On the road to Jerusalem
Avir is on the road again, with walking shoes on and camera ready, catching all the best sights of the Jerusalem skyline and the Old City. The view from the Mount of Olives is one of the best places to check out. This view of Jerusalem, where every building shines white with its golden-coloured sandstone, is a sight to behold! It is quite beautiful. Like most modern cities, Jerusalem’s architecture is uniquely different. Contemporary designs in Jerusalem are essentially Post-Modern, with lingering influences of the International Bauhaus style, as well as Functionalism, a late-20th Century reaction to Modernism, which itself was a post-World War development against established forms and designs.
There are even some old structures dating back thousands of years to Biblical times and many new structures that were built with the latest technology. High-rises weren’t always part of Jerusalem’s urban planning plan, although in its day, the Temple of Solomon rose to about 20-storys high on what is now known as the Temple Mount.
“Then Solomon began to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. It was on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David, his father.” (2 Chron.3:1)
The Temple Mount is the trapezoid-shaped, walled-in area at the south-eastern corner of the Old City of Jerusalem. The four walls surrounding it date back – at least in their lower parts – to the time of the Second Jewish Temple, built at the end of first century B.C.E. These huge supporting walls, partly buried underground, were built around the summit of the eastern hill identified as Mount Moriah, the site traditionally viewed as the location of where Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice and the known location of the two Jewish Temples. The gaps between the walls and the mount were filled in to create a large surface area around the Temple. Its eastern wall and the eastern half of its southern wall form part of the city wall on those sides. Deep valleys (now partly filled by debris) run outside the walls (northeast, east, south, west), thus separating the Temple Mount from and elevating it above its surroundings, both inside and outside the city.
Many people who live and work in Jerusalem, including the tens of thousands of visitors a year, never seem to get bored with the amazing views it provides.