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Final
Home of Shrine of Mary, Mother of Christ
Situated
upon the side of Bulbul Mountain and 9 kilometers from the ancient
Greek city of Ephesus, the small shrine of Mary is a place of
pilgrimage for both Christians and Muslims. Catholic tradition
associates Mary with Ephesus because at the time of his death,
Jesus put Mary in the care of John (John 19: 26-27) who then
spent many years spreading Christianity in this region. In 1841,
a German mystic named Anna Katerina Emmerich published a book
recounting her visions of Mary living near Ephesus.
Following
the book's publication, ruins of a house were discovered at
the present site and declared to be the house where Mary had
lived the final years of her life. Known as the Panaya Kapula
('Doorway to the Virgin'), the site has been a much venerated
pilgrimage destination since the late 1880's. Archaeological
excavation has revealed that in the 4th century AD a stone building
combining house and grave had been built. Originally a two-story
house, it consisted of an anteroom (where today candles are
placed by pilgrims), a bedroom and praying room (a church area
now) and a room with fireplace (now a chapel for Muslims). A
front kitchen room had fallen into ruins and was restored in
the 1940's. At the present time only the central part and a
room on the right of the altar are open to visitors. At the
exit of the building is the Well of Mary, where flows a salty
water with curative properties. Each year on August 15, Muslims
and Christians gather at the shrine to commemorate the Assumption
of Mary.
Nearby
Ephesus is an odd shrine known as the Grotto of the Seven
Sleepers. Said to be a cave where seven Christian youths
were kept during the time of Roman persecutions, it is now a
popular holy site with Greek Orthodox pilgrims.
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Adam's
Peak, Sri Lanka
Photograph courtesy of SacredSites.com
Jutting
sharply skyward from the lush jungles of southwestern Sri Lanka
is the 7362 foot (2243 meter) peak of Sri Pada, the 'Holy Footprint'.
Also called Adam's Peak, the mountain has the unique distinction
of being sacred to the followers of four of the world's major
religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Long
before the development of these religions, however, the mountain
was worshipped by the aboriginal inhabitants of Sri Lanka, the
Veddas. Their name for the peak was Samanala Kanda; Saman being
one of the four guardian deities of the island. For Hindus,
the name of the mountain is Sivan Adi Padham, because it was
the world-creative dance of the god Shiva that left the giant
footprint (5 feet 7 inches by 2 feet 6 inches). According to
Buddhist traditions from as early as 300 BC, the real print
is actually beneath this larger marking. Imprinted on a huge
sapphire, it was left by the Buddha during the third and final
of his legendary visits to Sri Lanka. When Portuguese Christians
came to the island in the 16th century they claimed the impression
to be the footprint of St. Thomas who, according to legend,
first brought Christianity to Sri Lanka. And finally, the Arabs
record it as being the solitary footprint of Adam where he stood
for a thousand years of penance on one foot. An Arab tradition
tells that when Adam was expelled from heaven, God put him on
the peak to make the shock less terrible - Ceylon being that
place on earth closest to and most like heaven.
The
mountain is more easily seen from the sea than from land, and
also more impressive. Early Arab seafarers fascinated with the
pyramidal peak wrote of it as "the highest mountain in
the world" (it is not even the highest in Sri Lanka), and
"visible from three days sail". The ancient Sinhalese
also believed it to be of great height and a native legend tells
"from Seyllan to Paradise is forty miles, and the sound
of the fountains of Paradise is heard here". Visited by
many early world travelers, among them the Arab Ibn Batuta (1304-1368)
and the Venetian Marco Polo (1254-1324), Adam's Peak attained
a legendary status as a mystic pilgrimage destination. Today
the pilgrimage season commences in December and continues until
the beginning of the monsoon rains in April (from May to October
the mountain is obscurred by clouds). Certain parts of the path
leading up the mountain are extremely steep and the climbing
chains secured in these sections are said to have been placed
by Alexander the Great (365-323 BC), though there is no evidence
that he made it this far south on his Asia travels. Atop the
peak is an oblong platform (74 x 24 feet) where stands a small
Buddhist temple and the shrine of Saman with the strange footprint.
Votive offerings are made here, especially of a coil of silver
as long as the donor is tall, for recovery from sickness; and
rain-water taken from the footprint is known to have a wonderful
healing power. Adam's Peak is also called Samanalakande or the
'butterfly mountain' because of the myriads of small butterflies
that fly from all over the island to die upon the sacred mountain.
Holy Footprint on Adam's Peak, Sri Lanka
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The
Great Masjid of Djenné, MALI
Photograph courtesy of SacredSites.com
Djenné,
the oldest known city in sub-Saharan Africa is situated on the
floodlands of the Niger and Bani rivers, 354 kilometers (220
miles) southwest of Timbuktu. Founded by merchants around 800
AD (near the site of an older city dating from 250BC), Djenné
flourished as a meeting place for traders from the deserts of
Sudan and the tropical forests of Guinea. Captured by the Songhai
emperor Sonni 'Ali in 1468, it developed into Mali's most important
trading center during the 16th century. The city thrived because
of its direct connection by river with Timbuktu and from its
situation at the head of trade routes leading to gold and salt
mines. Between 1591 and 1780, Djenné was controlled by
Moroccan kings and during these years its markets further expanded,
featuring products from throughout the vast regions of North
and Central Africa. In 1861 the city was conquered by the Tukulor
emperor al-Hajj 'Umar and was then occupied by the French in
1893. Thereafter, its commercial functions were taken over by
the town of Mopti, which is situated at the confluence of the
Niger and Bani rivers, 90 kilometers to the northeast. Djenné
is now an agricultural trade center, of diminished importance,
with several beautiful examples of Muslim architecture, including
its Great Mosque.
Photograph courtesy of SacredSites.com
The
Great Mosque is built on a raised plinth platform of rectangular
sun-dried mud bricks that are held together by mud mortar and
plastered over with mud. The walls vary in thickness between
sixteen and twenty-four inches, depending upon their height.
These massive walls are necessary in order to bear the weight
of the tall structure and also provide insulation from the sun's
heat. During the day, the walls gradually warm up from the outside;
at night, they cool down again. This helps the interior of the
mosque to stay cool all day long. The Great Mosque also has
roof vents with ceramic caps. These caps, made by the town's
women, can be removed at night to ventilate the interior spaces.
Djenné's masons have integrated palm wood scaffolding
into the building's construction, not as beams, but as supports
for the workers who apply plaster during the annual spring festival
to restore the mosque. In addition, the palm beams minimize
the stress that comes from the extreme temperature and humidity
changes that take place during the year. The facade of the mosque
has the same structure and building materials as a traditional
house in Djenné and includes three massive towers, each
topped with a spire capped by an ostrich egg (these ostrich
eggs symbolize fertility and purity).
Although
the Great Mosque incorporates architectural elements found in
mosques throughout the Islamic world, it reflects the aesthetics
and materials used for centuries by the people of Djenné.
Its use of local materials, such as mud and palm wood, its incorporation
of traditional architectural styles, and its adaptation to the
hot climate of West Africa are expressions of its elegant connection
to the local environment. Such earthen architecture, which is
found throughout Mali, can last for centuries if regularly maintained.
The
repair or maintenance of the Great Mosque is carried out by
the senior masons, who also coordinate the annual spring replastering.
Many of the citizens of Djenné work to prepare banco
(mud mixed with rice husks) for the event. It may be compared
to a community fair "with much festivity and laughter,"
as described by a visitor in 1987:
"Every
spring Djenné's mosque is replastered. This is a festival
at once awesome, messy, meticulous, and fun. For weeks beforehand
mud is cured. Low vats of the sticky mixture are periodically
churned by barefoot boys. The night before the plastering, moonlit
streets echo with chants, switch-pitch drums, and lilting flutes.
A high whistle blows three short beats. On the fourth, perfectly
cued, a hundred voices roar, and the throng sets off on a massive
mud-fetch. By dawn the actual replastering has been underway
for some time. Crowds of young women, heads erect under the
burden of buckets brimming with water, approach the mosque.
Other teams, bringing mud, charge shouting through the huge
main square and swarm across the mosque's terrace. Mixing work
and play, young boys dash everywhere, some caked with mud from
head to toe."
In
1988, the old Town of Djenné and its Great Mosque were
named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Mosque
of Jam Karan, Qum, Iran
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
Six
kilometers east of Qum stands the extraordinarily beautiful
mosque of Jam Karan. In 986 AD, a devout Muslim by the
name of Hassan ibn Muthlih had a mystical experience in which
the Imam al-Mahdi (the Imam of the Ages, and son of the 11th
Imam, al-Hasan al-Askari) and the prophet Khizr (the 'Green
Sage') appeared to him and directed him to organize the building
of a mosque on the holy ground of Jam Karan. The mosque was
built by Sheikh Afif Saleh Hassan ibn Mosleh Jamkarani in 1006
and has since that time attracted vast numbers of pilgrims.
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Nabataean
temple of Al-Deir, ruins of Petra, Jordan
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
Situated
in present-day Jordan and hidden amidst nearly impenetrable
mountains to the east of the valley connecting the Gulf of Aqaba
and the Dead Sea, stands the ancient city of Petra. One of the
world’s most visually stunning archaeological sites, Petra
(meaning ‘the rock’ in Greek) is an abandoned necropolis
of temples and tombs cut into towering cliffs of red, pink and
orange sandstone.
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
Primarily
known as a commercial and ceremonial center of the Nabataean
culture during the centuries before and after the time of Christ,
the region of Petra was inhabited in far greater antiquity.
Archaeological excavations have revealed a rock shelter of the
Upper Paleolithic period, dating to around 10,000 BC, and a
Neolithic village from the 7th millennium BC. While evidence
of habitation during the Chalcolithic and Bronze ages has not
yet been found, the region of Petra was again occupied in the
early Iron Age, around 1200 BC, by the Edomite culture of the
Old Testament (Edom, meaning red, is the Biblical name for this
region of the Middle East).
Detail of
El Deir, Nabataean temple
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
During
the 6th –4th centuries BC, the Nabataeans, a nomadic tribe
from the northwestern part of Arabia, entered and gradually
took over the lands controlled by the Edomites. The first historical
mention of the Nabataeans is in a list of the enemies of the
King of Assyria in 647 BC, during which time Petra was still
occupied by the Edomites. There are several reasons, religious
and economic, suggested for the Nabataeans selection of Petra
as their capital. The city of Petra is situated at the beginning
of Wadi Musa, meaning the Valley of Moses, and this site had
long been venerated as one of the traditional sites where Moses
struck the ground and the water gushed forth. The region was
also revered by the Nabataeans as the sacred precinct of their
god Dushara.
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
Petra’s
prominence also derives from its proximity to ancient caravan
routes, its easily defended location, stable water resources
and proximity to rich agricultural and grazing lands. The Nabataean
capital was strategically situated only twenty kilometers from
the crossroads of two vital trade routes; one linking the Persian
Gulf (and thereby the silks and spices of India and China) with
the Mediterranean Sea (and the empires of the Greeks and Romans),
the other connecting Syria with the Red Sea. In their early
years, the Nabataeans probably only plundered these caravans
but as they grew more powerful they seem to have levied tolls
as a guarantee of safe conduct.
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
By the third and second centuries BC, the city of Petra had
developed into a rich and powerful center of the caravan trade.
During the next four hundred years, their dominion spread as
far north as Damascus and their capital city was beautified
with splendid temples, tombs and many hundreds of freestanding
residential and commercial buildings (the less substantial houses
and stores have long since crumbled to sand).
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
The
earliest tombs and temples, dating from 300 BC, show Egyptian
and Assyrian characteristics, and with the Greek and later Roman
influences the Nabataeans developed their own distinctive architectural
style. All these structures were laboriously cut into the soft
sandstone rock that would have long ago crumbled if not for
the fact that this region of Jordan receives very little rain.
Detail of El Deir, Nabataean temple
Photograph courtesy of SacredSites.com
Studying
the Middle East with the funding of an English explorers society,
a young Swiss adventurer, Johann Burckhardt, was slowly making
his way from Damascus to Cairo by a little known and dangerous
land route. Fluent in Arabic and posing as a Muslim traveler,
he heard tales from desert Bedouins of the extraordinary ruins
of an ancient city hidden in the remote Sharra Mountains.
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
No European had seen the fabled city, or lived to tell about
it, and Burckhardt recognized that he would have to resort to
deceit to gain entrance. A plan developed in his mind. He would
hire local Bedouins as guides, telling them that he intended
to sacrifice a goat at the shrine of Aaron (the brother of Moses),
whose tomb he believed was in the vicinity of the ruined city.
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
At
the village of Elji (now called Wadi Musa), Burckhardt persuaded
two Bedouin to escort him along the Valley of Moses and toward
the shrine of Aaron. There is only one reasonably safe path
leading to the shrine from Wadi Musa and, luckily for Burckhardt,
it passed directly through the ruins of Petra. Winding his way
along an extremely narrow gorge the explorer came unexpectedly
upon the great rock temple of Khasneh. More than 30 meters high
and carved entirely out of the face of the sheer cliff, the
Khasneh has become the symbol of Petra and was immortalized
in the Hollywood movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
The Bedouin leading Burckhardt to the tomb of Aaron became increasingly
suspicious of his intentions with the result that he neither
reached the tomb nor was able to view the major shrine of the
Nabataeans, known as Al Deir (he did, however, perform his mock
sacrifice at the foot of Jebel Haroun).
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
Located
in a remote gorge, northwest of the center of Petra, Al Deir
is the largest and most visually stunning of all the structures
in Petra. Carved entirely out of the red sandstone of a mountain
wall, the temple is 50 meters wide by 45 meters tall and has
an 8-meter tall entrance door. Inside the single empty chamber
(12.5 by 10 meters), the walls are plain and unadorned except
for a niche in the back wall with a block of stone representing
the deity Dushara. The chief deities of the Nabataeans were
Dushara, Al-Uzza and Allat.
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
The name Dushara means ‘He of the Shara’, referring
to the Sharra Mountains on the northern border of Petra. Like
the Hebrew god, Jehovah, Dushara was symbolized by an obelisk
or standing block of stone (and this indicates influences from
archaic Sumerian, Egyptian and megalithic cultures) and his
symbolic animal was the bull. The goddess Al-Uzza was symbolized
by a lion and was the ‘peoples’ deity, where as Dushara
was the god of the nobility and the official cult. The goddess
Allat was associated with natural springs, of which there are
several in the otherwise extremely arid lands of the Sharra
Mountains.
Detail of El Deir, Nabataean temple
Photograph courtesy of SacredSites.com
An
elaborate processional way leads to Al Deir from the center
of Petra and the enormous flat courtyard in front of the temple,
capable of accommodating thousands of people, suggests that
the temple was the site of large-scale ceremonies. There are
traces of a stone ring in the courtyard but no other indications
of the type of worship that was practiced by the Nabataeans.
While the exact age of the temple is unknown, on stylistic grounds
scholars date it to the mid-1st century AD. The Al Deir is sometimes
called ‘The Monastery’ because of a belief that it
served as a church during Byzantine times. A few small crosses
carved on the interior walls show that the Christians used the
temple for some purpose.
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
According
to certain traditions it was in the region of Petra that Miriam,
the sister of Moses, died and was buried. Her mountaintop shrine
was still shown to pilgrims at the time of St. Jerome in the
4th century AD but its location has not been identified since.
Some scholars have suggested that the temple of Al Deir may
be the site of her grave but this was certainly not the original
or the primary use of the temple.
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
The
splendid ruins of Petra, which were listed as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in 1985, have for some years been faced with a
worrying threat; salt blown in from the Dead Sea is encrusting
the relatively delicate sandstone and slowly weakening the buildings.
Photograph
courtesy of SacredSites.com
Other
important sacred places in Petra include Al-Madbah, The High
Place of Sacrifice, on the summit of Jabal Madbah; a cult site
devoted to the spirit of water on the mountain of Umm al-Biyara;
the mountain of el-Barra where stands Aaron’s tomb; and,
at the entrance of Petra, three massive Jinn (spirit) stones
sacred to the local tribes. Fifty miles north of Petra, on the
peak of Jebel Tannur, stands the important Nabataean shrine
of Khirbet Tannur.
Credits
For this Section goes to
Photograph
: SacredSites.com
Articles
: Mr. Martin Gray, SacredSites.com
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