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 is said to have used the rock as the foundation of his temple. Herod built there the temple from which Jesus drove the money-changers. Mohammed rested by the rock after his night flight from Mecca.

Sacred to Jews, Christians and Moslems alike, the rock has rarely lacked a noble covering. The present dome dates back to the great edifice erected by Abdul-Malek Ibn Marwan, Caliph of Damascus, in 691, who used up seven years’ tax revenue from Egypt to realize his dream. In 1099, crusaders mounted a gold cross on the dome and turned it into a church. Later, Saladin Avon it back for Islam, lovingly coated the interior arches with mosaic, the walls with marble. Suleiman the Magnificent ordered the exterior walls covered with splendid blue tiles.

Time, earthquakes, and most recently, mortar shells, lobbed into the sanctuary during the Jerusalem fighting in 1948, all but ruined the ancient structure. Mosaics were smashed; the 11th century outer dome of wood and lead bulged, showing signs of collapse. As soon as peace returned to the Holy Land, the King of Jordan organized an emergency committee to restore the mosque.

Main problem facing the restorers was to find a substitute for the outer dome (the ornately decorated inner dome will remain in place). Their final answer was enough to make a sultan shudder: it is not gilt, or even silver wash, but a lightweight, gold-anodized aluminum shell (cost: $364,000). Too modern, cried some citizens; too ignoble, said others. “It will look like an ad for an orange drink.” snapped one traditionalist. The builders pressed on with their work, hoping to have it finished this fall. Historians pointed out that the Caliph of Damascus had melted down 100,000 gold dinars to gild the original dome. The new aluminum one will look the same, and at a fraction of the price.