Jerusalem Sightseeing, Finally!

The rest of my long weekend, (we had a day off for Shab-e-Miraj) was not eventful as last weekend, thankfully. I used it to hit up three things in the Old City of Jerusalem: The Dome of the Rock, the Ramparts Walk, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

I finally got an edge for being Muslim. The Temple Mount, i.e. Dome of the Rock area, is open to Muslims at all hours, from all doors (there’s only one entrance that is for non Muslims). I was curious as to how they would figure out I was Muslim or not, would they really just go based on my name, my looks what? Turns out they had me reciting common excerpts from the Quran to prove my religion. Interesting, considering at first it was an Israeli security guard who asked me the questions. I’m guessing the ones who works around the Mount know of the excerpts they ask you to read. Inside the Temple Mount, I wandered around, took pictures (as you can see) and dodged beggars.

I was honestly not expecting to go inside the Dome of the Rock, not did I go with a religious mentality. Ammi and Papa found it hilarious when I told them that I went into it and forgot that it was a mosque where I was supposed to pray. Woops. I’ve been so caught up in trying to be a tourist I completely forgot that unlike the churches and such I keep visiting, here I have some religious duties. It’s customary to pray a short prayer whenever you enter a mosque. I knew this somewhere in the back of my mind, it just got cluttered over by the Lonely Planet commentary.

The religious significance of the Dome, is that it’s said to be the place where Prophet Mohammed (SAW) left the earth on his trip to the Heavens (Shab-e-Miraj). In addition, it is also built around the stone on which Prophet Abraham lay down his son while preparing to sacrifice him as ordered by Allah (he was not actually sacrificed, but at the last minute an angel switched him with a lamb. Read more here if this story isn’t familiar to you). Directly in the center, there’s a cave known as the “Well of Souls” where supposedly the dead come twice a month to pray. I haven’t actually heard about this before, but that’s what my Lonely Planet told me.
Next to the Dome is the Al Aqsa Mosque, which was beautiful on the inside. From the outside, I’d say it’s rather dim and boring, especially in contrast to the Dome of the Rock which it’s right next to. Again, Jabeen forgot to pray. In my defense, eventually I realized I was forgetting something important, but at that point I resolved to come again and do it right. Next Thursday hopefully I’ll be in Jerusalem for a meeting, and then we’ll try visiting these mosques again.

Side note: speaking of getting into Jerusalem, this time I didn’t have any issues, either on Weds or Thursday. There’s something about this checkpoint that’s between Ramallah and Jerusalem that the guards either know better, or are more lenient. It probably helped that I was sitting there holding my Lonely Planet travel guide. Just pointing out that not all of my experiences are bad, just most.

After hitting up the Temple Mount, I hiked across the city to get to the Jaffa Gate. (The Old City has 8 gates, if which the one directly entering the Temple Mount is closed). From the Jaffa Gate, you can climb up to the top of the walls / ramparts. It’s a fun experience, you are literally walking on top of the walls of the Old City. I got a few snapshots of the Old City and West Jerusalem from here.
Last, but not least, I found my way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It’s an interesting comparison between the Church and the Dome of the Rock. Both hold immense importance for their respective religions, but are so different. The Church is right in the center of town, so much so that you can almost miss it if you aren’t looking close enough (like me). The Temple Mount on the other hand, is a huge raised courtyard with nothing directly surrounding the Dome of the Rock. Both have their different appeal to me in this way. There this sense of connection the Church has with the city by being in its midst, while at the same time, there’s this unique serenity when you’re around the Dome of the Rock. The Church is dark and somber, while the Dome is bright and well, golden. To be honest, I did expect the Church to be much brighter on the inside, just because in general the churches that I’ve seen in the past few months have usually been bright.
As in the Church of the Nativity, I felt like the intrusive tourist :- ) But I didn’t have an annoying tour guide with me, so things were a bit more comfortable here. Anytime I did hear a guide speaking in English, I’d just wander over and slowly walk by, trying to hear as much as I could. I attempted to listen in on the Spanish guides too, that just didn’t work as well. Trust me, one day when I come vacationing to Israel / Palestine again, I’ll go all out, just not for now.

Eye Opener
In the afternoon I had the pleasure of giving a tour of Ramallah to Allison’s friend’s friend, Zak. I was more than obliged, because I think it’s important for people who come to this region to see both side of the wall, o I mean fence. And that includes me. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it such a strong priority to sight see a lot outside of the West Bank, which I’ll admit was wrong. I am currently considering going to Tel Aviv or Haifa next weekend, but we’ll see if time permits. But it was nice, I took Zak to Ramallah, and to the Jalazone Refugee Camp. I mention the camp, because like me, he also had the impression that refugee camps were tents, and it’s important to see the reality of the situation with your own eyes. We ran into some kids playing cricket, or something like that who found it very funny that Zak was trying to play too. It was fun, until they insisted on trying to take my camera, grabbed my sunglasses off my head, and jumped on Zak bag. Then it was time to go.
What I didn’t expect to show him, or see myself, was a street fight. I’ve been here 6 weeks now, and hadn’t seen anything quite like this. We had gotten into the taxi to head back to Ramallah when we heard commotion besides us. Next we know, there’s this man with a large butcher’s knife being held back by about four other men so he didn’t stab this other guy for who knows what reason. Zak was the first one to see this and pointed it out to me while saying, “Can we get out from this window? I think he has a gun!” I looked up confused to realize ok, not too bad, it’s only a knife and convinced Zak that we should stay in the car. If we were on the street, god knows where this fight was going to go, and I didn’t want to risk that. Within a few minutes, I think every man in a 100 meter radius was between the two fighting parties and it was over. Barely soon enough, our taxi driver got back into the car, and we made our way out of there.

There’s a first for everything you know?