Arabesque Twilight before Dawn

The twilight before dawn

I awoke to the twilight before dawn in the holiest city in our world. Morning stars filled the blue becoming black sky. From the stone ballustrade I could see the outline of the old city. An aura of unearthly glowing blue clearly outlined the ancient chapels, mosques and rooftops. Crosses of all variations topped the christian buildings, cresent moons shot above the minaret towers, and Stars of David glowed white. Somewhere King David haunted by the ghost of Nebuchadnezzar look out upon his city of yore. The morning Azam sublimely sang forth from a far off minaret. Unlike the usual squelch and squak from an overloaded inexpensive Moslem-favored amplification system, this anymous call to prayer flowed through the sleeping city as well sung as it was reverential. I wish I could live in that twilight before dawn, I really do.

It was my first morning in Jerusalem and I had to look over to my roof-top mattress to make sure I still wasn't lying there deep in slumber. Asleep under the Persian stars the evening my dreams were lenghty and meaningful. In fact the hotelier had to come out to berate me for laughing so loudly. I sonoriously denied it and hurried back to restart the rare gleeful dream.

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Jerusalem must be the holiest in homo sapiens spiritual world. It's collective history and existing present put this tightly bound walled city far and beyond any other single site on this trip. Within minutes of walking around you can see Greek Orthodox priests, Franciscan Friars, Muslem Clerics, Russian Orthodox, Jewish Rabbis, Orthodox Jews dressed in fine fur hats, and silk robes, Armenian nuns and everyone else under the sun. Here in Jerusalem is Mt. Moriah, where Abraham built an alter to sacrifice his son to appease his god. Millenia later the prophet Mohammed would fly his winged horse from Mecca to the same spot and ascend to heaven. The beautiful (and of course contriversial) Dome on the Rock Moslem Temple now glorifies the spot. Here King David and Solomon created the first city of Jews and the First Temple. Pontius Pilate, under Roman authority ruled here and in front of agreeing Jews sentanced the man known as Jesus of Nazareth to a crown of thorns, flaggellations and crusifiction. Though historically dubious, his entire last day can be traced on Via Dolorosa, where he first bore the cross, where he stumbled, where he stumbled again, where he spoke to the people, where he was nailed to the cross, where he was buried. I touched the original stones of his tomb today in the coptic alter in the Church of the Holy Shepulcre. The Crusaders were here too and built churches. Later came the Ottoman empire.

Now is not the time for the historical lesson, but it is simply benumbing walking where much of our mytholigical historical consciousness is set in stone. The faithful come in every color, from every continent, speaking every tongue, praying at their arch sacred sites with a ferver that is only matched by everyone else. It is certainly going to take a couple more days to really comprehend this all. By that time I will have been to Bethlehem, Masada, Jherico and the Dead Sea, all day trips from here.

Walking in the archaic arched alleyways (that onced supplied arab desert goods, that know hawk tourist trunk) I thought it should really be mandatory that everyone I know come here. That must have been exactly what my grandmother was thinking. The elder generation is always one step ahead, huh?

tedinasia@hotmail.com
jalondon@rocketmail.com

Cairo to Jerusalem without blinking

With the heat of the Egyptian desert melting my eyelashes, I've made an about face and will be starting my circle where I planned on ending it. I did, however, stay in Cairo long enough to see the great pyramids of Giza and the enigmatic Sphinx. Absolutely stunning. Like the Taj Mahal, chills ran through out me being in front of a wonder that I had heard stories of all my life. To beat the heat I hopped a camel and saw the three pyramids from all sides. East of the pyramids (they all 'face' due north) the entire sprawl of Cairo (pop 17 million) as an immediate backdrop. Giza is now an outer neighborhood of Cairo and the city literally ends just 500 yards before the Eastern Gazing Sphinx

From Cairo I decided to travel along Sinai's northern border to the Isreali bordertown of Rafah which is just inside the SE corner of the Gaza Strip. I opted against the Cairo-Tel Aviv direct nightbus for a more insightful, earn your experience local bus route. I spent two nights at teh Egyptian Beach town of Al Arish on the South Pacific-esque clear and warm (88*) SE MEditerranean. The town was nothing of note, but the coast was long and inviting, and even though I had to go to 6 hotels to find an available room, Al Arish gets added to our very short list of places visited where no other foreigners were seen.

Crossing the border to Isreal was a little peculiar because I was the only non-Palestinean in the crowd. On the Isreali side there are two distinct immigration office, The Palestinean Authority and Isreal Authority. I caught the young service Isrealis off guard showing up with my pack on my back and I got my most thorough looking over of the whole trip because of the oddity. >From there I got a bus to Tel Aviv and then the last bus before Friday Sabbath sunset to the Holiest of cities: Jerusalem. Isreal is truly my promised land. It's the land (Julie close your eyes) of Snapple and Bagels. All ridiculously priced, but I'll take it all. I even had a (Close 'em again Julie) Arizona Green Tea today! What could be better than that?

tedinasia@hotmail.com
jalondon@rocketmail.com