DAY 2 AM (Thurs, Aug. 11)         [See: Photos Day 2 am]

    Rising with the sun the next morning, we are greeted with another beautiful day. The temperature is cool and the sky is clear with just a few puffs of white clouds to accentuate the blue. After a good but somewhat different breakfast, we assemble again at our waiting cars for the second day's tour. We drive through new Jerusalem, around to the St. Stephen's Gate, just across from the Mount of Olives on the east side of the old walled city. This gate’s name was chosen because it was near this spot that Stephen was stoned to death. We walk through the gate and to the Church of St. Anne. This church was built over the supposed birthplace of the Virgin Mary and called St. Anne because that was the name of Mary’s mother (this is news to me). Here we go down more stairs and into a cave beneath the church, which is believed to be the actual birthplace of Mary and now is a Catholic shrine. Adjacent to the church and down in some open diggings we find the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus supposedly healed the crippled man who had been waiting there for 38 years (St. John 5: 2-16).

    From here we walk to the grounds of Solomon's Temple located on Mount Moriah (still inside the old city – southeast corner). Solomon built the temple around 1000 BC, and since then it has been destroyed, rebuilt and destroyed many times. It is now just a vast courtyard with scattered and toppled columns and arches yielding evidence of past splendor. Incidentally, it was in this area that Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the temple. In the central part of this area is located the rock on which the Christians believe Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, although Muslims believe that it was on a mountain near Mecca and it was Ishmael instead of Isaac. Also, it is from this rock, as the world of Islam believes, that Mohammed ascended to heaven on his miraculous journey. Therefore, this spot is of great religious importance, both to the Muslims and the Christians and is second only to Mecca in Islamic significance. Now, the actual rock is covered by the famous and magnificent "Dome of the Rock,” or sometimes erroneously called by the western world, "The Mosque of Omar."  It was originally built by the noted Umayyad Caliph of Damascus in the years 685 AD to 691 AD and is the earliest example of Arabic architecture in existence today. 

    Some of the following eloquent descriptions are paraphrasing from my guidebook: The building is octagonal in shape and crowned by a magnificent gold dome, surmounted with a crescent. The base of the exterior is covered with gray-veined, white marble. The upper part has fine porcelain Kashan tiles inscribed in arabesques and verses from the Qur'an are written in interwoven characters of blue and white. Inside we could only see the exposed patches of the beautiful mosaics, gold trimmings and carvings, and the richly decorated monolithic columns. The interior is undergoing extensive repairs from the shelling damage of the 1948 fighting. Again from the guidebook: 

In the very heart of the building is the sacred Rock emerging from its foundation, massive, gaunt, and strong in striking contrast to the splendor of its setting, but inspiring by an eternal quality which extends to all the building. High over the Rock is the beautiful dome in all its color and glory, supported by an ornate cylindrical drum that, in turn, is supported by twelve marble pillars and four granite piers. Many stained glass windows decorated with gold, let in a soft light that sheds a subdued glow on the Rock and radiates to the rest of the building, emphasizing its religious atmosphere.   

Below the Rock is a natural cave that we enter through a small door. It was in this cave that all the major prophets have prayed, including Christ and Mohammed. At least this is the belief of the Islamic faith.

    As we leave the Dome of the Rock and return into the bright sunlight of the temple grounds, we walk over to the southeast corner of the "Compound of the Noble Sanctuary" (the Muslim name for the temple grounds), which is also the far corner of the old city wall. From this thick, ancient wall we look down and see the Valley of Jehoshaphat far below us. Then, through an old iron, bullet-riddled door, we descend several flights of stairs to the Stables of King Solomon. This is a huge, dark, eerie place with rows of Roman arches now holding up sections of its endless ceiling. As we walk across its smooth clay floor, coming upon more and more bare, massive chambers, it makes me wonder of the lives of the simple slaves and working people who, undoubtedly, spent many a tiring hour here in days long past. We are told that 10,000 horses could fit easily into these gigantic stables. Another interesting thing of note: about half way down to the stables, we come across a small, pleasant room, simply decorated in the contemporary Islamic mode. This, our guide informs us, was the place to which Muslims believe Mary, Joseph and the child Jesus returned after their flight into Egypt. (“Christ’s Cradle”)

    Again on the level of the temple grounds, we walk across the huge, stone slabs of the courtyard to the "Al-Aqsa Mosque" (709 AD), located just south of the Dome of the Rock. In the early days of Islam, the name "Al-Aqsa" was given to the entire temple area, but with the passage of time, it became associated only with this famous mosque built in the 7th century. Like the Dome of the Rock, it is equally sacred to the Muslim and the Christian. As we remove our shoes and enter the mosque proper through its large central door, I get the impression of spaciousness, airiness, light, and newness-- strange in a building of such age. Recent extensive repairs contribute to the sense of the present. The high ceilings above tall marble columns and arches, the absence of partitions, seats and furnishings, and the light from the high windows all create the air of spaciousness. However, the sense of size is not purely an illusion. We are told that 5,000 people may worship here at one time.

    Each day near the hours of prayer worshippers make quiet preparation at one of the several fountains outside, then enter with dignity and reverence, and kneel in rows on the rug-covered floor while they await the "Sheikh" who will lead them. At this time it is not yet prayer time, but several scattered men and women are going through their solemn ritual of prayer. Incidentally, during the actual prayer hours, the women are not allowed in the main sanctuary and must pray in a smaller room to one side. At the south end of the mosque, and centrally located, is the "Mihrab" or prayer niche, always found in every mosque and always on the side of the building facing Mecca. To its right is the mag­nificent pulpit that Saladin brought from Aleppo when he recaptured Jerusalem and the sacred mosques from the Crusaders in 1187. It is said this is the finest pulpit in any mosque in the Middle East. Made of cedar of Lebanon, it is exquisitely carved and inlaid with ivory and mother of pearl. There are no nails or screws in the pulpit; the thousands of small pieces are made to fit and hold together — a truly fabulous piece of craftsmanship. As we leave this intriguing and majestic house of worship through the central door, the guide informs us that this was the spot where the present King Hussein’s grandfather was assassinated in 1952. (Actually it was on July 20, 1951 that King Abdullah I of Jordan, also known as Abdullah bin Husayn, was assassinated.)

    Again in the open, we walk westward, out of the temple area and through the narrow, winding streets to the notorious "Wailing Wall” of the Jews. Its dimensions are 59 feet high and 52 yards long. Here we can see wall construction from four different periods --- the bottom layer was constructed in Solomon’s time, the next layer built in the time of Herod, the wall of the Crusaders, and finally, at the top, the layer the Turks erected in 1517. While here, our guide tells a story of which he is somewhat proud. It goes like this: "One day, while taking a group of people on this tour, we came to the Wailing Wall, and while I was tell­ing them of its significance and history, they threw themselves against it and started to wail and weep bitterly. As this is something that has notably been done only by Jews and Jews are absolutely not permitted in the Arab sector of the city, I became flabbergasted and was ready to call the police. First, I asked them, 'Are you Jewish?’ Their reply was negative. Then I asked them, ‘Why, then, are you weeping?’ They replied, ‘We are weeping for all the money we spent in Jerusalem!' (This, by the way, is easily done here.) The full reason for all this I didn't realize until later when I found out they were Scottish people!" - - - Well, at least we think it’s funny and full of some subtle meaning.

    From the Wailing Wall we walk through the market of the old city. The streets are crowded and everyone is pushing and shoving, for this was the Arab Saturday and people of all types and kinds seem to be streaming in from all directions — business men, policemen, soldiers, busy women, tattered beggars, refugees, dirty faced children, and both men and donkeys carrying heavy loads. All are noisily blending into the mass confusion and mayhem of the busy streets. The stone-paved streets are narrow, too narrow, in fact, to permit cars to drive through most of them; they seem to be no more than human made canyons, with walls of ancient buildings rising two or three stories on either side. Many of the streets are covered, with small, dark, cubby-hole shops offering everything imaginable. As we walk through them, I wonder if this is something like the Casbah. The air is heavy with the smell of freshly baked bread, spices, freshly ground coffee, fish and the carcasses of recently slaughtered and non-refrigerated meat. Though potent, the smell is not as bad as in the "souk" back in Riyadh. We walk down the Street of Spices, through the Shoe Makers Street, and down the street built by the Crusaders and known as the Street of Bad Cookery. We stop at an old Turkish inn with the stables for the animals on the ground floor and rooms for the guests opening off a stone balcony above. Our guide tells us that it was over 1,000 years old and can give us a good idea of how the inns were built in the time of Christ.

    We leave the enchanting and interesting streets of old Jerusalem through the bullet scared Damascus Gate and within a few blocks’ drive, we are back to our comparatively modern hotel.