SHORT TAKES : Room at the Inn for Elvis
A bizarre shrine to a modern-day king is drawing Holy Land tourists to this Israeli Arab village, where biblical sandals meet Blue Suede Shoes.
The Elvis Inn at Abu Ghosh is a Middle Eastern oddity, possibly the only place in the world where a tourist can get a camel ride, a shish kebab and a plastic bust of Elvis Presley.
Owner Uri Yoali, a Jerusalem-born Elvis buff, says the roadside diner is his personal tribute to Presley. The truck stop just off the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway has become a place of pilgrimage for tourist buses on the route.
“It’s not just for the tourists,” he said. “Elvis is my life.”
A sign at the diner’s entrance boasts: “I’ve seen the King at Elvis Inn.” Lining the walls inside are 728 pictures and posters of Presley, some of them life-sized. The stereo plays non-stop Presley.
Yoali’s reverence for Elvis led him recently to commission a 12-foot, 500-pound epoxy and plaster statue of Presley modeled after Michelangelo’s David.
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