The Cradle of Religions

Jerusalem A trip to Jerusalem is not only a journey in space, but also in time; you immerse yourself in an atmosphere that takes you back centuries, were it not for the metal detectors placed at every entrance to the Jewish part of the city. Here, in any case, you breathe a different air, and you change world just by changing neighbourhood.

Situated on a hill, far from the sea and without rivers crossing it, Jerusalem has not been, and is not, contested for its strategic importance but for its religious value and character. History willed that this city should become holy for the three monotheistic world religions: the Promised Land for the Jews, the stage of Jesus' redeeming mission, and the resting place of Muhammad's mystical journey towards Allah. The Hebrew Bible refers explicitly to Jerusalem (by name) about 700 times and by the name of Zion (which properly indicates the Temple Mount and, subsequently, is used to indicate Jerusalem as the capital city and thus probably the Holy Land as a whole) 150 times.

In the Jewish religion, unlike in Christianity and Islam, the holiness of a place is not measured on the basis of the events that may have occurred there or the person who may be buried there, but by the place itself. This explains how the sites sacred to Jews have no relics. Christians, on the other hand, tend to demonstrate the authenticity of the sacred character of a place on the basis of the criterion of the memory of the exact location of the site where acts of Jesus or other saints were performed. For this reason Christians consider all the Gospel places to be Holy Places.