Must do in Jerusalem Old City

On my latest visit to the Old City of Jerusalem I tried to pack in some of the experiences that I call must-do.

• An early morning visit to the Dome of the Rock or the Temple Mount
• Tour of the Western Wall Tunnels or the Kotel Tunnel Tour 

and if your conscience allows you to do something sketchy just for the shock factor

• Tour of the Temple Institute (a free visit to their museum shop ranks very high in the WTF quotient anway)

Qubbat As-Sakhrah, or The Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock is indisputably one of the most charged holy places in the world. Visitors are not allowed to bring any kind of religious texts /symbols/objects to avoid break outs of the smallest skirmishes. Recently, a Rabbi was not allowed to enter the Temple Mount because he had an apple with him. The logic was that, when he would eat the apple on the Temple Mount, he would have to utter a Jewish prayer, and that could not be allowed. We can all debate the soundness of the logic, but we cannot ignore the severity of the situation here. 

The queue looks long and moves slow. I made it to the ramp leading to the mosque compound after standing in line for just 30 minutes. Tourists are allowed to enter only from the Dung Gate at specific times (7.30-11 am and 1.30-2.30 pm) depending on the season. 

The Temple Mount complex is vast and comprises the mosque itself, a huge facade and porch, an ablution fountain, and a lot of space where visitors and pilgrims alike can rest. Until my most recent visit, I had only caught a glimpse of the golden dome from vantage points across the Old City. All of Islam at one point prayed in the direction of the Temple Mount before orienting towards Mecca. 

The mosque and its compound completely isolates visitors from the din of the Old City. Visitors are not allowed to enter the mosque itself, but only allowed access to the compound of the mosque. As the view of the golden dome got bigger and bigger I could only try to imagine what this magnificent mosque must look like from the inside. Other tourists who wondered the same tried to push their luck. I noticed a rather apologetic security guard explain to a couple of tourists who sought to enter the mosque the reason behind shutting the mosque to non-Muslim visitors. I overheard him say, "Mosques are generally open to the public. There was a attack, since then, non-Muslims are not allowed." 

Had I not had other plans for the day ahead of me, I could have spent a couple of hours walking around the compound of the mosque. 

While the imposing structure with its golden dome held me in awe when I entered the Temple Mount, it is the stark difference between two places of worship that gripped me. At the compound of the Dome of the Rock I could hear birds chirping, women sat in the shade of the porch either chit-chatting about mundane topics or praying, I could not tell. Children frolicked about, chasing pigeons and generally doing what children do when no one is paying attention. Men sat together reciting verses from the Koran. I saw one man in particular lazing under the shade of a tree on a bamboo mat that he seemed to have laid out for this very purpose. Here, I stand in front of one of the most beautiful mosques ever built. And I am reminded that a level below, a few metres away, men and women are facing this very spot and mourning at the Western Wall with only the image of their Temple from about 2,000 years ago.

Western Wall Tunnel Tour

The Western Wall Tunnel Tour is as much a must-do as a visit to the Western Wall itself (need to reserve slots in advance). The original western retaining wall of the Second Temple was about 488 meters. What we see today as the Western Wall is a mere 57 metre long section of the southern part of the western retaining wall. The city of Jerusalem was elevated by rebuilding it over archways sometime before 750 AD. The tunnel tour takes visitors on a walk under these archways for the entire length of the western retaining wall, exiting onto the via Dolorosa. 

If archaeological remains impress you, the Tunnel Tour is for you. For a fee of 30 NIS, the 90 minute guided tour takes visitors through the tunnel which is still an active excavation site. Smooth limestone from the Second Temple period at times more than 10 metres in length and 3 metres high run along the tunnel as you walk down a road 2,000 years old. It is as much an archaeological tour as it is a tour about the history of the Jewish people. The excavations that began after Israel won the 1967 war with Jordan have exposed walls, quarries, roads that date back a couple of thousand years. But the excavations were not without dispute.

The excavators went very close to digging all away to the spot that is believed to be the Holy of the Holies or the inner sanctum of the Temple of Solomon. Dispute arose and excavators had to stop digging in the direction of the Holy of the Holies. The excavation site towards the inner sanctum is considered to be the closest to the Holy of the Holies and devout pilgrims can seek to go down to the tunnels to offer their prayers. 

Side note: We were booked to visit the Tunnels on a Sunday. But we were delayed in reaching Jerusalem and could not make it on time. The really accommodating Tunnel admin allowed us to do the tour the next day.

Temple Institute

Just another average visitors' book

The tour of the Temple Institute could be taken up for pure masochistic reasons. You always know a religious fanatic when you see one, sometimes you can even tell that the guy does not really believe the sh*t he is spewing at you. Even if the guy truly believes in what he is saying, you could brush it aside. But the Temple Institute stirs a different emotion.

What is the Temple Institute, you wonder. Well, it is nonprofit that is preparing for that day when the Third Temple will be built. Every article in the Temple has to be kosher and all that jazz. This Institute has made/built many of these articles and seems to be awaiting the day to install these objects.  

The tour began with a 20-something girl talking about the foundation stone, Adam and other such Biblical mumbo-jumbo that I chose to ignore. Then she took it up a notch. "We can't build the Temple right now, because it is presently a little occupied," she said pointing to the Dome of the Rock. In fact, the Temple Institute has a FAQ page that addresses this concern of little occupation. It says, "With the acquiescence of the Moslem world the Moslem structures currently on the Mount would be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere."

Everywhere I looked I saw large paintings of tram lines around the Temple Mount, huge cranes lifting concrete blocks over a structure that resembles a temple in place of the al-Aqsa mosque. All this while she spoke of how the Institute was preparing the vessels, garments for priests, menorahs for the "soon to be built" Third Temple. Pretty soon I started wondering if at the back of the building there was a group of crazies just praying for the mosque to fall or something. 

We visited two rooms. One with the sacrificial altar, garments of the priests and high priest, and the water dispenser for holy ablutions. It turns out that the staff of the Temple Institute are only trying to interpret what the scriptures say about the Holy tools and apparel and do not know for sure what the Holy scripture says really. In the case of the breast plate of the High Priest which is supposed to have some 12 gemstones arranged a specific way, the website of the Institute says, "The names of these stones is particularly enigmatic: there are over 30 varying opinions as to the final identification of the 12 stones. Faced with this sort of situation, it becomes necessary to engage in what can be called 'linguistic sleuthing' in an effort to arrive at a working conclusion." 

Many aspiring priests have actually bought the priest garments from the Temple Institute. The tour group which I was a part of included a young boy who was training to be a priest. When the tour guide mentioned that the garment of the High Priest was yet to be bought, the boy with great excitement looked at his parents and said, "Gift for my Bar Mitzvah." 

I had so many questions during that tour and even before I could ask them the tour guide gave the explanation, "Because of G-d's presence." Now, I suffered this out of body experience, it is up to you to subject yourself to this too. 

The Temple Institute had resorted to crowd-funding to rebuild the Temple in 2014. It raised a total of 104,814 USD in two months! Watch these videos just for kicks.

As it turns out, the Temple Institute is quite inspirational(!). Of course, there are those who visit it and then go back chanting, "The Third Temple is coming", but there are others. Creative minds have made a TV show with the premise that there is an international conspiracy to build the Third Temple. Thankfully, the Temple Institute did not come across as something as extreme, if that is any respite.  

Jerusalem and why I love her

If Tel Aviv is a chilled-out city that loves its cafes, beaches and nightlife, Jerusalem is quite the opposite. Jerusalem is a prayer-machine. As the capital of the country, Jerusalem means serious business and the tension is palpable here.

The Old City shocks you, amazes you and tells the story of a land has seen destruction over and over again and yet lives resurrected to tell the tale. One visit to the Old City is just not enough. I visited the Old City thrice and still have an incomplete list of things to do and see.

The Old City comprises four quarters: Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim. That description of the city falls short when you walk through the city, as the transitions between the four quarters will surprise you enough to make you stop and refer to your map. The colours, smells, even souvenirs being sold change in a flash. The smell of freshly baked shabbath bread is over-powered by the aroma of juicy kebabs and shaloms are replaced by as-salam-alaikums.

I was a little lost looking for the Western Wall when I walked right into the Muslim quarter and a gentleman asked me if I was looking for the entrance to the Dome of the Rock and offered to take me there. Aware that I could not take him up on his offer as only Muslims can use the various gates to the Dome of the Rock in the Muslim quarter, I asked, "Can I go this way?" Following that, we clarified my religion, he seemed disappointed. I was disappointed too, because tourists and non-Muslims can enter the Temple Mount or the Dome of the Rock at specified times from a different entrance. 

Before I visited the Old City, I looked online for a definitive walking tour guide and was counting on dear old Rick Steves to have an audio guide, but alas Israel is not in Europe. It's a small area and yet so vast. Nearly 5000 years of history crammed into just about one square kilometre. As R puts it, this is the bookshelf from the movie Interstellar. You see the dimension of time and feel the city come alive with stories that influence modern times.

The Old City is a maze of narrow cobbled streets that serves as the residential quarters of about 35,000 people and houses innumerable places of historical and religious importance. There is no one route that you can take to cover all the major attractions in the Old City. Which is why I suggest anyone planning to visit Jerusalem to set aside at least two days to visit the sights and experience life in the city.

Here is what I did on one of my visits. I walked through the city's Christian and Jewish quarters visiting couple of the stations on Jesus' final journey, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, the Hurva Synagogue and the Western Wall plaza. I covered the Muslim quarter on a separate trip. 

Nobody ever tells you to spend shabbath in Jerusalem, because, well, there is nothing much you can do. While that is very much true, you do not come to Jerusalem and miss out on a first hand experience of shabbath. I set out rather early from Tel Aviv (7.30 am) and reached Jerusalem by about 8.30 am on a Friday morning. I advocate more people to head to Jerusalem on  a Friday because I did not regret my shabbath in Jerusalem. 

It meant that I waited for an hour for a bus because the frequency is low during shabbath. While shabbath starts only at Friday sundown, the holiday mood sets in by 3pm on Thursday in Tel Aviv. So, I can't blame the public transposition system. I eventually reached Jaffa Gate around 10 am and shop keepers in the main market were yet to raise their shutters. The streets were empty and I did not have to rush through the main attractions. 

As the day progressed, I witnessed the city shut down. I also had the misfortune (self-inflicted) of using a shabbath elevator. For the uninitiated, this elevator stops at every floor (for those following shabbath strictly) for 20 seconds and you can't manually intervene, because one is not meant to! It tests your patience. Shabbath in Tel Aviv could be an annoyance just because of the lack of public transportation and closed grocery stores, but if you are out on the roads, it is no different from a weekday. People take their dogs out for a walk, the beaches come alive, cars and bikes zip past and the pizzerias are busy making deliveries. Jerusalem on the other hand is simply and seriously shut.

When I shared a photo from my recent trip to Jerusalem during shabbath, a friend asked me, "Why are there no people on the road, is there a bandh (strike)?" Well, that's a Jerusalem shabbath for you. No one drives and tariff is sparse. You have surely not seen anything like it before. 

Shabbath gives you the rare opportunity to walk down the streets and tram lines without giving a damn about traffic. Even those heading to the Western Wall, which is the most holy place for the Jews in the world, to offer their prayers walk down the tram line. If you are staying near the Central Bus Station of Jerusalem I would strongly suggest that you spend your evening in the Old City area or even grab a bite near Damascus Gate and walk down the tram line back to your hotel.

Hordes of families with infants in tow marching to the Western Wall on a Friday evening is a spectacular show of faith, something that gives you goosebumps even of you are a non-believer. All that the community has is a piece of a retaining wall of where the Temple of Solomon once stood, and the community has embraced the wall for what it symbolises. I am unable to imagine such an abstract holy place for Hindus in India.

The Muslim Quarter

Tourists of all faiths can visit the Muslim quarter without fear. This disclaimer seems necessary because it is surely the least visited quarter of the four quarters . I am not sure if that is because of the global perception of the community or because there are fewer touristy sites in this quarter. You should visit the Muslim quarter for its bustling markets and great variety of Middle Eastern food. Being the largest of the four quarters, it seems to be accommodating more people than it can. Tourists are few, but shoppers from within the Old City and East Jerusalem come to the markets of the Muslim quarter for the best bargains.

Damascus Gate

The first part of the Via Dolorosa cuts through the Muslim quarter and the path is peppered with numerous churches and holy sites for Christians. There are multiple entrances to the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock in the Muslim quarter; be aware of approaching such an entrance. The gates are manned by Muslim guards who greet you with as-salam-alaikums. They will ask you if you are a Muslim, it is better to not take a chance and say no if you are not one. Some brave souls live to tell the tale, I would rather not. Though the guards do not stop you from stealing a glance at the majestic golden dome, they are prompt to shoo you away if you linger on for too long.

I am told that Israelis prefer not to venture into the Muslim quarter as it can get very uncomfortable. "Even children playing on the roads start yelling and demand Israelis to leave the Muslim quarter. If you are wearing a kippa, you can be easily spotted too. If we are with other foreigners, it is safer but I personally prefer not to venture out," said a local.

I did not understand his hesitation completely. Maybe I was in denial.

While walking outside the Damascus Gate (East Jerusalem), R was greeted by a 7-8 year old with an unsuspecting 'Hi'. Soon after, he felt a stone hit him. He turned around to find the same boy hiding and assumed that it was a prank. What he did not expect was for an adult to walk to the boy and reprimand him. The little guy then came forward and apologised to R. When R recounted this incident, we were in great admiration of the adult, who we guessed was not related to the boy but made the effort to intervene and set things right. 

Three days later, I read in the news the story of a case of stone pelting gone bad in East Jerusalem. A 10-year-old was found throwing stones at the tram and he was apprehended by the police. East Jerusalemites who were under the impression that the boy was abducted by Jews went on a rampage.

It was not that we felt more threatened after reading the news, but what we thought was a little boy playing a prank and something so innocuous, could be much worse. I am glad that the adult intervened that day and I hope that the little guy was just playing a prank.

If you have only a day to spare in Jerusalem, you could start early, spend about four hours in the Old City and then visit the Israel Museum and Mount of Olives (closes by 5 pm). Later in the evening, walk back to your hotel. On Saturday you could proceed to Tel Aviv, which is surely more alive than Jerusalem could ever be on a weekend. Or proceed to the Dead Sea and Masada for another day trip.