We again had an early start (considering that most of us were students!) needing to be at the Temple Mount (or Haram esh-Sharif, in Arabic) by 8:30am. We had an appointment with the Head Curator of the Al-Aqsa Museum, Mr Khader Salameh, who would show us around this ancient holy site.
The Dome of the Rock is a magnificent building, both inside and outside, as the above photos show. Although not formally a mosque, it does contain a place of prayer in the cave at the centre of the bulding. The main floor is also carpeted in the Islamic style, in rows facing Mecca, so that it can also be used for worship.
South of the Dome, in a direct line towards Mecca, is the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is huge! There must be space for over 1000 worshippers on its vast carpeted floor. Parts of the structure have been rebuilt several times following destructive earthquakes. The mosque is built at the southern edge of the Temple Platform and thus is raised up on a rubble foundation many metres above the solid rock below. The resultant instability makes the building very vulnerable to earthquakes, unlike the Dome which is built directly onto the rock.
During the Crusader period the Al-Aqsa Mosque was used as a church by the Crusaders. The photo to the left shows the round Rose Window in the Eastern wall of the Mosque. It was rather strange to see such a British-looking church window in these surroundings.
After looking at the ancient Korans in the Al-Aqsa Museum we left the Temple Mount and walked through the markets again, where I managed to haggle a good deal on a rams-horn Shofar. For lunch we went to the Papa Andreas rooftop restaurant. It was lovely to be eating out under the sunshade while the city round about us was bathed in the brilliant sunshine. However eneough of the sun got through the screen that my head got a little sunburned! But the food was excellent.
After lunch some of us went to the Israel Museum. There, in the Shrine of the Book, we saw the complete scroll of Isaiah that was found at Qumran as well as some other examples of fragments of the Qumran Scrolls. There was also a scale model of Jerusalem as the archaeologists think it would have looked prior to the destruction by the Romans in AD67. Unfortunately my photos from the Israel Museum seem to have gone astray, so if you want to see more then have a look at the Museum website here.
After a long day we were glad to head back to our accommodation for our last night in Jerusalem.
No comments:
Post a Comment