Art: Dome for the Rock

Under the hot shimmer of July in Jerusalem, a giant crane swung endlessly back and forth last week lifting new girders above an old shrine. The Dome of the Rock, at Jerusalem's eastern edge, was to have a new covering. Yet as riggers scrambled over the site, assembling the scaffolding and preparing huge aluminum beams for erection, a controversy raged over the project, with loud cries that one of the world's holiest spots was being defiled instead of restored.

This was the place where Abraham offered up his son Isaac as sacrifice, and was restrained by an angel of the Lord. Solomon...

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