Theme Week East Jerusalem – The Al-Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount

6 January 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  5 minutes

Al-Aqsa Mosque © Andrew Shiva

Al-Aqsa Mosque © Andrew Shiva

Al-Aqsa Mosque (“the Farthest Mosque”) is the third holiest site in Islam and is located in East Jerusalem. The site on which the silver domed mosque sits, along with the Dome of the Rock, is referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif (“the Noble Sanctuary”), or the Temple Mount. Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey. Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the seventeenth month after the emigration, when God directed him to turn towards the Kaaba.   read more…

Taybeh in the West Bank

21 November 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Ralf Lotys/cc-by-3.0

© Ralf Lotys/cc-by-3.0

Taybeh is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, 15 kilometers northeast of East Jerusalem and 12 kilometers northeast of Ramallah in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, 850 meters above sea level. Taybeh has a population of 2,100. It is the last all-Christian community in the Palestine.   read more…

Theme Week East Jerusalem – The Dome of the Rock/Qubbat As-Sakhrah on Temple Mount

18 November 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Starbuck121/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Starbuck121/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Dome of the Rock is a shrine located on the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif in East Jerusalem. It was initially completed in 691 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik during the Second Fitna. The Dome of the Rock is now one of the oldest works of Islamic architecture. It has been called “Jerusalem’s most recognizable landmark”. Its architecture and mosaics were patterned after nearby Byzantine churches and palaces. The octagonal plan of the structure may also have been influenced by the Byzantine Chapel of St Mary built between 451 and 458 on the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.   read more…

Ramallah in the central West Bank

1 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  8 minutes

Manarah Square © Abutoum

Manarah Square © Abutoum

Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 km (6 miles) north of Jerusalem at an elevation of 875 meters above sea level, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the State of Palestine. Ramallah was historically a Christian town, but today Muslims form the majority of the population, with Christians still making up a significant minority.   read more…

Theme Week East Jerusalem

14 June 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  7 minutes

Orient House, the unofficial seat of East Jerusalem's mayor © Abutoum

Orient House, the unofficial town hall of East Jerusalem © Abutoum

East Jerusalem is the sector of Jerusalem that was occupied by Jordan in 1948 and had remained out of the Israeli-held West Jerusalem at the end of the 1948–49 Arab–Israeli War. It includes Jerusalem’s Old City and some of the holiest sites of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, such as the Temple Mount, Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as a number of adjacent neighbourhoods. Israeli and Palestinian definitions of it differ; the Palestinian official position is based on the 1949 Armistice Agreements, while the Israeli position is mainly based on the current municipality boundaries of Jerusalem, which resulted from a series of administrative enlargements decided by Israeli municipal authorities since the June 1967 Six-Day War (United Nations Security Council Resolution 478, international positions on Jerusalem, City Line, which has survived to this day due to the repeatedly annulled Jerusalem Law by the UN and is a part of the Green Line). Despite its name, East Jerusalem includes neighborhoods to the north, east and south of the Old City (UNESCO World Heritage Site), and in the wider definition of the term even on all these sides of West Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is now regarded by the international community as part of Palestine.   read more…

The German Colony in Palestine

27 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  35 minutes

German Colony Jerusalem - Templer Communal House © Shayzu/cc-by-sa-3.0

German Colony Jerusalem – Templer Communal House © Shayzu/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Templers, a religious Protestant sect formed in southern Germany in the 19th century, settled in Palestine at the urging of their leader, Christoff Hoffman, in the belief that living in the Holy Land would hasten the second coming of Christ. The Templers built a colony in keeping with strict urban planning principles and introduced local industries that brought modernity to Palestine, which had long been neglected by the Ottomans. They were the first to organize regular transportation services between Jaffa, Acre and Nazareth, which also allowed for mail delivery. In 1874 the Christian denomination of the Temple Society underwent a schism and later envoys of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia’s older Provinces successfully proselytised among the schismatics, making up about a third of the colonists. Thus the Colony became a place of partisans of two different Christian denominations and their respective congregations.   read more…

Jericho, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world

15 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  6 minutes

Quarantal Monastery - Monastery of the Temptation © Tamar Hayardeni/cc-by-3.0

Quarantal Monastery – Monastery of the Temptation © Tamar Hayardeni/cc-by-3.0

Jericho is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Governorate. In 2007, it had a population of 20,000. The city was occupied by Jordan from 1949 to 1967, and has been held under Israeli occupation since 1967; administrative control was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1994. It is believed to be one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. Jericho is located 258 metres (846 ft) below sea level in an oasis in Wadi Qelt in the Jordan Valley. The nearby spring of Ein es-Sultan produces 3.8 m3 (1,000 gallons) of water per minute, irrigating some 10 square kilometres (2,500 acres) through multiple channels and feeding into the Jordan River, 10 kilometres (6 mi) away. The constant sunshine, rich alluvial soil, and abundant water from the spring have always made Jericho an attractive place for settlement.   read more…

The Dead Sea

26 January 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  16 minutes

© Pete/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Pete/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Dead Sea, also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east, Palestine to the west and north-west, and Israel to the south-west and south. Its surface and shores are 429 metres (1,407 ft) below sea level, Earth’s lowest elevation on land. The Dead Sea is 304 m (997 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. With 34.2% salinity (in 2011), it is also one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water, though Lake Vanda in Antarctica (35%), Lake Assal (Djibouti) (34.8%), Lagoon Garabogazköl in the Caspian Sea (up to 35%) and some hypersaline ponds and lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica (such as Don Juan Pond (44%)) have reported higher salinities. It is 9.6 times as salty as the ocean. This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea is 50 kilometres (31 mi) long and 15 kilometres (9 mi) wide at its widest point. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley and its main tributary is the Jordan River. The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years. It was one of the world’s first health resorts (for Herod the Great), and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from balms for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics and herbal sachets. The Dead Sea seawater has a density of 1.240 kg/L, which makes swimming similar to floating.   read more…

Via Dolorosa and Caesarea Maritima in Palestine

26 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, UNESCO World Heritage, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  11 minutes

Via Dolorosa © magister

Via Dolorosa © magister


VIA DOLOROSA

The Via Dolorosa is a street, in two parts, within the Old City of Jerusalem, held to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, 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. It is today marked by nine Stations of the Cross; there have been fourteen stations since the late 15th century, with the remaining five stations being inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.   read more…

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