DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0279
JERUSALEM
Where there is a mere attempt at a temple-like structure, a
second Christian church has been built into it, and so with
churches 3 and 4. And woe betide the priest of No. 4 who
wants to do anything in No. 3! A stupid mystery with dark
holes and a glitter of lamps which look as if they might have
come from any old bazaar, but which are of course gold and
silver: a sumptuous desert of precious stones. Nowhere a
place for the worshipper to meditate on the grandeur of the
redemption in spirit and in truth. In the Church of the
Nativity at Bethlehem lies a carpet cut obliquely across
because church No. 2 neither may nor will set foot upon it
on the way to its own conventicle. Here at times they pray
knife in hand, and Mohammedans have to keep the Chris-
tians from doing each other to death. The predecessor of
the present English governor was a Jew, and as the Christians
could not agree upon the management of the Church of the
Sepulchre he had to take over the function.
There is one sanctuary in Jerusalem: the Mosque of the
Rock. It lies in the middle of the town on the one open
square, the site of the old temple, which gains in size from
the narrowness of the surrounding alleys. It is a real temple:
a collection of units which has become a monument. I know
no more beautiful, or more beautifully situated, building.
The square, like a sort of gigantic stage - since it stands a
yard or two above the surrounding level — impresses us with
something of the dignity of an acropolis. At the four corners
are steps with round-arched arcades above them. These
isolated arcades are like the wings of a theatre, which perhaps
the builder of the temple thought to complete. Anyhow, they
are noble wings. We saw the temple first when we came on
the last day of Ramadan and dared not venture on to the
square; we looked down from the roof of a neighbouring
house, and accidentally caught the best viewpoint for the
decorative effect, for from the roof you were aware of nothing
but the upper part of the octagon covered with Persian tiles.
U5
Where there is a mere attempt at a temple-like structure, a
second Christian church has been built into it, and so with
churches 3 and 4. And woe betide the priest of No. 4 who
wants to do anything in No. 3! A stupid mystery with dark
holes and a glitter of lamps which look as if they might have
come from any old bazaar, but which are of course gold and
silver: a sumptuous desert of precious stones. Nowhere a
place for the worshipper to meditate on the grandeur of the
redemption in spirit and in truth. In the Church of the
Nativity at Bethlehem lies a carpet cut obliquely across
because church No. 2 neither may nor will set foot upon it
on the way to its own conventicle. Here at times they pray
knife in hand, and Mohammedans have to keep the Chris-
tians from doing each other to death. The predecessor of
the present English governor was a Jew, and as the Christians
could not agree upon the management of the Church of the
Sepulchre he had to take over the function.
There is one sanctuary in Jerusalem: the Mosque of the
Rock. It lies in the middle of the town on the one open
square, the site of the old temple, which gains in size from
the narrowness of the surrounding alleys. It is a real temple:
a collection of units which has become a monument. I know
no more beautiful, or more beautifully situated, building.
The square, like a sort of gigantic stage - since it stands a
yard or two above the surrounding level — impresses us with
something of the dignity of an acropolis. At the four corners
are steps with round-arched arcades above them. These
isolated arcades are like the wings of a theatre, which perhaps
the builder of the temple thought to complete. Anyhow, they
are noble wings. We saw the temple first when we came on
the last day of Ramadan and dared not venture on to the
square; we looked down from the roof of a neighbouring
house, and accidentally caught the best viewpoint for the
decorative effect, for from the roof you were aware of nothing
but the upper part of the octagon covered with Persian tiles.
U5