Unwelcome and Beautiful

Getting to the Temple Mount is tricky. To be far, my friend and I had not actually read up on how to get up there – just assumed it would be obvious once at the Western Wall. There is no clear signage; the Israeli soldiers will try to tell you not to go up there. “But we don’t follow the Torah” we told them. They grudgingly pointed to the rickety looking, temporary wood ramp without another word. And so we walked.
As soon as we came into sunlight in the open air of the grounds we were approached and instructed how to properly cover our selves. We thanked him, yet I’d felt like child being scolded by the principle and not knowing why. We had not been able to find anything in advance on how precisely to be dressed.
Wanting to see the Gold Dome, the beautiful tile mosaic on the outside of the Dome of the Rock, and the views of the surrounding area the Temple Mount offered. We walked in that general direction, noticing how we appeared to be the only non-Muslims on the very crowded platform.
Each group we walked by I felt the conversation stop and eyes follow us. Unwelcome. Intruding. As we turned left in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque we saw a priest, a girl with a long blonde ponytail, and a couple other Westerns. But right then, everything we were feeling: unwanted, unwelcome, guilt, relief, melted away and didn’t matter. In front of us, staring back was the Dome of the Rock.
Gleaming, beautiful in the sunshine. It only got better as we walked closer. More immense that I had imagined, bigger than my brain could comprehend even with the descriptions from travel books, history books, photos, it was more than I expected. But I was quickly learning this was Jerusalem – so much more than you think it is in every respect – the history, people, food, art and architecture. I once again found myself trying to recall the years it was built. How old were the stones I was standing on. And then I looked off to the West and perfectly situated in the distance, seen through three arches, the Church of Mary Magdalene. Beautiful and perfectly framed, waiting for you to wander by with a camera.
Travel should be enlightening, an education, a look into another culture. While all of Israel was this for me, few places opened my eyes, challenged my thinking or brought up new questions like visiting Temple Mount. Beyond bringing front and center nearly two millennia of fighting over a tiny piece of land, I was given a taste of what some people experience every day, as I never had.