Dead City

The history of the city of Jerusalem is immediately apparent and impressive. Dating back 5000 years, Jew, Roman, Byzantine Christian, Arabian Muslim, Crusading Christian, Mamluk Muslim, Ottoman Muslim, the British, and now again Israeli Jew have ruled the city. It seems as though every square foot of the 'holy city' is occupied by church, synagogue, mosque, or museum, and wandering around the warren of city streets, one passes very perceptively from Armenian to Jewish to Christian to Arabic quarters. Its occupants carry the weight of this history upon their shoulders, as seen by their stooped posture and gritted faces. There were a few surprises to be had when walking around the city (often hopelessly lost) - I stumbled upon an apocalyptic rooftop playground, in which the Jewish quarter extended over the Arabic souq (market), complete with Jewish guard watching over the area children had abandoned in favour of playing in the bustling alleys below.


Jerusalem was an opportunity to visit the many Churches of the Orthodox (Greek, Syrian, Coptic) and Western (Lutherian, Catholic) Christian faiths, many of which interlinked. In the path of doing so, my path took me from an under-ground cistern below a church, complete with resonant acoustics, through the discordant tones of the Ethiopians singing mass in their monastry, and into a sung liturgy held by the Franciscans, caretakers of the church of the holy sceplture (where faiths agree that Christ was crucified, cleansed, buried and reborn) .
Christian pilgrims come from all over to touch the stone upon which Christ was cleansed, make offerings, and to pray.


The jewel in the visual crown would have to be the temple mount, a place claimed by all three Monotheistic faiths, and currently the home to a striking mosque (built by the Byzantines on behalf of their Desert conquerers). Its golden dome is eye catching, and tiled appearance superb. As the bird in the photo below ascended to the sky, it struck perhaps a symbolic pose.


Of course, the faith which dominates the greater city is that of Judaism. Being there on the first day of Pasach (Passover), I was treated to an insight into the effect of Religion on city life, as businesses shut up shop in anticipation of the coming holiday. It would be concerning to the unwitting tourist to have a city close before their eyes, a prophetic symbol of some coming catastrophy, cafe's stowing chairs and tables and shutters being brought down until the new city was a dead city. It was eerie walking the streets at 8pm, having them wholly to myself (if there were tumbleweeds in the region they would have all been streaming toward the city for their annual convention), and it felt more like a balmy summer evening 5am aftermath than dinnertime in the capital city.

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Warwick