Friday, November 27, 2009

Photos From My Temple Mount Ascent Yesterday

Yesterday, Thursday morning, bright but overcast at 7:30 AM, I stood outside the gate to the right of the entrance into the Western Wall Plaza to hand in my Identification Card to be checked and about 10 minutes later, was allowed in for the security check (a group of non-Jewish tourists who arrived a bit later went through first perfunctorily).

We few ascended to the Mughrabi Gate where a policeman and Waqf guard were waiting and off we went.

This is me at the southern section with the Dome of the Rock behind:


Such litter. That is an Arabic-language newspaper. And where?


In this Islamic structure near the Mughrabi Gate:


At the Southern Wall, wood beams and stone columns of historic and archeological interest:


A peek towards Mount of Olives where the ceremony of the Red Heifer was conducted:


Song of Songs, 2:15:



The entrance to the underground Marwani Mosque, the construction of which was a major factor in the loss of many historical artifacts:



3 comments:

Laura J. said...

Those wooden beams are being left out to rot. Cant our government intervene, in the name of science? Or at least embarrass the Wakf? Where are the reporters who care about those issues 'beyond politics'. I hope the NYTimes takes note before it's too late.

YMedad said...

As it happens, I attended the Renart Bar-Ilan annual Jerusalem Studies conference yesterday and learned that the beams were removed from Al Aksa roof in 1929 and had been there since the 900s probably.

Steve said...

You can see some additional temple mount destruction photos here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42236618@N07/tags/destruction/

I took these in 2009.