Dazzling Jerusalem

What can one say of Jerusalem?

Let's put it this way: I don't think in these 5 days we go to see one thenth of what there is to see in the in the Old City, let alone the rest of town.

Although Hubby and I spent the last few days walking nonestop like pilgrims all across town, I don't feel like we got to see the real city. After all, Jerusalem is 4000 years old, so yeah, she showed us her prized jewels, but I don't think she graced us with letting us peek behind the curtain.

If you come here on a spiritual, mystical or religious quest, of course Jerusalem is going to quench your thirst. No matter your religious beliefs, she is not discriminating, she has wonderous gifts waiting for everyone. We saw the Saint Sepulcre and the Tomb of the Virgin Mary on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. We saw the Western Wall and touched the Tomb of David high up on Mount Sion. We saw the Mount of Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque. We followed the trace of the Via Dolorosa and watched the sun shine its last rays of light on the Wailing Wall on the Sabbath. We visited the Last Supper's room and touched the rock where Jesus was laid to rest after being taken down from the cross. We visited the 4 sepharade synagogues nested low down in the ground and saw the last works being done on the Hurva synagogue. We saw all this and much, much more.

But if you come here fascinated by the mind boggling history of this city, then be prepared to leave it having possibly only grasped the thin outlines. Then again, tourist guides here must study at least two years of history and theology (and sometimes arqueology) in order to be a licensed tour guide -or so we were told-, so that should give you an idea of the impressive heritage of this land.

But how could it be any other way? In the course of 4000 years, Jerusalem changed and molded and shifted both geographically and politically so much, there are often several different explainations to a given pavement rock or a standing wall. Almost all of the important empires ruled here at some point in time, some even making the city the capital of a kingdom that spread all the way to Europe!

Looking down at a timeline given out at the Tower of David museum (the History of Jerusalem) here is a very very rough outline of Jerusalem's history:

-3300 Canaanite Period
-1006 Israel Period (First Temple Period)
-586 Destruction of First Temple - Babylon exile
-538 Persian Period
-515 Return to Zion (Second Temple Period)
-332 Hellenistic Period
-63 Roman Period
70 Destruction of Second Temple
324 Bysantine Period
638 Early Muslim Period
1099 Crusader Period
1260 Mameluke Period
1517 Ottoman Period
1917 British Mandate
1948 State of Israel

Throughout these 4 millenia you cross the names of King David, King Salomon, the Queen of Sheeva, King Herod, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Constantine, Helene, the calife Omar, Gaudefroy de Brouillon, Saladin, Suliman the magnificent, General Allenby, Hertzl... the list goes on and on. And these are only a handful of the A listers!

But I'm not dissapointed. I return to Paris having learned so much in the past few days that I keep having "connect the dots" moments when I realize that all my history lessons at some point had a direct link to this very land I've been standing on these past days.

I've also had the humble realization that the political problems that the country is going through today go so back in time and are engrained in so much of its people's heritage and culture and history and beliefs, that it'd be almost naive to think that it can be resolved so easily. You see, History here is not something that you learn in the books and think of as things that happened long, long ago and therefore can be brushed under the carpet. History here is real and you can touch it and see it and walk over it. And the people that you read about in all those battles and wars, and exiles and conquests...those people are still standing here, several hundreds of generations afterwards. Some may have left but have come back, some have always been here. In either case, everyone knows that this land belongs to them because the blood and sweat and tears of their ancestors built the very walls we touch today.

So thinking that a 4000 year war can be over with just a quick signature on a piece of paper, is not having ever understood the history of Jerusalem in the first place.

Although I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

Fned.