Features

City of God

28 Feb 2013

A 50-minute drive from Tel Aviv, my first sight of Jerusalem is from the Mount of Olives, a hillside cemetery overlooking the Old City in the East. In the distance is the gleaming, golden roof of the Dome of the Rock shrine and I soon discover, upon entering Temple Mount, that up close it is just as beautiful – its octagonal walls decorated in tiny mosaic tiles arranged in intricate tessellating patterns.

Jerusalem is a place where fact and fiction coexist. According to Islam, the Foundation Stone on which the shrine stands marks the spot where Muhammad rose to heaven to bring back instructions from God, while Judaism teaches that it was from this rock that the world was created. However, because of a Muslim ban on Jews worshipping there, they congregate at the nearby Wailing Wall instead, inserting folded paper messages into its cracks and praying towards their most sacred site.

This duality, and its accompanying contradictions, seems to be what defines Jerusalem – teenage soldiers smoke near shops selling souvenir crowns of thorns, while Japanese tourists pose with wooden crucifixes, making peace signs at the camera.

Jerusalem is a holy city to three religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – whose belief systems and versions of history are both intertwined and often conflicting. It is also a place divided, separated from the West Bank by a wall and fought over since before Christ, as well as a capital that in the eyes of many is not a capital at all because no one can decide whether it is rightfully part of Israel, Jordan or the State of Palestine.

After joining the locals for a lunch of hummus, falafel and freshly baked pitta, I stop to observe a group of Christian evangelists as they walk up the stone steps of the Via Dolorosa. A priest reads from the Bible as several believers help to carry a heavy crucifix on their shoulders, solemnly walking the route taken by Jesus on his way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Located in the Christian Quarter (the Old City is also home to Jewish, Muslim and Armenian neighbourhoods), the crumbling basilica was carved out of the Golgotha hill, where the New Testament says Jesus was crucified. It also incorporates the cave where his body was laid to rest, and then resurrected, in the golden sepulchre beneath the dome.

As with the rest of the city, no one can agree on who holds primacy over the church, so it is divided among Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Syriac, Roman Catholic, Greek, Oriental and Eastern Orthodox clerics. What’s more, none will take responsibility for repairs to the 1,700-year-old building, and from time to time the priests even come to blows over it.

I find myself as much bewildered as I am fascinated by it all, and decide a change of scene is in order. I drive to the Dead Sea, a lake so salty that nothing can survive in it. Its white, sodium-encrusted shores make for the lowest elevations on Earth, at 423 metres below sea level, and a day trip from Jerusalem (40km away) can’t be missed.

Split between Israel and Jordan, and 66km in length, there are various dedicated areas for bathing. I stop off at Mineral Beach, on the southwesterly side, for a dip. People come from all over the world to coat themselves in medicinal black mud before floating in the water to wash it off, and the numerous health spas and hotel resorts around attest to its healing qualities.

Back in Jerusalem, I head for the Mamilla hotel (www.designhotels.com). Positioned a short walk from the Old City, its thick limestone walls echo those in the ancient local streets, contrasting with its futuristic Mirror bar and luxurious rooftop terrace, which serves delicious Italian-Israeli cuisine. I may not have found God, but I realise the Holy Land is a very special place indeed.

www.thinkisrael.com

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