The Walk Through the Holy Land Background Notes

The Walk through the Holy Land – Background Notes.

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Basilicais a title given to some Roman Catholic churches. According to canon law, no church building can be honoured with the title ofbasilicaunless by apostolic grant or from immemorial custom. 6

Saint Virgin Mary'sCoptic OrthodoxChurch also known as theHanging Church is one of the oldest churches inEgyptand the history of a church on this site dates to the 3rd century AD.[2]The Hanging(The Suspended)Church is named for its location above a gatehouse ofBabylon Fortress, the Roman fortress inCoptic Cairo(Old Cairo); its nave is suspended over a passage. The church is approached by twenty-nine steps; early travellers to Cairo dubbed it "the Staircase Church."[3]The land surface has risen by some six metres since the Roman period[why?]so that the Roman tower is mostly buried below ground, reducing the visual impact of the church's elevated position. The entrance from the street is through iron gates under a pointed stone arch. The nineteenth-century facade with twin bell towers is then seen beyond a narrow courtyard decorated with modern art biblical designs. Up the steps and through the entrance is a further small courtyard leading to the eleventh-century outer porch. 7, 8

Great Pyramid of Giza – Pyramid of Giza(also known as thePyramid of Khufuor thePyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the threepyramidsin theGiza pyramid complexbordering what is nowEl Giza,Egypt. It is the oldest of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact.

There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The so-called[1]Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. The main part of the Giza complex is a setting of buildings that included twomortuary templesin honour of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and smallmastabatombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles.

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TheGreat Sphinx of Gizacommonly referred to as theSphinx of Gizaor just theSphinx, is alimestonestatueof a reclining orcouchantsphinx(amythical creaturewith alion's body and a human head) that stands on theGiza Plateauon the west bank of theNileinGiza,Egypt. The face of the Sphinx is generally believed to represent the face of thePharaohKhafra. It faces directly West to East.[1]

Cut from the bedrock, the original shape of the Sphinx has been restored with layers of blocks. It measures 238 feet (73m) long from paw to tail, 66.3ft (20.21m) high from the base to top of the head, and 62.6 feet (19m) wide at its rear haunches.[2]It is the oldest knownmonumental sculpture,and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of theOld Kingdomduring the reign of the Pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558–2532BC).[3] - 9, 10

Marah and Sinai - to the Book of Exodus, the Israelites reached Marah after travelling in theWilderness ofShur,[3]while according to thestations listin theBook of Numbers, the Israelites had reached Marah after travelling in theWilderness ofEtham;[2]both biblical sources state that the Israelites were at Marah before reachingElim.[10][11]Textual scholarsregard the geographic information as deriving from two different versions of the same independent list of stations, one version being the list which takes up a chapter of the Book of Numbers, and the other version being slotted around the Marah narrative and around other narratives in the Book of Exodus and Book of Numbers, as appropriate;[12]according to this view, the latter version of this list would originally have read...and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water, then they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, ..., without mentioning Marah.[12]

The exact location of Marah is uncertain, as are the positions of Etham, Shur, and Elim; the identification of these locations is heavily dependent on the identification of theBiblical Mount Sinai. Traditionally, Sinai was equated with one of the mountains at the south of theSinai Peninsulaleading to the identification of Marah asAin Hawarah, a salty spring roughly 47 miles southeast fromSuez.[7]However, the majority of both scholars and religious authorities believe that this traditional identification of Sinai is inaccurate, with the suggested alternatives being in the north and centre of the Sinai peninsula, in theHejaz, and in the north easternArabah; these identifications would suggest that locating Marah far to the southeast of Suez would be a substantial detour of the Israelites' route. Consequently, some scholars have proposed to identify Marah asAin Naba, a brackish fountain located just 10 miles southeast of Suez,[13]while others have proposed to identify Marah as theSmall Bitter Lakelocated about 20 miles north of Suez; Ain Naba is more geographically convenient if Mount Sinai is a location in the Hejaz or central Sinai Peninsula, while the Small Bitter Lake is more geographically convenient for Mount Sinai being located in the north of the Sinai Peninsula or at the north eastern Arabah.

Mount Sinai 10

Mount Sinaialso known asMount HoreborJebel Musa, is a mountain in the Sinai PeninsulaofEgyptthat is a possible location of thebiblical Mount Sinai. The latter is mentioned many times in theBook of Exodusand other books of theBible,[1]and theQuran.[2]According toJewish,Christian, andIslamictradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place whereMosesreceived theTen Commandments.

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Saint Catherine's Monastery

Saint Catherine's Monastery lies on theSinai Peninsula, at the mouth of an inaccessible gorge at the foot of modern Mount Sinai in Saint Catherine at an elevation of 1550 meters. The monastery isGreek Orthodoxand is aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site. According to the UNESCO report (60100 ha / Ref: 954) and website hereunder, this monastery has been called the oldest working Christian monastery in the world– although theMonastery of Saint Anthony, situated across the Red Sea in the desert south of Cairo, also lays claim to that title.

Sunrise on Mt. Sinai

There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route,Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, thoughcamelscan be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery.[5]

The summit of the mountain has amosquethat is still used by Muslims. It also has aGreek Orthodoxchapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church that is not open to the public. The chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblicalTablets of Stone.[6]At the summit also is "Moses' cave", where Moses was said to have waited to receive theTen Commandments.

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TheDead Sea"Sea of Salt", "The Sea of Death", andalso called theSalt Sea, is asalt lakebordered byJordanto the east andIsraelandPalestineto the west. Its surface and shores are 429 metres (1,407ft) belowsea level,[3][5]Earth'slowest elevationon land. The Dead Sea is 304m (997ft) deep, the deepesthypersaline lakein the world. With 34.2%salinity(in 2011), it is 9.6 times as salty as the ocean, and one of theworld's saltiest bodies of water.[6]This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea is 50 kilometres (31mi) long and 15 kilometres (9mi) wide at its widest point.[1]It lies in theJordan Rift Valleyand its maintributaryis theJordan River.

The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around theMediterranean basinfor thousands of years. In the Bible, it is a place of refuge forKing David. It was one of the world's first health resorts (forHerod the Great), and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from asphalt forEgyptianmummificationtopotashforfertilizers. People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to createcosmeticsand herbalsachets.

The Dead Seawaterhas adensityof 1.24kg/litre, which makes swimming similar tofloating.[7][8]

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Qumran Caves - Cavesare a series of caves, some natural, some artificial, found around the archaeological site ofQumranin theJudaean Desertof theWest Bank. It is in a number of these caves that theDead Sea Scrollswere discovered.

Thelimestonecliffs above Qumran contain numerous caves that have been used over the millennia:

Dead Sea Scrolls

In early 1947, a Bedouin boy of the Ta'amireh tribe,Muhammid Ahmed el-Hamedcallededh-Dhib(the wolf), found a cave after searching for a lost animal. He stumbled onto the first cave containing scrolls from two thousand years ago. More Ta'amireh visited the cave and scrolls were taken back to their encampment. They were shown toMar Samuelof the Monastery of Saint Mark in April 1947 and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was made known. The location of the cave was not revealed for another 18 months, but eventually a joint investigation of the cave site was led byRoland de VauxandGerald Lankester Harding.

The interest in the scrolls with the hope of money from their sale initiated a long area-wide search by the Ta'amireh to find more such scrolls, the first result of which was the discovery of four caves inWadi Murabba'atabout 15 kilometers south of Qumran in 1951.[2]In the Qumran area another cave was discovered, now referred to as Cave 2Q (1Q was the first scroll bearing cave), in February 1952. However, only a few fragments were found in the cave.[3]Fear of the destruction of archaeological evidence with the discovery of caves by the Bedouin led to a campaign by the French and American Schools to explore all other caves to find any remaining scrolls. Although 230 natural caves, crevices and other possible hiding places were examined in an 8 kilometer area along the cliffs near Qumran, only 40 contained any artifacts and one alone, 3Q, produced texts, the most unusual being theCopper Scroll.[4][5]

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The Mount of Temptationis said to be the hill in theJudaean DesertwhereJesuswastemptedby the devil (Matthew 4:8). The exact location is unknown and impossible to determine. 17

Bethlehem - The Shepherds’ Field and Grotto - shepherds, amongst the most despised of the Jewish people, went to adore Jesus. Dazzled by a great light, an angel brought them the tidings of joy that the long-awaited saviour had been born. And they heard a host of angels praising God who, by sending the Messiah to the earth, had shown His greatness to the celestial court and given salvation to men.
The Sanctuary, designed by Barluzzi, stands on a rock overlooking the ruins. It has a dodecagonal shape with five apses having an inclined plane, recalling the structure of a field tent like the one used by the shepherds at that time. The light that penetrates the concrete and glass dome, illuminating the interior calls to mind the divine light that appeared to the shepherds.

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Church of the Nativity - of the Nativityis abasilicalocated inBethlehem,West Bank. The church was originally commissioned in 327 byConstantine the Greatand his motherHelenaover the site that is stilltraditionallyconsidered to be located over the cave that marks thebirthplaceofJesus of Nazareth. The Church of the Nativity site's original basilica was completed in 339 and destroyed by fire during theSamaritan Revoltsin the 6th century. A new basilica was built 565 by Justinian, theByzantine Emperor, restoring thearchitecturaltone of the original.[3]The site of the Church of the Nativity has had numerous additions since this second construction, including its prominent bell towers. Due to its cultural and geographical history, the site holds a prominent religious significance to those of both theChristianandMuslimfaiths.

The site of the Church of the Nativity is aWorld Heritage Site, and was the first to be listed underPalestineby theUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO).[4]The site is also on UNESCO'sList of World Heritage Sites in Danger

Ein Karemis an ancient village of the Jerusalem District

According toChristiantradition,John the Baptistwas born in Ein Karem, leading to the establishment of many churches and monasteries. In 2010 the neighbourhood had a population of 2,000.[3]It attracts three million visitors a year, one-third of them pilgrims from around the world.

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TheCenacle(fromLatincēnāculum"dining room also known as the"Upper Room", is a room inJerusalemtraditionally held to be the site of the Last Supper. InChristiantradition, the"Upper Room"was not only the site of the Last Supper (i.e. theCenacle), but the room in which the Holy Spirit alighted upon the eleven apostles after Easter. It is sometimes thought to be the place where theapostlesstayed inJerusalemand, according to theCatholic Encyclopedia,[1]"the first Christianchurch". of Saint Peter in Gallicantuis a Roman Catholic church located on the eastern slope ofMount Zion, just outside the Old (walled) City ofJerusalem.

The church takes its name from the Latin word "Gallicantu", meaning cock's-crow.[1]This is in commemoration of Peter's triple rejection of Jesus"... before the cock crows twice."(Mark 14:30)

of the VisitationinEin Karem,Israel, honors the visit paid bythe Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, toElizabeth, the mother ofJohn the Baptist. (Luke 1:39–56) This is the site where tradition tells us that Mary recited her song of praise, theMagnificat, one of the most ancientMarian hymns.[1] of the Cross - monastery was built in the eleventh century, during the reign of KingBagrat IVby theGeorgianGiorgi-Prokhore of Shavsheti.

Legend has it that the monastery was erected on the burial spot ofAdam's head—though two other locations in Jerusalem also claim this honor—from which grew the tree that gave its wood to thecrosson whichChristwascrucified.[2]

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The Pool of Bethesda is a pool of water in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem, on the path of the Beth Zeta Valley. The fifth chapter of the Gospel of John describes such a pool in Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. It is associated with healing. Until the 19th century, there was no evidence outside of John’s Gospel for the existence of this pool; therefore, scholars argued that the gospel was written later, probably by someone without first-hand knowledge of the city of Jerusalem, and that the "pool" had only a metaphorical, rather than historical, significance.[1]In the 19th century, archaeologists discovered the remains of a pool fitting the description in John’s Gospel.[2] 20 –Jerusalem – See The Via Dolorosa (Latin: "Way of Grief," "Way of Sorrows," "Way of Suffering" or simply "Painful Way") is a street within the Old City of Jerusalem, held to be the path that Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion. The winding route from the Antonia Fortress west to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—a distance of about 600 metres (2,000 feet)—is a celebrated place of Christian pilgrimage. The current route has been established since the 18th century, replacing various earlier versions.[1] It is today marked by nine Stations of the Cross; there have been fourteen stations since the late 15th century,[1] with the remaining five stations being inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. of St. Anneis aRoman Catholicchurch, located at the start of theVia Dolorosa, near theLions' Gateand churches of theFlagellationandCondemnation, in theMuslim Quarterof the old city ofJerusalem. The austere stone interior and extraordinary acoustics make it a fine example of medieval architecture. - of the Flagellationis aRoman CatholicchurchandChristian pilgrimagesite located in theMuslim Quarterof theOld CityofJerusalem, near theSt. Stephen's Gate.

Church of the Condemnation and Imposition of the Cross is a Roman Catholic church located within the Franciscan compound that also contains the Church of the Flagellation in the old city of Jerusalem.It marks the traditional spot where Jesus took up his cross after being sentenced to crucifixion.

However, this tradition is based on the mistaken assumption that on an area of Roman flagstones, discovered beneath the building and beneath the adjacent Convent of the Sisters of Zion, was the pavement (Greek: lithostratos) which the Bible describes as the location of Pontius Pilate's judgment of Jesus;[1] archaeological investigation now indicates that these slabs are the paving of the eastern of two 2nd century Forums, built by Hadrian as part of the construction of Aelia Capitolina.[2]

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TheWestern Wall,Wailing WallorKotelor the Place of Weeping) is an ancient limestone wall in theOld City of Jerusalem. It is a relatively small segment of a far longer ancient retaining wall, known also in its entirety as the "Western Wall". The wall was originally erected as part of the expansion of theSecond Jewish TemplebyHerod the Great, which resulted in the encasement of the natural, steep hill known to Jews and Christians as theTemple Mount, in a large rectangular structure topped by a huge flat platform, thus creating more space for the Temple itself and its auxiliary buildings.