The Dome

Well, today was a pretty exciting day. I got to go on a very exclusive VIP tour of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Yes, I went INTO the Dome of the Rock. I've got some pictures. If I was a bit smarter, I would have made a little video, but that thought completely eluded me. Next time I'm in a world-famous landmark on a VIP tour I will try and remember. I took a whole lot of photos(none of which really captured how incredible it was) but I've only put up a few because it's taking seriously ages to download them to blogger. Lame. In any case, it was pretty cool. Oh, and I met my future husband.

This picture is pretty random. We started the tour in the Al-Aqsa mosque and it was being cleaned at the time. This guy is running a huge vacuum over the ground. To get in, we took our shoes off and I had to wear a veil (which I brought--just a pashmina I bought in SoHo with Sheryl) and I wore a skirt, but apparently mid calf was too revealing so I had to wear this really REALLY frumpy skirt they gave me. I look like a freak in all the full body shots, so you'll have to be contented with the one shot of me at the end. Trust me. It wasn't cute. They don't want women to be attractive to the men in the mosque and they succeeded with flying colors in my case.

So I really liked this image because this guy was cleaning his sacred building. To be honest, I couldn't understand a word the Palestinian guide said so I just wandered mentally and explored what caught my eye. So I can't really tell you much about the history of these places other than what I looked up online after we got back.
Okay, scratch that. I understood a bit. Or I think I understood. This stained glass was from the time of the crusades, apparently. The mosque must have been turned to a church and this glass must date from that. Details were sketchy. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was a really gorgeous, colorful piece of work.
This is a cool picture: that chip you see in the pillar was from the 1951 assassination of King Abdullah I of Jordan (who was one of the very few Arab leaders friendly with the West) while visiting the Al-Aqsa mosque.

This is just outside the Dome. I'm sure you missed that, but I figured I point it out to you. Just call me Captain Obvious.

This was just a really cool light fixture in the Dome. I was really taken by small details. Once again, couldn't understand a word of that guy's "english." Oh, by the way, the carpet was the most dreamy thing to have touched the soles of my feet. So soft and luxurious. Whoever was in charge of installing that was a genius. I was also very grateful to have had just gotten a pedicure so my feet looked very nice. It would have been mortifying to have looked frumpy as all heck AND to have had mingin' feet. Gross.
This was in this downstairs compartment of the Dome called "The Well of Souls" where apparently the souls of the dead mingle. That I got off a website. At the time, I was quite mesmerized my the man who was doing his prayers. The rock was just above our heads. There really was just a massive rock that they built a dome over. The name says it all, eh?

This is me looking like I belong in the Easter Pageant.