get inside

today, my Ottoman History class went on a field trip to Jerusalem. I had been in Jerusalem all weekend, so I just met them at one of the gates. The weather was not necessarily conducive to a field trip, it had been raining for several days, and didn't really let up much during our trek. But I was excited to see where our professor would take us, especially in light of my current research (Umayyad architecture). A few weeks ago, I got a lead on how we might potentially get inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock (on the Haram Al-Sharif). I wasnt sure if my prof would be able to coordinate it with the guy, but to my surprise, he came through, and we went inside.

Honestly, NOBODY is allowed in there, unless you are MUSLIM. They DO NOT let tours go inside. Muslims go in there to pray, and they are the 2nd and 3rd most holiest sites in the world for muslims (2nd or 3rd depends on whether you are Sunni or Shiite). The Arabs have control of the Haram Al-Sharif (Temple Mount), and the Israeli guards are often bitter towards anyone over there. They hassled us, but the Arab guys were totally cool. They made the women put these funny shower curtain skirts on and take our shoes off, but I didn't care. I got INSIDE both the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Its amazing what you can do with student status... its for "research purposes". This was one of my dreams, I got in without converting to Islam. Photos coming soon.