A magnificent sight

After a typical hearty Israeli breakfast, we set off into Jerusalem to start the day with a trip up the Temple Mount and onto the site of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This area is under Arab control so security is tight and dress code is conservative. After lining up for maybe 30 minutes, we finally passed through security and started up the ramp to the entrance of the Muslim controlled area.

Surprisingly, this is a vast area and has spaces of trees and what could be gardens, (if they were not covered in weeds). However, it appears that over the centuries the construction of the current buildings on the site have re-used a number of materials that existed on the mount previously, and that can only mean that these would have come from the second temple. It was very sad to see the capitals off the top of columns, that would have been gold plated during the temple era, now sitting unused and abandoned on the sides of the precinct, but with evidence that gold had been there at some point. The temple must have been a magnificent sight!

Our guide pointed out the location of the second temple and even the location of where the Holy of Holies would be and it is easy to see how a third temple could co-exist on this site. There is evidence of some of the original paving stonework and even though the site has seen centuries of re-building, it is not hard to imagine Jesus looking out from this elevated position and seeing the hills around Jerusalem, especially the Mount of Olives to the East.

From the Temple Mount, we journeyed on to the Shrine of the Book at the Israeli Museum. Our first stop was the impressive scale model (in stone), of the city of Jerusalem, and seeing this really put the entire city into perspective. This is a model that is definitely worth a visit!

From there we moved inside to see some of the artifacts that were found at Qumran, the place we visited yesterday, and then into the inner sanctum where we could view some of the Dead Sea scrolls. For preservation purposes these are facsimiles, but they do look very real and one gets a sense of the enormity and importance of these finds.

After a picnic lunch in a local park we travelled back into the shopping area of the city where we got to experience the Suq, which is in our vernacular, a local market, selling everything from meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, dry goods, candy and even small boutique coffee shops. This was a real experience and one can easily see how this would be a real benefit to those that would live close to such a market. Pricing was very reasonable and a number of the group took advantage of some of the candy and dried fruit stalls. We ended the day with a ride back to the hotel where Dr. Dennis and Dr. Noel spent some teaching time reviewing the importance of the Qumran findings and the inerrancy of scripture.

Tomorrow we travel to Bethlehem and were reminded that we are travelling into the Palestinian controlled area, so passports and modest dress will also be required. This will be an exciting day as I am sure everyone is looking forward to seeing the birthplace of Jesus; Bethlehem being such a well know location because of the Christmas story.