Before we jumped in our rental car to head back to the airport in Tel Aviv, we had to see what is arguably the most famous of all the sites in Jerusalem. If you are Jewish (or any other religion, probably), you probably call it the Temple Mount. In Judaism, the Temple Mount is the holiest site as the original location of the First and Second Temples. For Muslims, it is known as Haram esh-Sharif or the Noble Sanctuary.
To say that the Temple Mount is a sensitive place is probably the understatement of the century. Non-Muslims are only allowed access at certain (non-prayer) times, and you must pass through metal detectors and X-ray machines run by Israeli security– much like an airport– in order to visit. Non-Muslims are forbidden to pray there, and I have read that many Jews will also not visit. There are 11 gates to get into the area, but if you are non-Muslim you must go up a wooden walkway. From the walkway you can look right over the area in front of the Wailing Wall.
I read the Wikipedia page to see how exactly the Temple Mount is administered (the easy answer is by the Islamic Waqf), but I suspect it is too complicated for me to summarize here. Once we got up to the platform it seemed very relaxed but there was a pretty large group of heavily armed (Israeli?) soldiers hanging out. I think there were also some sort of Palestinian security as well as “religious police.” I was wearing a lose fitting long sleeved shirt that had two buttons at the collar, and as we were leaving someone from the morality patrol came by saying my exposed collarbone was indecent and that I needed to go get a scarf to put around my neck (head covering was not necessary). I assured him we were already on our way out but I can assure you my shirt was hardly scandalous…I wear it to work all the time.
On top of the Temple Mount there’s several levels of large flat plazas. When we first entered, the Al-Aqsa mosque was right in front of us. We passed by two fountains for ablutions
These archways are a few of the other entrances to the plaza around the Dome of the Rock, I believe:
The Dome of the Rock itself is truly spectacular. It was finished around the year 700, but it’s not clear to me how much of what you see in the photos below are original. Wikipedia notes that it was briefly held by the Crusaders until they were expelled from the Holy Land, and the tilework was done in the 16th century. Apparently before 1959, the dome was blackened lead. It was covered with an aluminum-bronze alloy and gold leaf in the 1960s, and refurbished again with 80 kilograms (!!!) of gold in 1993.
Close-up of the spectacular blue tiles:
I’m not really sure what all this was, this was one flank of the Temple Mount.
Spectacular view of the Mount of Olives:
Picture taken right before the fashion police drove us out:
