I want to return to a recent post on the 360 degree views in Jerusalem. There are some images here that I did not notice or note carefully before, including Solomon’s Stables, the Well of the Souls, and the passageway of the Double Gate.
First, go to the Al Aqsa tour. Counting the images from the left, #6-8 show Al-Marwani Mosque, built a decade ago inside the area known traditionally as “Solomon’s Stables.” You can see the Herodian masonry in the columns.
#9 is the Well of the Souls, the cave underneath the Dome of the Rock.
#10-11 were taken inside the passageway of the “Double Gate.” If you look up you can see the beautifully carved (but now plastered over) domes from Herod’s time.
These are really extraordinary images of places that are very difficult for non-Muslims to access. The limited captions on the website do not explain what you’re seeing. Leen Ritmeyer has a nice screenshot showing the domes.
2 thoughts on “Under the Temple Mount”
Todd, thanks for this post, especially reagrding the interior of the Double Gate. I have been fortunate enough to have been down in those spaces of the Marwani Mosque a couple of times with special groups, but on rather rushed tours conducted by the Waqf, without a chance to really look around much. So, I never really had a clear sense of where I was – nor did I have the presence of mind to look UP to see the domes!! Also, the huge columns which separate the domed spaces, seen in old photos and drawings, are now almost obscured by new reinforcing structures. Anyway, the 360 view is a nice adjunct to the Matson photo in your collection (maybe you should post it) — It's interesting to now see the architecture of the portals themselves – the mix of Herodian and Omayyad elements – from the inside.
For a 19th century artistic rendering of the same space, see here: http://israelpalestineguide.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/beneath-and-around-the-haram-al-sharif-temple-mount-some-19th-century-views/
Tom Powers
JERUSALEM
methinks you are mistaken about the well of souls…it's not the cave, itself, but under the floor of the cave…or so I hear 😉