open air classroom

a brisk walk to the western wall began today's class. only this time, we headed behind the wall to the 36 acres that hold the dome of the rock and there our class began (ok... so he lectured all along the walk down to the wall). we looked at different columns and pillars noting the different styles from the different eras—byzantine, greek, roman. the actual dome of the rock, al aqsa mosque, and mosque where solomon’s stables once stood are no longer open to the public, only to practicing muslims. the rock in the center of the dome is believed by muslims to be the spot from which muhammad ascended through the heavens to God. in 685, caliph abd al-malik ibn marwan began the construction of the dome over an area long abandoned after roman destruction. during the crusader period, the al-aqsa mosque was used as headquarters. then during the ottoman period and now in modern times several renovations have taken place on the compound of the mosque. the details of the history of the plaza deepens the more you hear. but enough of the history lesson.. most of you are reading for personal interest. wandering around the plaza, i was amazed at the cleanliness. it wasn't exactly bj gallery green, but there was no trash or debris and what was there was being swept away by an older muslim man. one interesting thing we saw while on the grounds was a group of young poors playing soccer on a raised platform using shoes for a goal on one end and a qibla on the other. a quibla is the arabic word for the direction that should be faced when a muslim prays, so most mosques contain a niche in the wall and most plaza have markers that indicate the qibla..thus called the qibla. we spent about 95 minutes there walking, lecturing, snapping photos. who goes to the dome of the rock with out taking several pictures.

after the "bell" rang, we scurried off to our next class--the western wall. it seems our class spends several hours at the wall. today's lesson included observing the bar mitzvah celebration, recognizing several boys as grown-ups. bar-mitzvahs are celebrated at the wall on mondays, thursdays, and rosh chodesh days, when the torah is read. the class at the wall was brief and we soon headed to the jerusalem archaeological park to observe artifacts of digs spanning over 5000 years from the christian and muslim periods back to the bronze age (cannaanites). adjacent to the wall, the park sits next to the temple mount and remnants of the ritual baths used for purification as well as a portion of the stairs still with stones where jesus walked still stand. as dr. c read from psalm 121-2, we sat on those steps listening as the psalmist described jerusalem as sitting in the midst of the hills as well as seeking to go up into the house of the lord.

scurrying off like little school children, jenni, brad, abby, kevin, james, and i went searching through the shuk (shopping plaza) to find jenni some sunglasses. we are getting ready for some more serious hiking and the sun shines brightly. we knew we wanted to go back to juc friend, shabban's shop, ali babba's. but what we didn't know for sure was how to get there... it is in the shuk somewhere. without asking directions too many times, we found his shop and got jenni some cute glasses for only 20 shekels and 1 dollar. the conversion is about 4 to 1. if those glasses are holding up in 3 weeks.. i am going to ali babba's. from shabban's store, we manuvered like experts back to the jaffa gate and on to the campus.

school wasn't out for the day yet. we met back in the lecture room for our 2-6 session. thankfully, dr c. let us out a little after 5. all tired from a long morning, we took turns bobbing our heads toward the front of the classroom--but this doesn't mean that our lecture was boring. we covered the international coastal highway, the ridge route, and the beth-horon connecting route. dr. c keeps telling us that once we know the rules of the game, topography and geography, then we can play the game of history. AMAZING.. time after time, different people from different places take the same routes and follow the same paths as those several hundred years before them.

jenni and i worked on our pictures and then headed to dinner. i realize that we haven't mentioned the food recently... but it has been amazing. today's feast was no exception. the zucchini was amazing as well as the avocado salad (practically guacamole).

alright... time for bed. we are headed out before 7 tomorrow to visit the central benjamin plateau.

----emby