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Early Byzantine Mosaics In The Middle East
Early Byzantine mosaics in the Middle East are a group of Christian mosaics created between the 4th and the 8th centuries in ancient Syria, Palestine, Transjordan and Egypt when the area belonged to the Byzantine Empire. The eastern provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire and its continuation, the Byzantine Empire, inherited a strong artistic tradition from pagan Late Antiquity. The tradition of making mosaics was carried on in the Umayyad era until the end of the 8th century. The great majority of these works of art were later destroyed but archeological excavations unearthed many surviving examples. The Holy Land (Palestine) Jerusalem, Judaean hill country and Shephelah Jerusalem with its many holy places probably had the highest concentration of mosaic-covered churches but very few of them survived the subsequent waves of destructions. The present remains do not do justice to the original richness of the city. The most important is the Birds Mosaic, popularly known as the "Arme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madaba Map
The Madaba Map, also known as the Madaba Mosaic Map, is part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church of Saint George in Madaba, Jordan. The mosaic map depicts an area from Lebanon in the north to the Nile Delta in the south, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Eastern Desert. It contains the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem. The map dates to the sixth century AD. History The Madaba Mosaic Map depicts Jerusalem with the New Church of the Theotokos, which was dedicated on 20 November 542. Buildings erected in Jerusalem after 570 are absent from the depiction, thus limiting the date range of its creation to the period between 542 and 570. The mosaic was made by unknown artists, probably for the Christian community of Madaba, which was the seat of a bishop at that time. In 614, Madaba was conquered by the Sasanian Empire. In the eighth century, the ruling Muslim Umayyad Caliphate had some figura ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old City (Jerusalem)
The Old City of Jerusalem (; ) is a Walls of Jerusalem, walled area in Jerusalem. In a tradition that may have begun with an 1840–41 Royal Engineers maps of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, 1840s British map of the city, the Old City is divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter (Jerusalem), Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter, and the Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem), Jewish Quarter. A fifth area, the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as Al-Aqsa or ''Haram al-Sharif'', is home to the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and was once the site of Temple in Jerusalem, the Jewish Temple. The Old City's Walls of Jerusalem, current walls and city gates were built by the Ottoman Empire from 1535 to 1542 under Suleiman the Magnificent. The Old City is home to several sites of key importance and holiness to the three major Abrahamic religions: the Temple Mount and the Western Wall for Judaism, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christianity, and the Dome o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Israeli West Bank Barrier
The West Bank barrier, West Bank wall or the West Bank separation barrier, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line (Israel), Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. Israel describes the wall as a necessary security barrier against Palestinian political violence, whereas Palestinians describe it as an element of Racial segregation#Israel, racial segregation and a representation of Israel and apartheid, Israeli apartheid, often calling it a "Wall of Apartheid". At a total length of upon completion, the route traced by the barrier is more than double the length of the Green Line, with 15% of its length running along the Green Line or inside Israel, and the remaining 85% running as much as inside the West Bank, effectively isolating about 9% of the land and approximately 25,000 Palestinians from the rest of the Palestinian territories, Palestinian territory. The barrier was built by Israel following a wave of Palestinian political violence and inci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bethany (Jerusalem)
Bethany (,Murphy-O'Connor, 2008, p152/ref> Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܥܢܝܐ ''Bēṯ ʿAnyā''), locally called in Arabic Al-Eizariya or al-Aizariya (, " laceof Lazarus"), is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate of Palestine, bordering East Jerusalem, in the West Bank. The name al-Eizariya refers to the New Testament figure Lazarus of Bethany, who according to the Gospel of John, was raised from the dead by Jesus in the town. The traditional site of the miracle, the Tomb of Lazarus, in the city is a place of pilgrimage. The town is located on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, less than from Jerusalem. With a population of 22,928 inhabitants according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it is the second largest city in the Quds Governorate of the State of Palestine, after only East Jerusalem, which has been annexed by and is completely under the control of Israel, although this annexation is unrecognized internationally. Name Al-Eizariya The na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beit Sahour
Beit Sahour or Beit Sahur (; Palestine grid 170/123) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian town east of Bethlehem, in the Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank in the State of Palestine. The city is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority. The population was of 13,281 in 2017, In the Village Statistics, 1945, 1945 statistics the population of Beit Sahour was 2,770; 370 Muslims and 2,400 Christians,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945), p24/ref> who owned 6,946 (rural) and 138 (urban) dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. 1,031 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,641 for cereals, while 100 dunams were built-up (urban) land. Jordanian annexation In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Beit Sahur Jordanian annexation of the West Bank , was annexed by Jordan along with the rest of the West Bank. In 1961, the population of Beit Sahur was 5,316. Israeli occup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church Of The Seat Of Mary (Kathisma)
The Church of the Seat of Mary (, from ), Church of the Kathisma or Old Kathisma being the name mostly used in literature, was a 5th-century Byzantine church in the Holy Land, located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, on what is today known as . It was built on the alleged resting place of Mary on the road to Bethlehem mentioned in the apocryphal Proto-Gospel of James. The church was built when Marian devotion first rose to great importance, following the First Council of Ephesus of 431. It is one of the earliest churches known to have been dedicated to the Theotokos (Mary the God-bearer) in the entire Byzantine Empire. Discovery The remains of the Church of the Seat of Mary were discovered accidentally during construction work of Highway 60 in 1992 near Mar Elias Monastery. The course of the highway was shifted to avoid damage to the site, so that the ruins are now just off the road, at the once municipal border between Jerusalem and Bethlehem before 1967. The site was excavated in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beit Jimal Monastery
Beit Jimal (or Beit Jamal; ; ), Beit el Jemâl, meaning "The house of the camel"Palmer, 1881, p286/ref> is a Catholic monastery run by Salesian priests and brothers near Beit Shemesh, Israel. The Christian tradition identifies the site with the Roman- and Byzantine-era Jewish village of Caphargamala (), and believe that a cave there is the tomb of St. Stephen or to have conserved his relics. An alternative spelling and etymology for the name is therefore ''Beit Gemal'' or ''Beit Gamal'' - the House of Rabban Gamaliel the Elder. Geography The Palestine Exploration Fund's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' in 1883 described Beit Jimal (alt. sp. ''Beit el Jemâl'') as possessing a natural spring three-quarters of a mile to the east, while to the south were caves.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, p24/ref> Natural brushwood consisting mainly of oak, buckthorn and mastic trees can be seen on the adjacent hill country lying to its south. To the east of Beit Jimal at a few hours' walking distan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ein Kerem
Ein Karem (; )Sharon, 2004, p155/ref> also Ein Kerem or Ain Karem, is a historic mountain village southwest of Jerusalem, presently a neighborhood in the outskirts of the modern city, within the Jerusalem District in Israel. It is the site of the Hadassah Medical Center. Ein Karem was an important Jewish village during the late Second Temple period, during which it became important to Christianity. Christian tradition holds that John the Baptist was born in Ein Karem, following the biblical verse in Luke saying John's family lived in a "town in the hill country of Judea". Probably because of its location between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, this location was a very comfortable one for a pilgrimage, and this led to the establishment of many churches and monasteries in the area. During the years of Ottoman and later British rule in Palestine, Ein Karem was a Palestinian Arab village. It was depopulated of its residents during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.Morris, 2004, pxx village ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monastery Of The Cross
The Monastery of the Cross (; ; ; ka, ჯვრის მონასტერი, ''jvris monast'eri'') is an Eastern Orthodox monastery near the Nayot neighborhood of Jerusalem. It is located in the Valley of the Cross, below the Israel Museum and the Knesset. Tradition Legend has it that the monastery was erected on the burial spot of Adam's head—though two other locations in Jerusalem also claim this honor—from which grew the tree that gave its wood to the cross on which Christ was crucified. History Late Roman/Byzantine period It is believed that the site was originally consecrated in the fourth century under the instruction of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, who later gave the site to king Mirian III of Kartli after the conversion of his kingdom to Christianity in AD 327.The Wellspring of Georgian Historiography: The Early Medieval Historical Chronicle The Conversion of Katli and The Life of St. Nino, Constantine B. Lerner, England: Bennett and Bloom, L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aelia Eudocia
Aelia Eudocia Augusta (; ; 460 AD), also called Saint Eudocia, was an Eastern Roman empress by marriage to Emperor Theodosius II (). Daughter of an Athenian philosopher, she was also a poet, whose works include ''Homerocentones'', or Homeric retellings of Biblical stories. After an estrangement with Theodosius, she permanently settled in Jerusalem, where she supported the local population. Early life Aelia Eudocia was born with the name Athenaïs in Athens. The 6th century chronicler John Malalas describes her as Greek. Her exact year of birth is not known, but it is often given as 400 or 401 on the assumption that she was born around the same time of Emperor Theodosius II (401 AD). She was said to be of pagan background, and according to her contemporary Socrates Scholasticus, she was baptized shortly before her marriage to Theodosius. Her father, an Athenian sophist named Leontius, taught rhetoric at the Academy of Athens, where people from all over the Mediterranean came t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church Of The Agony
The Church of All Nations (; ), also known as the Church of Gethsemane or the Basilica of the Agony (), is a Catholic church located on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, next to the Garden of Gethsemane. It enshrines a section of bedrock where Jesus is said to have prayed before his arrest. () The reasons for its construction in the 1920s were complex, with some political factors. History The current church rests on the foundations of two earlier ones, that of a 4th-century Byzantine basilica, destroyed by an earthquake in 746, and of a small 12th-century Crusader chapel abandoned in 1345. In 1920, during work on the foundations, a column was found beneath the floor of the medieval crusader chapel. Fragments of a magnificent mosaic were also found. Following this discovery, the architect immediately removed the new foundations and began excavations of the earlier church. After the remains of the Byzantine-era church were fully excavated, plans for the new church were a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Of Olives
The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet (; ; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem, east of and adjacent to Old City of Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Old City. It is named for the olive, olive groves that once covered its slopes. The southern part of the mount was the Silwan necropolis, attributed to the elite of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. The western slopes of the mount, those facing Jerusalem, have been used as a Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery, Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and holds approximately 150,000 graves, making it central in the tradition of Jewish cemetery, Jewish cemeteries. Atop the hill lies the State of Palestine, Palestinian neighbourhood of At-Tur (Mount of Olives), At-Tur, a former village that is now part of East Jerusalem. Several key events in the life of Jesus, as related in the Gospels, took place on the Mount of Olives, and in the Acts of the Apostles it is described as the place from which J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
