travel, interaction occurs at the street level. Sure there are skyways and office buildings, but eventually you have to go back down to that street level. The Old City, however, have pathway’s built upon pathways, random stairwells leading up and down, and an entire dimension that isn’t so much found in modern cities. (An example of this could be watching young boys walk from rooftop to rooftop then down a stairwell to a market located beneath a main road of the city.) Hence, finding our hostel turned out to be a little different that the logic we were used to using. However, once we did find it, we immediately set out to find our first attraction: the Haram Al-Sharif and the jewel of Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock.
First a little background on why this location is so important. When it comes to the locations of events in religious history, nothing is certain. So if I say, this is where Jesus was crucified, I mean that it is widely believed that this is where Jesus was crucified. There can be a difference. The Dome of the Rock is a structure built by Abd Al-Malik, the Omayyad Caliph, in 688 AD. It’s more of a shrine than a mosque, it is built around the rock (hence Dome of the Rock) that Abraham is believed to have sacrificed his son (although God stopped him). (Abraham is an important prophet in Islam, Christianity, as well as Judaism. Thus, the overlap already begins). Across the courtyard from the Dome of the Rock is the Al-Aqsa mosque: the 3rd holiest site in Islam, following Mecca and Medina. The night journey of the prophet Muhammed took him from Mecca to the farthest mosque (which translates as Masjid Al-Aqsa) before he rose to the heavens and then returned to Mecca. It was following this event that the mosque in Jerusalem was named Al-Aqsa. (not only is this area the epicenter of a lot of political history in the Middle East, it is also the location that King Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated.) However, these two structures were built upon the ruins of one of the most important locations in Judaism: The Second Temple represented the golden age of Judaism before it was razed to the ground by the Romans. It is believed that the Ark of the Covenant was kept where the Dome of the Rock currently stands, but was destroyed in the fire set by the Romans. One of the only remaining parts of the temple is its Western Wall. Also known as the Wailing Wall, this portion is considered the most important site in Judaism. Needless to say, you can guess how amazing it was to be able to visit a location like this. The Wailing Wall didn’t operate on such strict hours so we spent a little longer time there. I got to wear my first yarmulke out of respect for approaching the wall, and I borrowed it so I could bring it home and show everyone!
The site closed pretty quickly because it operated on strict hours for tourists, so my friends and I found ourselves wandering around the Jewish Quarter. Some of them split off to go shopping elsewhere, but a friend of mine and I stumbled into this really nice looking wine shop. The shopkeeper was a very friendly guy who put us through his whole spiel. His wine store only has bottles from small, unknown vineyards in Israel. Everything there is kosher, but he admitted that kosher wine is terrible in the US, but that these wines were made differently and had a better taste. He then took us to his counter in the back and poured us each our own glass to taste from a special wine he had on the counter. (Here comes the punch line of his spiel.) When we asked for information about the wine, he said that everything we need to know was on the back of the bottle. As he turned it around, it was all in Hebrew. J
The next day was also packed with religious trips. Although I myself am not as religious as others, it was definitely an experience watching pilgrims visiting the city get to go through religious experiences. My host family asked me to light a candle for them at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. So we went there first in order to avoid the later-in-the-day rush. The church itself host’s three important sites in Christian history: the site of Christ’s crucifixion, the rock his body was wrapped on, as well as his tomb where is rose again from. The church itself was a majestic site architecturally and was filled with crusader era art. Filling the church grounds were hundreds of pilgrims from all over the world making their way to the holiest site in Christianity. Later on in the day, my friends and I met near the Ecce Homo Convent to follow the Christian monks who, every Friday, follow the traditional path that Christ walked from trial to execution. This pathway is known as the Via Dolorosa. The monks narrated the 14 Stations of the Cross, in three separate languages, describing everything from when Christ was sentenced to death, given his cross, flogged, and finally executed, ending in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Based on a suggestion from a friend in the program, a friend of mine told me that I have to find the Austrian Hospice and make my way to the roof because it has one of the best views of the Old City. The trouble was, however, that it is similar to a hotel, but for pilgrims, and you needed to buzz to get it. She told us that as long as we looked like we were supposed to be there, it wouldn’t be a problem. Needless to say, my friend Liz and I, with big, innocent looking smiles on our face, tagged onto the back of a group walking into the hospice. The view was absolutely gorgeous. We had a rooftop view of the Dome of the Rock, much of the Old City, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher!
In the afternoon of our second day there, we met up with some other students in our program and made a little trip outside the city to Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives. In Mt. Zion, we got to see the room that the Last Supper was believed to have been held in, as well as the tomb of King David. Across the modern street from these sites is a graveyard where the grave of Oskar Schindler, who saved over 1,000 Jews from Nazi persecution during WWII. Walking to Mt. of Olives, we saw the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was believed to have been betrayed by Judas, as well as the Church of All Nations, the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, and the location believed to be the site of Christ’s ascension to heaven.
Later that afternoon I got to go to a place of a little political history in the new city of Jerusalem: the King David Hotel. In 1944, the hotel was the HQ of British Authority in Jerusalem. Following disagreements over Jewish immigration policy to Palestine, it was bombed by the Jewish Terrorist Organization: the Irgun.
This was my friend’s last night in Jerusalem; I however had one day left. There was no way I was planning on missing out on a trip to Bethlehem while I was so close! It was so cool to see the Church of the Nativity where Jesus is believed to have been born as well as the Milk Grotto nearby! I also got to see the believed study of St. Jerome. (PS: I lit a candle in the church on behalf of my American family.) One of the most powerful experiences of this trip was getting to see, up close, the Israeli Security Wall that you hear about all the time in the news. It was definitely chilling to see.
My final night in Jerusalem, I spent the night in a sleeping bag on a pad on the roof of my hostel. The view was breathtaking. From my “bed” I could see the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Old City Walls, the Haram Al-Sharif, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome of the Rock. The coolest part of the night had to be the last call to prayer of the night when every mosque in Jerusalem blared the prayer across the city. The entire Old City surrounding my hostel was literally ERUPTING with the sound. What an experience! It was amazing witness and to be able to fall asleep under the stars of Jerusalem, but not so fun to wake up to rain in the middle of the night. L
I definitely think this would have been a trip that you would have enjoyed a lot Dad. Next time, I can be your Arabic guide and you can be my history guide to all the location in the city.
I do have to short stories to share, kind of “Odd Sights to See” in Jerusalem. First, the funny one:
When you visit locations that are considered the HOLIEST OF HOLY in a religion, it is required that you dress in respect of that site, right? i.e. this usually consists of wearing conservative clothing that covers the arms, legs, and doesn’t reveal too much. Ladies usually cover their head, and at the Wailing Wall, men usually cover their head or wear a yarmulke. Here is what you shouldn’t wear that was an outfit that I though only existed in movies. I call this man, the Sea Captain. Picture a man in his 40’s, with a thick gray beard wearing a ship captain’s hat. Comprising his outfit is a set of white pants and matching shoes. To top it off, he is wearing a Hawaiian shirt. But oh no it doesn’t stop there! The only button BUTTONED on his shirt was the bottom one, showing off to all around his lovely hairy chest and beer gut. I just hope to God that this man wasn’t American because it would put me to shame.
The second “Odd Sight to See” was a little more frequent than the last, but also more serious. It is common to see IDF (Israeli Defense Force) soldiers walking around the city in full combat gear. (Similar to New York City near the Stock Exchange for example.) However, occasionally my friends and I would see this sight. A man, wearing an average set of blue jeans, a common t-shirt, with a backpack. His hair wasn’t cut in any special manner; in fact at first glance he looked like an average smiley student who just finished high school for the day. The difference? This young boy was carrying an assault rifle and the ammo to back it up. A friend later explained to me that these guys are most likely tour group security guards for hire who accompany pilgrims, tourists, etc as they visit the city. Definitely an unnerving reminder of the war mentality of Israeli society.
FUN FACTS:
My host family left Palestine during the Nakbah in 1948.
The actual Dome of the Dome of the Rock is made of GOLD donated by the late King Hussein of Jordan. The Hashemite’s (the ruling family of Jordan) have traditionally been the protectors and keepers of the “Holy Sites” in Jerusalem, to this day.
Arabic Lesson of the Day: Bayt = House, Lahm = Meat, therefore (no joke) Baty Lahm = the house of meat = Bethlehem.
