Palestine - Sights
Palestine Holy Sights. Easter in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Passover in Jerusalem (we even fled Egypt to get there!), and Juma in Al-Aqsa.
The kind of picture you just have to send home. Me on the City Wall of Old City Jerusalem, with the Dome of the Rock in the background. The city looks alot better than I do.
Easter Mass in the Church of the Nativity, Jesus' birthplace, in Bethlehem. The service, in Arabic, was different in structure and even musical structure from Masses I've been to in Europe and the US. The church itself also had a different architectural style, shaped simply as a long hall, rather than designed to resemble a cross.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Easter.
The tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. A powerful structure, with different entrances for different Christian denominations. Jerusalem is a really bizarre mix of religions sometimes, and I'm not even talking about when religious holidays overlap.
Jews at the Wailing Wall, the sole remaining wall of the Temple of Solomon. Holiest site in the world for Jews. The Dome of the Rock is built on the platform above it.
Picture Credit: Heba Gowayed
[Correction: the Western Wall was not actually a wall of the Temple itself, but of the retaining wall built by Solomon around the mountain. The Temple itself is buried under the Dome.]
Old City Jerusalem at Night. Michelle and Nate.
A street in Old City Jerusalem at night.
Dome of the Rock. The actual rock is gigantic, taking up the whole center of the building. It is a memorial building, not a masjid, since it has a circular structure. Touching the actual rock, and the Prophet's footstep from which he ascended to heaven, was a really powerful experience. Yet somehow, praying at the Dome didn't feel much different.
Dome of the Rock at night. This is my view as I fell asleep, from the roof of the hostel I stayed at in Jerusalem.
Dome of the Rock at sunrise. My view as I woke up the first morning I slept on the roof. I literally woke up, opened my eyes, took a picture, and went back to sleep.
Masjid al-Aqsa. Picture taken from the Dome of the Rock.
A view of the Dome from a church on the Mount of Olives. In the Torah, and Old Testament, the Mount of Olives is the place from which God will begin to redeem the dead at the end of days, so many Jews want to be buried there. Big cemeteries everywhere on the mountain. Also the site of numerous biblical events, including Jesus' last night before his betrayal. There are so many churches here that it's hard to remember them all. You can retrace Jesus' path over several days by visiting the churches in a specific order.
[Correction: The Mount of Olives isn't mentioned in the Torah, but from later books and from further commentary]
Inside the tomb of Abraham, in Hebron. I wasn't allowed to enter because I'm Muslim (they just asked me straight out at the entrance, and I'm not about to lie about religion to get into a religious site), so Michelle took this picture.
[Update: The idea is that there are two separate sites, Jewish and Muslim, built back-to-back over the "tomb," and the police don't allow either group into the other's site. On paper, Israeli policies are fairly strictly forbidden to discriminate, in terms of religion, language, geography, I'm not sure what else. For example, I think all street signs must be in both Hebrew and Arabic. So I'm not sure what happened with me in Hebron, because we asked a lot of people and looked around for quite a while.]
The kind of picture you just have to send home. Me on the City Wall of Old City Jerusalem, with the Dome of the Rock in the background. The city looks alot better than I do.
Easter Mass in the Church of the Nativity, Jesus' birthplace, in Bethlehem. The service, in Arabic, was different in structure and even musical structure from Masses I've been to in Europe and the US. The church itself also had a different architectural style, shaped simply as a long hall, rather than designed to resemble a cross.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Easter.
The tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. A powerful structure, with different entrances for different Christian denominations. Jerusalem is a really bizarre mix of religions sometimes, and I'm not even talking about when religious holidays overlap.
Jews at the Wailing Wall, the sole remaining wall of the Temple of Solomon. Holiest site in the world for Jews. The Dome of the Rock is built on the platform above it.
Picture Credit: Heba Gowayed
[Correction: the Western Wall was not actually a wall of the Temple itself, but of the retaining wall built by Solomon around the mountain. The Temple itself is buried under the Dome.]
Old City Jerusalem at Night. Michelle and Nate.
A street in Old City Jerusalem at night.
Dome of the Rock. The actual rock is gigantic, taking up the whole center of the building. It is a memorial building, not a masjid, since it has a circular structure. Touching the actual rock, and the Prophet's footstep from which he ascended to heaven, was a really powerful experience. Yet somehow, praying at the Dome didn't feel much different.
Dome of the Rock at night. This is my view as I fell asleep, from the roof of the hostel I stayed at in Jerusalem.
Dome of the Rock at sunrise. My view as I woke up the first morning I slept on the roof. I literally woke up, opened my eyes, took a picture, and went back to sleep.
Masjid al-Aqsa. Picture taken from the Dome of the Rock.
A view of the Dome from a church on the Mount of Olives. In the Torah, and Old Testament, the Mount of Olives is the place from which God will begin to redeem the dead at the end of days, so many Jews want to be buried there. Big cemeteries everywhere on the mountain. Also the site of numerous biblical events, including Jesus' last night before his betrayal. There are so many churches here that it's hard to remember them all. You can retrace Jesus' path over several days by visiting the churches in a specific order.
[Correction: The Mount of Olives isn't mentioned in the Torah, but from later books and from further commentary]
Inside the tomb of Abraham, in Hebron. I wasn't allowed to enter because I'm Muslim (they just asked me straight out at the entrance, and I'm not about to lie about religion to get into a religious site), so Michelle took this picture.
[Update: The idea is that there are two separate sites, Jewish and Muslim, built back-to-back over the "tomb," and the police don't allow either group into the other's site. On paper, Israeli policies are fairly strictly forbidden to discriminate, in terms of religion, language, geography, I'm not sure what else. For example, I think all street signs must be in both Hebrew and Arabic. So I'm not sure what happened with me in Hebron, because we asked a lot of people and looked around for quite a while.]
3 Comments:
HOLY... MOLY.
YOU LUCKY SON OF A.. COOL.
I WANNA GO THERE.
hey. can i pierce your memory?
sweet.
That's really great that you got to go to Palestine.
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