in the guide books, there's info on hiking through the haraz mountains. the highest mountain on the arabian peninsula is jabal an-nabi shu'ayb (mountain of prophet shu'ayb) with an altitude of 12,333 feet. his grave and a mosque is on top of the mountain. when i read about it, i was like, 'i totally have to climb it and pray in the masjid on top!' so i told muhammad majnoon last week that kyla and i wanted to climb it. i asked if we could pray in the mosque on top and he said we could. the guide books said that foriegners were not allowed to the top. so anyway, muhammad organized a trip last week for a bunch of students to go to jabal an-nabi shu'ayb.
amongst the 8 students, alia and i were the only muslims. kyla got sick so she did not come. in addition to the students, there was the driver, an assistant and muhammad majnoon. we went in a mini van to the mountain. the mountain view along the way there was absolutely stunning. vast fields of qaat and other crops, ruins of old homes, watch towers and fortresses along the mountain side. kinda like what i wrote in my last post. i thought we were gonna stop at some point along the mountain and hike to the top, but we actually drove all the way up there.
about 10 minutes before reaching the summit, there was a check point. at that checkpoint, we all had to leave our cameras and phones behind. nothing was allowed at the top. alia had her $4,000.00 camera with her 'cause she's filming for a documentary and she did not want to leave her stuff with the men so she decided to stay behind while the rest of us went to the top. muhammad majnoon stayed behind with her. the rest of us went up with the driver and his assistant.
we get to the top. there's a gate guarded by 5 military officers with kalashnikovs...their faces wrapped in kuffiyehs. we had to stop the van a distance from the gate and a couple of guards approached the van and took all our passports. they told us all to come outside and wait by the van. we weren't allowed near the gate. so we waited while the guards and the driver and assistant disappeared behind the gate. after about 10 minutes, the driver and the assistant come out and tell us to get back in the van 'cause the mosque is closed. i asked, 'well, can i at least pray in the mosque?' i was the only muslim amongst the students. so the driver went back inside the gate...took another 10 minutes and came out with a bunch of military guards with kalashnikovs. one of the military guards...the leader...was a mean looking guy. i could tell there was trouble. he wanted us all to gather around as he looked through the passport pictures and eyed each of us suspiciously. then he told us to leave. again, i asked one of the military guards if i could pray in the mosque. he asked the leader. the leader told me rudely that i could pray anywhere. and then he made us leave. i was a bit upset. first of all, we didn't hike up to the top and secondly, i didn't even get to pray in the mosque or see the grave!
the leader and another guard rode down to the check point with us. i knew something bad was up. the driver, assistant and the two men from the top disappeared into the bunker to talk to muhammad majnoon. after a while, alia and the men returned and we were told to leave.
so what exactly happened? i'll tell you. foriegners were not allowed to the top. the leader was pissed off that we came to the top. also, remember i said in past posts that we need permits to go anywhere outside of sana'a. well, muhammad had our permits and forgot to give them to the driver so when we went to the top, we had no papers to show the guards. they were gonna arrest the driver and the assistant for bringing us to the top without permits and then ask us students if any of us knew how to drive so that we could go back to the checkpoint but none of them spoke any english.
apparently, behind the gate on the top of the mountain is now a military training camp and they use the mosque to store weapons.
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