Built by King Solomon a thousand years earlier ... No archaeological remains have been found. ibid.
The disappearance of the Ark is one of the Bible’s most compelling mysteries. ibid.
The commandment to return and to build Jerusalem ... may perhaps come forth not from the Jews themselves, but from some other kingdom friendly to them, and precede their return from captivity, and give occasion to it. Isaac Newton, Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel, 1733
And Newton believed other Biblical prophecies also identified Jerusalem as the centre of the universe. Nostradamus Effect: The Apocalypse Code, History 2009
Jerusalem the golden
With milk and honey blessed,
Beneath thy contemplation
Sink heart and voice oppressed. John Mason Neale, 1858 hymn
It hath been prophesied to me many years
I should not die but in Jerusalem,
Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land.
But bear me to that chamber; there I’ll lie:
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die. William Shakespeare, II Henry IV IV v 235
The Bible says that God set Jerusalem at the centre of the nations and placed the rest of the nations around her. Joel C Rosenberg, author Epicentre
Jerusalem is the shrine of three faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It’s a place of exquisite beauty. But also of ugly vulgarity. For some this is the centre of the world and the home of God himself. But for others Jerusalem is the best argument against religion there’s ever been. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City 1/3: Wellspring of Holiness, BBC 2011
The earliest known Canaanite structures are the foundations of two stone towers. They were only discovered in the 1990s. ibid.
The first reference to Jerusalem is in the book of Genesis. ibid.
With the Jews divided, Jerusalem became vulnerable. ibid.
Protecting the city’s vital and sacred spring: the spring on the Ophel Hill was still the city’s only source of water. ibid.
Alexander the Great swept across the near east bringing a new empire and a cultural revolution. ibid.
Now it was the Romans who decided who ruled Jerusalem. ibid.
Herod built the most majestic Jewish temple. ibid.
Jesus was arrested and brought before the Roman prefect Pontius Pilot. ibid.
At its height five hundred Jews were being crucified a day. ibid.
It also became the lost motherland, an idyll, a sacred talisman. ibid.
By the sixth century Rome had fallen and Jerusalem was now ruled by Byzantium, the capital of the eastern Roman empire. ibid.
Out of the deserts of Arabia was about to burst forth a new revelation that would change the course of human history and transform the face of Jerusalem – the new revelation was Islam. ibid.
Jerusalem the Holy City is regarded by many as the actual centre of the world. Since the Bronze Age it’s been the object of desire. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City 2/3: Invasion, Invasion, Invasion
This beguiling place has changed hands many times. ibid.
In the early 7th century a new faith arose out of the Arabian Peninsula ... This was Islam. ibid.
The Christians had even claimed for themselves many of the Jewish traditions of the Temple Mount. ibid.
610 A.D. The prophet Muhammad: he venerated this place. ibid.
The Islamic army laid siege to the Holy City. ibid.
Dominating the Temple Mount it’s the Dome of the Rock. It’s not a Mosque, but a shrine. ibid.
5Directly beneath the Dome is the Rock itself. Then as now this spot marks for so many the centre of the world. ibid.
The Jews weren’t allowed on the Temple Mount for a thousand years. ibid.
This sacred boy ruler was Al-Hakim ... He was a popular and beloved young kalif ... Hakim was going mad. ibid.
The reconstruction of the Holy Sepulchre would take decades. ibid.
And began their vicious slaughter of the Muslim faithful, whether citizens or soldiers. The battle raged for hours. Crusaders killed everyone they could find in the streets and the alleyways. ibid.
Some Muslims leapt to their deaths. ibid.
The toll was probably between ten and thirty thousand dead. ibid.
Islam resolved to win back the Holy City. And the man who would launch this new Holy War was Saladin. ibid.
Jerusalem has been conquered and occupied more than any other city. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City 3/3: Judgement Day
Each borrowed the sanctity of the ones that went before. ibid.
After the bloody trauma of the Crusades, Jerusalem had been devastated by the Tartars and laid waste by the Mongol hordes. ibid.
Jerusalem’s very survival of a city was in doubt. ibid.
The most important legacy the Baibars left Jerusalem was not a building, it was a festival ... A new religious celebration ... Baibars gave Jerusalem its own festival. ibid.
The Dome was built on a rock that had already been revered for two thousand years. ibid.
The Temple Mount was so holy the Jews continued to pray as close to it as they could get. ibid.
The Jews were tolerated as the People of the Book. ibid.
Christianity had spread across Europe. ibid.
1846 ... A fight: a continuing dispute ... The priests came armed with guns and daggers hid under their vestments. Forty were killed. ibid.
Zionism: many Jerusalem Jews had been here for centuries. ibid.
The British Mandate 1920 A.D. ibid.
The Mufti of Jerusalem was from one of the elite Arab families the Husseinites. He gave voice to a widespread Arab fear of Jewish immigration ... He launched a campaign against Jews praying at the Western Wall. ibid.
Three hundred Jewish nationalists staged an angry protest. ibid.
The tension between Arabs and Jews turned the city into a tinderbox. ibid.
They regretted their promise to the Jews ... Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain decided the British needed the backing of the Arabs: ‘If we have to offend one side or the other, let it be the Jews and not the Arabs.’ ibid.
He offered to put a cap on Jewish immigration ... It was the best offer the Palestinians would receive throughout the twentieth century. ibid.
The Mufti himself went further: he moved to Berlin where he publicly supported Hitler and Nazi policies. ibid.
‘Palestine becomes an armed camp’. ibid. Black and white newsreel
The British lost their will to rule Palestine. ibid.
Both sides committed appalling atrocities. ibid.
Jews, Christians and Muslims many of whom had lived side by side for centuries were driven apart. Jerusalem became a divided city. ibid.
The Armistice Line was not meant to be a permanent border. ibid.
June 1967: ‘that victory is a swift, smashing and total one’. ibid. American newsreel
In just six days of fighting Israel conquered the Gaza strip, the Golan Heights, the Sinai Peninsula and the West Bank of the Jordan River. ibid.
For the Jews Israel was at last in Zion. And the cosmic order had been restored. It was the end of exile. The fulfilment of Biblical prophecy. But for thousands of Palestinians it was the beginning of a long and bitter military occupation. ibid.
The psychotic condition is known as Jerusalem Syndrome. ibid.
Obsession, if not madness ... The contradiction has never been more acute. ibid.
At the very centre of global politics. ibid.
A vast concrete wall between the Israelis and Palestinians. ibid.
With all these spiritual distractions, are the scammers having a field day? Scam City s2e5: Jerusalem, National Geographic 2014
Not everything in this town is as it seems. I've heard there is a market for fake relics. ibid.
The words ‘Jerusalem has fallen’ read like news of a death in the family. Jerusalem was in the hands of the English. How heroically the last Turks fought! We did not leave Jerusalem like the sons of Israel. We left it like Turks. Falih Rifki, Turkish journalist