Jerusalem as a sacred space 1/6/11

Jerusalem is the center and a sacred space for three main religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. There are four quarters in Jerusalem. The northwest quarter is Christian, the northeast quarter is Islam, the southeast quarter is Jewish and the southwest quarter is Armenian.

 Jerusalem is a great city due to its location and geography. Jerusalem does not have trade routes inside, but there are trade routes surrounding Jerusalem. One main route is the Via Maris, which goes from Egypt to Mesopotamia. Another route is called the king’s highway, which goes from the red sea to Mesopotamia. In addition, Jerusalem is on an earthquake fault, between Africa and Asia, which caused the Dead Sea. Also, Jerusalem connects three continents, Africa, India and Europe.

Jerusalem has been having problems with their water sources for many years. Although they have water problems, there is a main spring located there, the Gihon Spring. King Hezekiah built a tunnel, which was used to bring water up from the spring, into the siloam pool. Another feature of Jerusalem is the western wall, which is on the west side of the temple mount. The western wall is the closest the Jews can get to the temple mount, which makes the wall an important and holy place to the Jewish people. These features makes Jerusalem a sacred space. 

 

It was interesting to see how a space is considered sacred. It was interesting to me to see that a sacred space has an opening on the top that brings god down into this world from heaven and connects heaven, hell and earth together.