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The
city of Jerusalem is holy to the three largest monotheistic religions of
the world. From the vantage point of this photo, the Mount of Olives
overlooks the holiest places of each, from the gilded Dome of the Rock at
right, thought to be the place of Mohammed's ascension by some Muslims,
sitting atop the Temple Mount, which was the site of the destroyed First
and Second Temples of Judaism, and near the two gray domes at the upper
left of the photo, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site
of the crucifixion of Jesus. |
| This wall was once the western part of the
foundation of the First Jewish Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians, and
then the Second Jewish Temple, destroyed by the Romans in about 70 AD.
Though its official name is the Western Wall, many know it as the Wailing
Wall, because the devout still weep while remembering the destruction of
the temples.
It's common to see people insert scraps of paper with prayers and
wishes into the cracks in the wall, as this soldier is doing. People
praying at the Western Wall also continue to face the wall while backing
away, as a sign of respect. |
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Many Christians, especially Catholics and the Greek
Orthodox, believe that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher rests on the spot
where Jesus Christ was crucified. The church was built in the fourth
century AD during the reign of Emperor Constantine, after his mother Helen
also converted to Christianity and found the site.
The original Byzantine structure was burned and looted by the Persians
in 614, damaged by an earthquake in 808, and destroyed in 1009 by a
caliph. The church was rebuilt by a Byzantine emperor in 1048 and later
twelfth-century reconstruction. The photo at left is the tomb itself,
rebuilt in 1810 after fire destroyed its predecessor in 1808. |
| Built between 685 and 691 AD, the sacred
Muslim Dome of the
Rock still looks much as it did when it was first constructed. Created as
a work of art as well as architecture, the beautiful mosaics use patterns
and geometric shapes in compliance with the Islamic prohibition against representative
figures. Suleiman the Magnificent was responsible for installing many of
the 45,000 blue and gold exterior tiles in the sixteenth century. The dome
itself, about 20 meters (65 feet) wide, extends about 30 meters above the
platform. |
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