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National Geographic : 1966 Dec
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Until recently no non-Moslem was permit ted to set foot in the mosque itself, for it is one of the most sacred shrines of Islam. Again, through the kindness of the Jordanian reli gious hierarchy, we were allowed not only to enter, but to photograph the shrine of the Patriarch. To this end Sheik Ates el-Hamouri, the director of the mosque, led us himself through this sacred place. Six cenotaphs, or symbolic tombs, stand on its floor, representing those whose bones are believed to lie in the cave below: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. Abraham's cenotaph and Sarah's stand in enclosures behind silver bars, draped in green silk (opposite). 788 In the cool gloom, awed pilgrims moved silently on bare feet over carpeted floors. Some knelt immediately to pray, but others, particularly women, approached the ceno taphs to caress their corners, or kiss them. Nearby an old man prostrated himself over a brass grille set flush with the floor. "He is looking into the cave itself," the director told me, "through the only aperture that remains open. Come." The old man bowed and moved away, and I knelt in his place over the grate. A current of moist air rose from the darkness where an oil lamp, suspended far below, revealed no feature of Abraham's resting place or its con tents. But one may believe that the mortal
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