Jerusalem - An Exceptional View

It happened by chance that I mounted up the top of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer soaring above the Old town like a skyward space ship.

– Would you like to take some exceptional photos? – An Arab merchant asked me when he noticed a camera in my hands.

– And who wouldn’t!

– Then you should go this way, - he pointed out the open door of the Cathedral and added: - Mount to the viewing platform – you will not regret... Once I found myself in a large hall I heard the enshrouding sounds of organ. Music sounded from somewhere above, like from the sky.

– Shall we listen to Bach? – a smiling monk asked me in English.

– With pleasure...

Construction of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer started in the year 1898, shortly after Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany made his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Turkish Sultan presented the august person with a piece of land nearby The Tomb of Lord. Kaiser himself designed the bell tower in new-Romanesque Italian style. Monumental edifice was to represent the increasing Prussian influence on Jerusalem that was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in those times. The German eagle was pictured above the door and the tallest bell tower was lofting right toward the sky. Now and I was mounting there, skyward.

Winding staircase with polished stone footsteps is so narrow and steep that even on the first stairs platform it is necessary to sit for a while for not to have dizziness. Only now I understood why a doorkeeper guarding downstairs attentively keeps watch the tourists going up to the “roof of Jerusalem”: two people would not be able to cross each other in this narrow staircase. Holding on to the walls I continue my way upstairs. Now I have a true dizziness. I have to take a 5 minute break at the cool wind blow platform near the light green bell: gulp for blessed Jerusalem air and after that at one bout empty half of the bottle with mineral water. And again continue my way. Surmounted the last, one hundred eightieth, step I find myself at the viewing platform. I look down and can barely refrain from bursting out with admiration and amazement: not only the Old Town but also the whole Jerusalem were spread before the eyes.

The Temple Mount stretches to the right side. Gilded Dome shines in the sunbeam over the Rock. It is not generally known that octagonal erection rests on the Corner stone that is in that very place where, according to Jewish tradition, angel’s hand stopped Abraham when he was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac. There was Sancta sanctorum of Jerusalem Temple here. Behind the Dome on the Rock, on the slope covered with vegetation the gilded belfry of St. Mary Magdalene Church strikes the eye. To the right, on The Temple Mount there is a high grey inconspicuous building – El-Aksa mosque, the third significant Islam shrine.

It was worthy to trample a couple of hundred steps of the staircase for the sake of such view!

Carefully I walk down the winding staircase. Going out from the Cathedral I steep in the unique atmosphere of Arabic market. You can find here just whatever you may wish! Silver bracelets with apotropaic dark- and light-blue stones, tiny snuffboxes, leather footwear, backpacks decorated with Oriental embroidery, silk cloth, trinkets... The main thing is to profitably chaffer the goods you want, and for this you will need the knowledge of Oriental mentality. It is important not to break and express the rare prolixity. It looks simple: a merchant (the majority of them speak English quite well) tells the maximal price, for example – 600 shekels for a backpack. – Thirty! – You reply. At the first sight it is just a full nonsense: who would cut down the price at 20 times? However, experienced marketers made sure: only this method works out. You can make no doubts that finally you will succeed to chaffer the souvenir you like exactly for the third of its price initially given by pushing merchant. Orientalism is a delicate matter!..