The Holy Land is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy Land" usually refers to a territory roughly corresponding to the modern State of Israel and the Palestinian territories. Jews, Christians, and Muslims regard it as holy.
Part of the significance of the land stems from the religious significance of Jerusalem (the holiest city to Judaism, and the location of the First and Second Temples), as well as its historical significance as the setting for most of the Bible, the historical locale of Jesus' ministry, the location of the first Qibla and the site of the Isra and Mi'raj event in Islam.
The holiness of the land as a destination of contributed to launching the Crusades, as European Christians sought to win back the Holy Land from Muslims, who had conquered it from the Christian Eastern Roman Empire in 630 AD. In the 19th century, the Holy Land became the subject of diplomatic wrangling as the holy places played a role in the Eastern Question which led to the Crimean War in the 1850s.
Many sites in the Holy Land have long been destinations for adherents of the Abrahamic religions, including Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Baháʼís. Pilgrims visit the Holy Land to touch and see physical manifestations of their faith, to confirm their beliefs in the holy context with collective excitation, and to connect personally to the Holy Land.
Researchers consider that the concept of a land made holy by being the "earthly dwelling of the God of Israel" was present in Judaism at the latest by the time of Zechariah (6th century BCE).
Jews commonly refer to the Land of Israel as "The Holy Land" (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ הַקוֹדֵשׁ ). However, the Tanakh explicitly refers to it as "holy land" in only one passage, . The term "holy land" is further used twice in the deuterocanonical books (, ).
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The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Christian Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these military expeditions are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to conquer Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Muslim rule. Beginning with the First Crusade, which resulted in the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, dozens of military campaigns were organised, providing a focal point of European history for centuries.
A pilgrim (from the Latin peregrinus) is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on . Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system. In the spiritual literature of Christianity, the concept of pilgrim and pilgrimage may refer to the experience of life in the world (considered as a period of exile) or to the inner path of the spiritual aspirant from a state of wretchedness to a state of beatitude.
Al-Aqsa Mosque, properly Jāmiʿ al-Aqṣā (), also known as the Qibli Mosque or Qibli Chapel (), is a congregational mosque or prayer hall in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem. In some sources the building is also named al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, but this name primarily applies to the whole compound in which the building sits, which is itself also known as "Al-Aqsa Mosque". The wider compound is known as Al-Aqsa or the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known honorifically as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, lit.
The histories of the monastery of Santa Maria della Carità and of the Scuola Grande della Carità are interwoven with the urban physiognomy of the extreme offshoot of the sestiere of Dorsoduro, the very tip of which overlooks St. Mark’s basin, the island of ...
After centuries of popularity, late 19th century educational travel began to change and lose something of the 18th century aristocratic Grand Tour. The South remained the focus of interest, the cradle of that culture from which Europe’s own had grown. Swed ...