Jerusalem/Yerushalayim/al-Quds

Arrival by cab to the Damascus Gate on the northern side of the walled Old City was easy enough. The driver dropped us off and told us it would be no problem to find our hotel. Cars are not allowed to drive in the Old City you see, but you’d think for $100 he would have taken us inside to help us locate it in the maze of streets. Not so much. Entering through the gate and into the madness, the first thing one notice is the crush of humanity. That, combined with the sights, sounds, and most importantly the smells makes it an assault on the senses, in a good way. Fruit and vegetable stands, kitschy souvenirs and trinkets, fabrics, herbs, spices, religious items, candies, home goods, you name it, someone’s selling it. Yelling from their store fronts and stalls, it’s truly overwhelming; but as I said, in a good way. I like that sort of thing.

Good thing we packed light (we both only had a backpack or messenger bag - I couldn’t imagine walking around with wheeled luggage), because wandering around a bit in order to locate the hotel was no picnic. We miraculously found it and dumped our stuff in our shoebox of a room at the Hashimi Hotel & Hostel, located on the main street that divides the Christian Quarter from the Muslim Quarter. Excited like schoolgirls at a Justin Bieber concert, we hit the streets to take it all in. I thought immediately that this was like Venice; pedestrian only streets, millions of tourists, and a Kodak moment around every corner. We had actually arrived earlier than we expected so this extra time was a bonus in our minds. So we used the time to wander the maze of streets and get a feel for the size, scale and layout of it all.

The Old City of Jerusalem is actually rather tiny, about 0.35 mi², but the maze of streets and crush of people make it hard to navigate and easy to get lost. The Old City is

divided into four quarters: The Christian, Armenian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. Each area has a distinct feel and different food options.

We were starving, as it was late afternoon and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and as we made our way through the Jewish Quarter, stumbled on an interesting take on calzone. Instead of pizza dough, the outer shell was phyllo dough with a nice crispy, delicate feel. The only issue I had with it was the fact that it cost almost 30 shekels (~$8)!

Since we were already so close, we found our way to the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall), the holiest site in the holiest city in Judaism. This wall is one of the original walls of the Second Temple, built by Herod the Great in 19 BC. Jews make a pilgrimage to this place, write a prayer on a little piece of paper, fold it into a tiny square, and stuff it into cracks in the wall. The site is

mobbed by tourists, Israeli soldiers and Jews of all sects. The Orthodox or Hasidic Jews with their long, curly sideburns (payot), all black outfits with white shirts, and black top hats (or the furry shtreimel hats), seemed to be the most prominent. Everyone who walked up to the Wall donned a yamaka (even me), which was available in a bin located nearby. Fortunately we were there on a Thursday because when we found ourselves there on Saturday afternoon a couple of days later, Israeli guards were preventing anyone from taking pictures out of respect for the Sabbath.

The Dome of the Rock is the third holiest site (after Mecca and Medina) for the Islamic faith, and is adjacent to the Wailing Wall. It is a shrine, built in 687 AD, topped with a huge golden dome, which sits atop a large rock (the foundation stone) that is the site where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. It is also the site of the Holy of Holies (the inner sanctuary of the First and Second Temple and last known location of the Ark of the Covenant; important for the Jewish people), as well as the site where Christians believe Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. It’s a very sensitive issue between the Jews and the Muslims, the fact that they built a shrine and mosque right on top of the holiest spot in Judaism. Seems like a big slap in the face to me. To exasperate the problem, Muslims do not allow non-Muslims to enter this historic place. We had been told that we would be allow to enter (just not on Friday, the most important day in Islamic faith; understandable), but were turned away on Thursday and told to come back on Saturday. This will get much more interesting later.

After wandering around a bit more, we returned to our hotel to take in the views and relax on the rooftop garden overlooking the Old City (including the Dome of the Rock). Sitting there, reflecting on the day, it was still hard to imagine that we were actually sitting in Jerusalem, a city with a history that goes back more than 4,000 years, is one of the oldest cities in the world with continuous habitation since 2,800 BC, and has a history of war and conflict that has seen it be destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The soup of people and empires (Canaanite, Jebusite, Persian, Hasmonean, Roman, Byzantine, Ymayyad, Ottoman, British, and Israeli; just to name a few) and religions that have occupied this place over the years is truly staggering. And it was patiently awaiting our own assault, which was epic in and of itself, over the next few days.