| The Holy Land | |
|---|---|
| Native names | |
.jpg) Map of the Holy Land (Terra Sancta), Pietro Vesconte, 1321. Described by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld as "the first non-Ptolemaic map of a definite country".[1] | |
| Type | Holy place |
| Location | Region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea |
| Original use |
|
| Current use | Major pilgrimage destination for the Abrahamic religions |
The Holy Land[a] 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. Today, the term "Holy Land" usually refers to a territory roughly corresponding to the modern states of Israel and Palestine. Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Baháʼís regard it as holy.[3]
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 before Kaaba in Mecca and the site of the Isra and Mi'raj event in Islam, and the site of the most revered pilgrimage sites in the Baháʼí Faith.
The holiness of the land as a destination of Christian pilgrimage 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 AD 630. 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 pilgrimage 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,[4] and to connect personally to the Holy Land.[5]
- ^ Nordenskiöld, Adolf Erik (1889). Facsimile-atlas to the Early History of Cartography: With Reproductions of the Most Important Maps Printed in the XV and XVI Centuries. Kraus. pp. 51, 64.
- ^ "Bahá'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee".
- ^ "Palestine | History, People, & Religion | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
- ^ Harris, David (2005). "Functionalism". Key Concepts in Leisure Studies. Sage Key Concepts series (reprint ed.). London: Sage. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-7619-7057-6. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
Tourism frequently deploys metaphors such [as] pilgrimage [...] Religious ceremonies reinforce social bonds between believers in the form of rituals, and in their ecstatic early forms, they produced a worship of the social, using social processes ('collective excitation').
- ^ Metti, Michael Sebastian (1 June 2011). "Jerusalem - the most powerful brand in history" (PDF). Stockholm University School of Business. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 January 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
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