Finally the Temple Mount

Dome of the Rock

We've been trying to visit the Temple Mount (or Al-Haram ash-Sharif)  since we arrived in July.  The Dome of the Rock is such a prominent part of the Old City architecture - visible from virtually every direction and view - that it exerts a weird kind of gravitational pull, especially with that golden dome gleaming in the light.  (Wikipedia says that King Hussein of Jordan sold one of his houses in London to finance the plating of the dome with 80 kilograms of gold.)  However, it is not an easy place to visit.  Access is limited and the gates are open only one hour per day - and then not every day. There have also been some violent incidents recently which have triggered even more restrictions.

I gave it a shot today while the ladies and kids were in school.  Luckily I took my passport because you need it for entry. The line was horrendous but I guess I am becoming more Israeli by the week, because I just cut in the front of the line, without even a twinge of guilt.

Dome of the Rock Facade detail  

Non Muslims can enter the Temple Mount site but not the mosques themselves.  Then there are the signs at the entrance warning that Torah law forbids entering the Temple Mount itself because it is a holy site. (This religion business can get awful complicated, especially in Jerusalem.)  But my agnosticism won out and in I went. The mosques are beautiful, even just from the outside. And the views of the Mt of Olives and the rest of the Old City are great. The Sabil of the Quaitbay was built in 1482 as a charitable act to please Allah and has the only carved-stone dome outside of Cairo (according the the Lonely Planet, the traveler's Tanach).

Sabil of the Quaitbay