Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount

August Victoria Church

Reagan, Me, and Lauren, standing on the Mount of Saint Elijah (Javal Mar Elyas of Herodian). The city behind us is the city of Bethlehem which lies in the Western Bank. Just to the left of this area not in this picture is the area where Ruth lived.

This last Sunday (09/08/13) I was able to visit the beautiful Temple Mount and stand by the Dome of the Rock, the second most holy site to the Muslims. This Dome is absolutely breathtaking with amazing tile work all around the building. On Monday we took our first field trip to places surrounding Jerusalem to learn geography mostly. We looked over Jerusalem from the Seven Towers Hotel, the Augusta Victoria Tower (there are lots of stairs in this tower by the way, but very worth it), and the Tayelet (south of Jerusalem). We also stopped at Jabal Mar Elyas of Herodian which overlooks the city of Bethlehem and Nabi Samwil from which we could see Tell el-Ful. Tell el-Ful was under Jordan's control from 1948 to 1967. In 1964, the King, Hussein started building a palace here, but was never finished due to Israel gaining control of the area. The palace remains there unfinished. There is so much to tell. I think one of my favorite things is looking out and turning to a scripture and learning that the event of that scripture happened at the place I am looking at. For example, and this might be a bad example, but when we looked out over Jerusalem from Tayelet, it is probably the same view that Abraham had when he first saw mount Mt Moriah before he journeyed there to sacrifice his son. Even though it might have not been the exact spot where Abraham stood, but it really makes the story real. This man really loved and trusted God that he was willing sacrifice his one of his most precious things because God asked him to. This place is just amazing. A week ago, I don't think I could have understood how amazing the experiences would be and that I would be having them everyday (even with the food, because its amazing!) I love it here!