2nd Crystal: The Dome of the Rock, the Old City of Jerusalem

     The 2nd Crystal was dropped into a little round hole in the stone platform outside the “Dome of the Rock,” built in 691CE by the Muslims as a Shrine for Pilgrims over the stone from which Muhammad ascended into Heaven escorted by the Angel Gabriel on his famous “Night Ride”--where he also met and communed with Abraham, Moses and  Jesus. Upon his return to Mecca the next morning, he taught the  five-times-per-day prayer schedule. Thus this spot is the 3rd most holy place for Muslim.

      However, this spot is also the most sacred spot in Judaism, as  the "Foundation Stone" from which God came to earth and created Adam and Eve. It is the location of Solomon’s Temple and is called “The Temple Mount with its “Holy of Holies” and that one time housed the “Ark of the Covenant.” It is also purported to be where Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, as well as many other important events in the history of the Jewish people. Currently it is under Muslim management.

Our group walked along the shops of the ancient markets and the Via Dolorosa where Jesus  carried the Cross on his way to the site of  the Crucifixion. We prayed along the “Wailing Wall” with Jews--as the only wall still assumed to be surviving from the Ancient Temple.

     Our group was allowed onto the Temple Mount area near the Al-Aqsa Mosque where the Second Intifada began as a result of Jewish Politician, Ariel Sharon's, entry on September 28, 2000.

 

    As a Muslim she and was allowed in and others of us were free to explore the area around the “Dome of the Rock,” which is one of  my fall-time favorite    buildings in the world. 

    The Call to Prayer was ringing out from the Al-Aqsa Mosque behind me as I slipped the crystal into the hole, not knowing where it might end up below–as there are many stories and conspiracy theories of what has been and might be going on underneath, as this was the Headquarters of the Knights Templer during the Crusades!

                                  
                                    Muslim Prayer
 
                              In the name of Allah,          

                        the beneficent, the merciful.
                 Praise be to the Lord of the Universe,
    who has created us and made us into tribes and nations
                        that we may know each other,
                              not despise each other.