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If you wish to know the way to go to the Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount in Jerusalem, right here’s a journey information with all the ideas you want.
How one can Go to the Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount
The road-up was lengthy, the solar was intense and my vacation spot was the gold dome in Jerusalem, the shining beacon of Temple Mount.
Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) in Arabic, is without doubt one of the world’s most sacred spiritual websites and a strong addition to any Israel itinerary.
Revered by Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike, it’s a spot of profound historic and cultural significance with a spectacular setting overlooking the Outdated Metropolis of Jerusalem.
Contained in the Temple Mount complicated is the Dome of the Rock with its dazzling gold roof, and I used to be lastly going to go to.
It wasn’t my first try.
What You Must Know About Visiting Temple Mount
Between gown codes, restricted opening hours, tight safety, and numerous guidelines and restrictions, Temple Mount will not be the best place to go to.
It’s value it. Dripping with historical past, laced with religion, and enhanced with valuable structure, it’s one of many blockbuster sights of Jerusalem.
It may be completed simply as soon as you understand how.
Temple Mount Journey Information
So let me let you know what I discovered. This information to visiting Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock is stuffed with recommendations on what to see, the way to get there, and what guidelines you have to observe.
If there are not any sudden closures (which occurs) you’ll haven’t any downside visiting Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock for your self.
🌿 Journey Tip: There isn’t any entrance payment for Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock.
See? Haven’t I impressed you to tour it already?
In search of a guided tour? You possibly can go to the Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount on this Half-Day Guided Stroll of the Outdated Metropolis.
Why Is It Laborious to Go to Temple Mount?
Temple Mount is an especially sacred website so there are rules set in place to make sure it’s revered.
As a result of Temple Mount is so revered, it’s additionally a flashpoint for political and non secular tensions.
It could shut down at a second’s discover, and a girls’s protest was the explanation I couldn’t return in 2015.
Typically, nevertheless, the longer you look ahead to issues, the extra you admire them, and that was the case for me.
In search of a tour of Jerusalem from Tel Aviv that features Temple Mount? This full-day tour consists of the highest sights within the Outdated Metropolis. Test it out right here.
Entry for Guests is By means of the Moroccan Gate
My pleasure was constructing as I shuffled forward in a protracted line on the Moroccan Gate.
🌿 Journey Tip: The Moroccan Gate (Mughrabi Gate), is the one entrance non-Muslims can use to realize entry to Temple Mount.
To search out it, search for an elevated picket walkway by the Western Wall. Head up that and also you’ll ultimately arrive on the safety test for the doorway.
🌿 Journey Tip: The Dung Gate into the Outdated Metropolis of Jerusalem is the closest gate to Temple Mount. You may as well get there from the Lion’s Gate or the Chain Gate.
Gown Code for Temple Mount
I’d heard that when visiting Temple Mount girls ought to cowl their shoulders, elbows, legs, and head, so I’d dressed rigorously.
Skirt beneath my knees, a scarf to throw over my hair, and a high that lined my shoulders.
There are additionally different do’s and don’t’s concerning entry.
Don’t carry in any Christian or Jewish spiritual materials: no pamphlets, prayer books, Bibles or large silver crosses.
I hadn’t deliberate to hold in forbidden objects, however I rifled by my bag in case one thing had mysteriously fallen in.
All was good. I used to be set for my go to to the well-known Dome of the Rock and its glittering gold dome of Jerusalem.
Or was I?
Not fairly.
Getting into Temple Mount
After I went by the airport-style steel detectors, a safety guard motioned me over to a desk stuffed with clothes.
Large ugly clothes. My calf-length skirt wasn’t lengthy sufficient.
I pulled on a voluminous skirt with a yellow racing stripe down the facet, tried not to think about how many individuals had worn it earlier than me, and was waved forward.
🌿 Journey Tip: There isn’t any cost for the rented clothes.
Surprisingly, I didn’t have to cowl my head, so I wrapped my Hermes scarf round my shoulders and waddled in.
As I seemed round, I took nice pleasure in seeing various male vacationers sporting the identical cumbersome skirts. Clearly they’d failed the ‘naked legs’ check, too.
🌿 Journey Tip: Cropped pants aren’t okay, not less than they weren’t once I was there. You’ll get the ‘large skirt’ therapy irrespective of your gender.
Who Runs Temple Mount and Units the Guidelines?
It’s sophisticated. The Islamic Waqf, established by Saladin in 1187, is a Jordanian spiritual belief that administers the location. The Palestinian Authority additionally has a task within the administration.
Israel is chargeable for safety.
🌿 Journey Tip: Safety is tight. Don’t be alarmed in case you see a variety of armed guards.
What’s Temple Mount?
Temple Mount is a 37-acre elevated pavilion paved with stone slabs within the coronary heart of Outdated Jerusalem.
Like Caesarea, the Mount of Beatitudes and different websites from antiquity, it comprises highly effective remnants of the previous, but it’s as alive at present because it was 1000’s of years in the past.
The very first thing which may shock you is the scale and serenity of the complicated. It’s a world other than the labyrinthine lanes of the Outdated Metropolis.
Positioned at Outdated Jerusalem’s highest level, the complicated has various constructions and areas to discover.
Two must-see sights are the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Why Is Temple Mount So Well-known?
There are a number of the explanation why Temple Mount is commemorated. Structure, historical past, location … but it surely primarily comes right down to faith.
An Vital Web site for Muslims
In Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque at Temple Mount is the third holiest website after Mecca and Medina.
Why? In response to Islamic custom, the Prophet Muhammad transcended to Heaven from the location of the Dome of the Rock after being transported from Mecca by the Angel Gabriel.
It’s the Holiest Web site within the World in Judaism
Why? The Temple Mount is believed to be the place the First and Second Temples as soon as stood.
Solomon’s Temple was the First Temple and was destroyed by the Babylonians.
The Second Temple was constructed by King Herod in 20 BCE, however razed by the Romans in 70 BCE.
For Christians
In Christianity, Temple Mount is essential for its biblical ties and non secular roots, although different sights in Jerusalem just like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre carry extra weight.
In response to some accounts it’s the place Jesus overturned the tables of the cash changers and retailers within the “Cleaning of the Temple.”
How one can Go to the Dome of the Rock
Like bees to honey, most vacationers flip left and head straight to the Dome of the Rock. It’s a fantastic place to start out your tour.
A surprising Islamic shrine, it’s essentially the most recognizable landmark at Temple Mount, not least due to its enormous gold dome that may be seen from all around the metropolis.
The Gold Dome in Jerusalem
Sixty-five toes (20 metres) in diameter, the gleaming gold dome sits on a supporting drum of good blue-hued tiles.
For me, it was an astonishing sight, as if the solar and sky had been condensed down to at least one vivid celestial imaginative and prescient.
I’d seen the gold dome of Jerusalem shimmering at sundown. I’d seen it reflecting gentle through the day. However at all times from a distance so it by no means appeared actual.
Now it was in entrance of me, like a mirage come to life.
There may be a lot historical past right here, a lot non secular would possibly, however I couldn’t get previous the gold.
How might there be a lot? Gold is heavy. Why hasn’t the dome collapsed? How do they hold it from being stolen?
Is the Dome of the Rock Pure Gold?
I discovered that the dome’s 1000’s of plates should not stable gold. They’re, nevertheless, completed with pure gold leaf.
Additionally, the dome you see in Jerusalem at present will not be the unique.
The undertaking to revive the dome was funded by the late King Hussein of Jordan in 1959 at a value of greater than 7 million {dollars}.
The gold itself is value about 1.4 million.
That’s nonetheless a variety of gold.
Why is the Dome of the Rock So Well-known?
It’s not simply the gold that makes the Dome of the Rock glitter.
A powerful instance of Islamic structure, it’s, in truth, one of many oldest surviving Islamic buildings in existence.
It was inbuilt 691 by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, presumably to outshine the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Islam was nonetheless a fledgling faith, established about 610, so why not construct a powerful image to symbolize it?
Byzantine in fashion, the Dome of the Rock is an octagon that glimmers with intricate tiles of blue, inexperienced and gold; marble columns and naturally, that dazzling gold dome.
As soon as I’d gotten over the visible slam of the shrine’s magnificence, I might concentrate on the true core of its energy.
As a result of the true significance of the Dome of the Rock lies beneath.
Contained in the Dome of the Rock
What’s the ‘rock’ beneath the Dome of the Rock?
Often known as the Basis Stone, it’s a big, tough however flat-ish rock that sits on the centre of the shrine.
A part of the bedrock beneath, the Basis Stone has been hacked at by crusaders, revered by 1000’s and worn clean in locations by the contact of numerous arms.
A niche at its southern facet leads right down to a cave referred to as the Effectively of Souls the place, it’s stated, you’ll be able to hear the voices of the lifeless awaiting Judgement Day.
The Significance of the Basis Stone in Judaism
In response to Jewish custom, it’s the spot the place the Ark of the Covenant was positioned when the First and Second Temples stood right here.
Some imagine it’s the place creation started and the place Abraham was poised to sacrifice Isaac. (There may be debate about this.)
The Basis Stone in Islam
For Muslims, the Basis Stone is believed to be the spot from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
Crusaders on the Dome of the Rock
Right here’s a shock: The location of the Dome of the Rock was briefly a Christian church after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099.
That solely lasted till 1187 when the town was recaptured by the Muslim chief Saladin.
Can Non-Muslim Guests Enter the Dome of the Rock?
No. They’re free to admire the skin however can solely think about the inside, richly ornamented with pillars, columns, mosaics and Islamic inscriptions.
Visiting the Dome of the Chain
When you’ve circled the Dome of the Rock and gotten your fill of blazing gold, try the smaller domed construction subsequent to it.
Named the Dome of the Chain, its delicate allure and detailed tile work received me over instantly.
Constructed across the similar time because the Dome of the Rock, it’s an open air construction supported by columns (and one of many few locations you’ll discover shade.)
Beneath the Dome
Whereas non-Muslims can solely admire the golden Dome of the Rock from the skin, it’s doable to step contained in the Dome of the Chain.
Right here you’ll be able to see putting glazed tiles, the frilly ceiling and patterned ground.
The Goal of the Dome of the Chain
Questions linger over its function. A gathering place for students? A treasury? A prototype for the Dome of the Rock? The thriller stays.
🌿 In the course of the crusader period the Dome of the Chain was used as a Christian chapel as they’d recognized it because the place the place St. James was martyred.
Seeing Al-Aqsa Mosque
We’re not completed with domes but.
One other powerfully sacred website on the Temple Mount complicated is Al-Aqsa Mosque, additionally referred to as the Qibli Mosque.
You possibly can acknowledge it by its ribbed lead dome that appears like burnished silver.
This huge complicated of courtyards, domes, and minarets has gone by a lot destruction, resurrection and enlargement its laborious to maintain all of it straight.
Earthquakes, assaults, occupations (the crusaders used it as a palace), arson … Al-Aqsa Mosque has seen all of it.
With a capability to carry 5,500 worshippers, it’s an lively mosque and an essential image of Islam.
Can non-Muslims go inside Al-Aqsa Mosque? No.
Visiting the Western Wall – Is It A part of Temple Mount?
The Western Wall is the final remnant of the Second Temple.
It’s the place many Jewish folks pray as, per Israeli rules, they’re not allowed to wish at Temple Mount.
(The foundations could also be bending on that, inflicting an excessive amount of controversy.)
For the reason that Western Wall, or Wailing Wall, will not be contained in the Temple Mount compound you don’t want to undergo the lineup to go to it.
Temple Mount Opening Hours
Temple Mount is open to non-Muslim guests from Sunday to Thursday, apart from sure Muslim and Jewish holidays.
It could additionally shut down all of a sudden for numerous different causes like political points.
Summer season Hours: 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Winter Hours: 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
To keep away from lengthy strains, going proper at opening time is a good suggestion.
How one can Go to Temple Mount: Suggestions and Guidelines
Visiting Temple Mount in Jerusalem is topic to sure guidelines and rules.
Listed below are some normal pointers and ideas:
- Gown modestly, with no shorts or revealing clothes. I didn’t have to cowl my head, however I recommend you are taking one thing simply in case.
- Carry your passport: It might or will not be wanted, however have it with you.
- Non-Muslim guests should not allowed to wish or conduct any spiritual rituals on the Mount.
- Don’t usher in Jewish or Christian spiritual materials or objects.
- Keep away from public shows of affection.
- Images is allowed outdoors. Finest to not {photograph} the guards.
- Be respectful and aware of the non secular significance of the location.
- Get in line early: You received’t get in previous closing time irrespective of how lengthy you waited in line.
- Try this interactive map for recommendations on what to see.
Why Go to Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock?
Exploring Temple Mount is a mind-bending journey into the guts of Jerusalem’s historical past, faith and tradition.
Why Obsess Over the Domes?
Granted, not everybody shall be as fixated on the domes of Temple Mount as I’m, however they are significant.
The curved domes of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are unforgettable, not only for their formidable magnificence however for his or her symbolic heft of devotion and religion.
In spiritual structure, domes are a hyperlink between the earthly and the divine.
Their round form represents unity and inclusivity – a strong motif at a website that has been fought over for hundreds of years.
Understanding the way to go to Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock isn’t nearly guidelines, instructions and information.
It’s about it’s about immersing your self within the spirit of a lightening-rod spot the place numerous cultures meet and the load of historical past (and domes!) is wealthy with the echoes of religion.
FAQs About Visiting the Dome of the Rock
There are about 15 domes at Temple Mount altogether. Essentially the most well-known is the gleaming gold dome on the Dome of the Rock.
Whereas there are some guidelines and rules concerning visiting the Dome of the Rock at Temple Mount, it’s definitely doable to go to this gorgeous sacred website in Jerusalem.
No, it’s thought of extra of a shrine.
