The Temple Mount

This morning (or rather, yesterday morning - I've had some issues with uploading pictures) Amy and I took advantage of a canceled class to make another attempt to summit the temple mount. Don't get the wrong impression. It's really not much of a "mount" and not at all difficult to climb. It is, however, difficult to find a time that it's open. I think it's supposed to be open from about 8-11am. But that means very little here.

Today we got there around 9:30 and were in luck! It was open, and up we went.

We spent most of our time on the eastern side of the platform, alternating between looking across at the Mount of Olives and back towards the Dome of the Rock. We even climbed up on the wall encircling the platform for a better view.
It had been rainy and cloudy, but every now and then the clouds would clear and few rays of sunlight would alight on the golden dome, making it shine almost as brightly as the sun itself.(As beautiful as the Dome itself is, with its amazing architecture and mosaics, I think it looks even better surrounded by green trees and a blue, cloudy sky.)

One thing that both Amy and I remarked on was the amount of trash they have even there, on the 3rd holiest Muslim site in the world. Then again, it does seem to be a bit of a construction site, and I have yet to see a completely trashless construction site.

As we were about to get down from the wall some guy started yelling at us to hurry and leave. I think they were closing to tourists. We were quite a ways from the entrance where we came in so we took quite a bit of time in trying to get out (and still ended up going out a different exit) but at least we had a little extra time to snap a few shots - without extraneous tourist blocking the scenery!

After we had exited we came across some sort of tour group, accompanied by none other than my archaeology professor, Gabi Barkai. I'm quite sure he doesn't know my name, but he seemed to recognize me and we talked for a second. (Back home I run into people I know around town all the time...I think this may be the first time it's happened in Jerusalem.)

As we made our way back to the school we passed the Dormition Abbey and decided to stop there too.
It is a beautiful church, built by Kaiser Wilhelm for the German Catholics, I believe. It is one of the traditional sights where Mary supposedly died or "fell asleep." They have some very beautiful mosaics in the main sanctuary (including a floor mosaic with the signs of the Zodiac, the minor prophets, the major prophets, and the trinity), and then some other interesting things in the crypt.
So that was yesterday's adventure. I'm going to have to make an effort have more of my own adventures, since I won't be doing as much group travel as last semester.