The Western Wall

We took our first trip to the Old City today. The Old City is essentially the ancient, walled city of Jerusalem. The best way for me to explain the difference between the "Old City" and the rest of Jerusalem is that the "rest of Jerusalem" feels a lot like any city, with bustling streets, commerce, varied architecture, and residential neighborhoods. The Old City has all of those things, too, but within the walls are some of the most sacred Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious sites in the world, including The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, The Dome of the Rock, and The Western Wall. The cobblestone streets of the Old City are tight (cars can't travel through most of the Old City), and everything -- buildings, sacred sites, markets and restaurants -- seems closely knit. The Old City feels like a labyrinth in some places, dark and claustrophobic in others. It's one of those places that simply feels ancient, so even though when you're walking through it you see kids in school, families doing their shopping, and laundry hanging from windowsills, it still is somehow hard to wrap one's mind around the fact that people actually live in the Old City. It's both mythical and very alive at the same time.

There is a lot to see in the Old City, and we're hoping to make several visits to see the sites and neighborhoods -- there's way too much to take in in one day, especially when you're traveling with little guys who need to take afternoon naps! -- and so today we focused on getting to the Western Wall, or the Kotel. The Western Wall is a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the courtyard of the Second Jewish Temple. Herod the Great was responsible for most of its construction, and it was said to be an incredibly beautiful structure, but the Temple was destroyed by the Romans around 70 A.D.

To get to the Western Wall, we took a couple of buses and walked down a perimeter wall of the Old City. As we approached the Kotel, we could see the roof of the Dome of the Rock in this distance. The Dome of the Rock is a shrine that was built around the rock from which Muslims believe Muhammad ascended into heaven. The Dome of the Rock, which was completed in 691 A.D., was essentially built on the site where the Second Temple stood several hundreds of years before. So this area, which is incredibly sacred to both Jews and Muslims, is also full of complexity and tension.

Here is the Western Wall. You can see the glint of the Dome's gold roof in the corner of this picture; it was built up on the flat platform, or "Mount," above the Western Wall. Down by the plaza of the Western Wall (a.k.a HaKotel, a.k.a. the Wailing Wall) itself, barriers separate and designate areas in which men and women can pray.

 

 

Aside from the massive stones themselves, and the birds that flit in and out of nests built into the wall's crevices, the most striking aspect of the Western Wall is the notes that people have written and crammed into every crack, pock, and chip within reach. Today, I put a note in the wall, too.

 

Here's Alexander, taking it all in.

 

 

On our way back up from the Wall, we looked out over East Jerusalem, which is the mostly Palestinian section of the city. Just over those hills is the route to the Dead Sea; Jordan is in the distance.

After our trip to the Kotel, we had falafel in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, and hung out a bit in a stone square, where there was a good crowd of tourists, soldiers, and residents. At one point, a crowd danced through cheering a young girl who we think had just had her bat mitzvah. And throughout our time in the square, a man was playing classical guitar, so, of course, Alexander did a little more dancing!

On the way home from the Old City, we saw this sign; we've been noticing them all over the city, advertising President Obama's visit to Israel this week. The posters say, "Unbreakable Alliance, President Obama in Israel 2013." They look to me like a political advertisement you might see during an election, or an ad for a sporting event like the Olympics. It amazes me that significant advertisement space has been taken up to promote the visit of a President from a foreign country.

 

On a more technical note, several people have told me you've had trouble posting comments. I tried to tweak this feature of the blog, so if you try to leave a comment, and you still have trouble, let me know. Thanks!