Day 13: Jerusalem, Israel - Oy! Oy! Oy!

The Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount

Time to get holy. Jerusalem, home of three of the world's great faiths, prophets, messiahs, etc. Why am I here? Oh yeah, because Syria wouldn't let me in. Doh! OK, first stop is the Temple Mount. I'm not very knowledgeable about these matters, but apparently the Jews built a Temple here, on the very foundation stone of the world, and it was destroyed. Then they built another temple, cleverly named the Second Temple, and that was destroyed too. The only remnant of the Second Temple is its Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. It is one of the holiest sites in Judaism, and millions of Jews come here to pray.

Wailing Wall. Note the Jewish kids singing in a circle. They may be cute now, but they'll be your bosses soon.

I'm not exactly sure if this narrative is correct, but it seems like the Muslims took advantage of, well, the lack of a temple where the Second Temple used to be, and built their own religious site on top of it. They called it the Dome of the Rock, and it's where Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac and where Muhammad ascended to Allah. The Temple Mount site itself is dramatically beautiful. It's a wide open space dotted with cypress trees and the Dome of the Rock is right in the middle. Only Muslims are allowed inside the Dome of the Rock, and I decided it would be pretty unkosher (hehehe!) to feign faith at a place like that.

The Christians are apparently not cool enough to earn a holy site on Temple Mount. Instead, their holy site is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the Christian Quarter of the Old City (the Jews, Muslims, and Armenians compose the other three quarters). It marks the sites where Jesus was crucified, laid down from the cross, buried, and subsequently resurrected. I should note here that Jesus is, frankly, everywhere. It seems that I see a new marker every half step denoting where Jesus was buried, crucified, walked, ate, bathed, picked his nose, flicked his booger, etc. I can see why religious pilgrims go nuts over this place.

Laid down here

Crucified here.

Buried here.

I ended the day by walking along the ramparts of the Old City, overlooking Mt. Zion and the Mount of Olives. That evening, some hostel buddies and I went into the New City to watch the World Cup. Young Israelis are much hipper and cooler than I will ever be. Seriously, they're every bit as yuppie as New Yorkers, Parisians, Hong Kongers, etc. I can only imagine what Tel Aviv will be like.

Israelis watching the World Cup.