Leave those Holy buildings alone, please!

So, those old Holy Sites throughout the Holy Land must be a real tease for serious archaeological groupies. All that history and drama wrapped up in ancient stones and pillars. It must be such a thrill for them to purse their lips, give a quick blow, and whoosh, the dust from centuries of sweat, blood and tears is off with the wind.

It seems that one such archaeological student got a little carried away by all that dust some 12 years ago and stole a big chunk of marble pillar he had helped excavate in Jerusalem. That chunk was some 21kg and is believed to be part of the palace of the Umayyad Caliphs, the Muslim rulers who built a number of important Muslim places of worship, including the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem.

The anonymous tourist/archaeological student from New York sent back the stone in a crate after the guilt and regret seemed to have eaten away at him. A note that accompanied the crate revealed that guilt:

For the past 12 years since then, rather than remind me of the prayer for Jerusalem, I’m reminded of the mistake I made when I removed the stone from its proper place in Israel.

I just want to know how the heck he got on a flight with a 21kg chunk of Jerusalem stone in his suitcase.

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