The most important sacred places on the planet. The most important sacred places on the planet (10 photos) Religious place
Russia is often called the holy land. Judging by the number of saints for representatives of different religions of places, then this is indeed the case.
1. Diveevo
Where is? Nizhny Novgorod region, Diveevsky district.
What is holiness? Diveevo is called the Fourth Lot of the Mother of God on earth. The main shrine of the Diveyevo monastery is the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov. The Holy Elder invisibly but clearly consoles, admonishes, heals, opening the hardened souls of people who come to him to Divine love, and leads to the Orthodox faith, to the Church, which is the foundation and affirmation of the Russian land.
Pilgrims come to fetch holy water from 4 springs, venerate the relics and walk along the holy ditch, which, according to legend, the Antichrist will not be able to cross
2. Optina Pustyn
Where is? Kaluga region.
What is holiness? The Holy Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage is one of the oldest monasteries in Russia, located on the banks of the Zhizdra River near the city of Kozelsk.
The origins of Optina remain unknown. It can be assumed that it was not built by princes and boyars, but by the ascetics themselves, by calling from above through repentant tears, labor and prayer.
The Optina elders had enormous influence on the minds of people of various classes. Gogol was here three times. After visiting the Optina Hermitage, Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” was born. Leo Tolstoy had a special relationship with the monastery (as, indeed, with the church in general).
3. Nilo-Stolobenskaya desert
Where is? Stolobny Island, Svetlitsa Peninsula, Lake Seliger.
What is holiness? The monastery is called the Nile Hermitage after the Monk Nile, who lived on the island for 27 years and bequeathed to build a monastery. In 1555, Neil reposed and was buried on Stolobny Island. After the death of the saint, prayer hermits began to settle on the island near his grave, and the monastery was founded by them.
Before the revolution, the Nilo-Stolobensky monastery was among the most revered in Russia; thousands of people came here every year. In 1828, Emperor Alexander I visited the monastery.
After the revolution, the monastery had a difficult fate. It managed to be a colony, a hospital, a prisoner of war camp, and a camp site. During archaeological excavations on the territory of the monastery, it was established that in the 18th century the largest workshop at that time for the production of pectoral crosses operated here.
Only in 1990, the Nilova Hermitage was again transferred to the Orthodox Church, and in 1995 the relics of St. Nil were returned here.
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4. Kizhi
Where is? Kizhi Island, Lake Onega.
What is holiness? Many people believe that Kizhi is a beautiful temple somewhere in the North. In fact, this is a whole reserve in which everyday life and unique wooden architecture are carefully preserved.
The center and main monument of the museum was the Kizhi churchyard with the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord. It was founded in 1714 and built without a single nail or foundation. The most remarkable thing is that even during the Soviet years the shrine was not touched - they even left the iconostasis with one hundred and two images.
The entire Kizhi ensemble is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. You can get to the island in summer by rocket from Petrozavodsk and in winter along an ice track from the village. Great Lip.
5. Solovetsky Monastery
Where is? White Sea.
What is holiness? Even in pagan times, the Solovetsky Islands were strewn with temples, and the ancient Sami considered this place holy. Already in the 15th century, a monastery arose here, which soon became a major spiritual and social center.
A pilgrimage to the Solovetsky Monastery has always been a great feat, which only a few dared to undertake. Thanks to this, until the beginning of the 20th century, the monks managed to preserve a special atmosphere here, which, oddly enough, did not disappear over the years of hard times. Today not only pilgrims come here, but also scientists, researchers, historians
6. Trinity-Sergius Lavra
Where is? Moscow region, Sergiev Posad.
What is holiness? This monastery is rightfully considered the spiritual center of Russia. The history of the monastery is inextricably linked with the fate of the country - here Dmitry Donskoy received a blessing for the Battle of Kulikovo, local monks along with troops defended themselves against the Polish-Lithuanian invaders for two years, here the future Tsar Peter I took the oath of boyars.
To this day, pilgrims from all over the Orthodox world come here to pray and feel the grace of this place.
7. Pskov-Pechersky Monastery
Where is? Pechory.
What is holiness? The Pskov-Pechersky Monastery is one of the oldest and most famous Russian monasteries. In 1473, the cave church of the Assumption, excavated by the Monk Jonah in a sandstone hill, was consecrated here. This year is considered the year the monastery was founded.
The hill in which the Assumption Church and the caves created by God are located is called the Holy Mountain. There are two holy springs on the territory of the monastery
The peculiarity of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery is that it has never been closed in its entire history. During the interwar period (from February 1920 to January 1945) it was located within Estonia, thanks to which it was preserved.
8. Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery
Where is? Vologda region, Kirillovsky district.
What is holiness? The Kirillo-Belozersk monastery is a city within a city, the largest monastery in Europe. The gigantic fortress has withstood enemy siege more than once - two cars can easily pass each other on its three-story walls.
The richest people of their time took tonsure here, and the sovereign's criminals were kept in the dungeons. Ivan the Terrible himself favored the monastery and invested considerable funds in it. There is a strange energy here that gives peace.
Next door are two more pearls of the North - Ferapontov and Goritsky monasteries. The first is famous for its ancient cathedrals and frescoes of Dionysius, and the second for nuns from noble families. Those who have visited the vicinity of Kirillov at least once return back.
9. Verkhoturye
Where is? Sverdlovsk region, Verkhoturye district.
What is holiness? Once upon a time there was one of the main Ural fortresses, from which several buildings remain (the local Kremlin is the smallest in the country). However, this small town became famous not for its glorious history, but for its large concentration of Orthodox churches and monasteries.
In the 19th century, Verkhoturye became a center of pilgrimage. In 1913, the third largest cathedral of the Russian Empire, the Exaltation of the Cross Cathedral, was built here. Not far from the city, in the village of Merkushino, lived the wonderworker Simeon of Verkhoturye, the patron saint of the Urals. People from all over the country come to pray at the relics of the saint - it is believed that they cure diseases.
10. Valaam
Where is? Ladoga lake.
What is holiness? Valaam is one of two “monastic republics” that existed in Russia. The time of foundation of the Orthodox monastery on the islands is unknown. At the beginning of the 16th century, the monastery already existed; in the 15th-16th centuries, about a dozen future saints lived in the monastery, including, for example, the future founder of another “monastic republic” Savvaty Solovetsky (until 1429) and Alexander Svirsky. It was at this time that monastic hermitages appeared in large numbers on the neighboring islands.
Unlike the Solovetsky archipelago, where the owner is a museum-reserve, on Valaam monastic traditions have been revived almost completely. All the monasteries operate here, the monastery also performs administrative functions on the islands, and the vast majority of visitors to Valaam are pilgrims. Throughout the entire area of the island there are monasteries, “branches” of the monastery, about ten in total. The incomparable nature of the Valaam archipelago - a kind of “quintessence” of the nature of South Karelia - contributes to the pilgrim’s desire to move away from the bustle of the world and come to himself.
11. Pustozersk
Where is? Actually nowhere. Pustozersk is a disappeared city in the lower reaches of the Pechora, in the Zapolyarny region of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. It is located 20 km from the present city of Naryan-Mar.
What is holiness? Pustozersk was the place where Archpriest Avvakum lived in exile in an earthen pit for 15 years, wrote his life and was burned. Pustozersk is still a place of Old Believer pilgrimage and is revered by them as a holy place. A chapel and a refectory were built here, and there are memorial crosses.
12. Rogozhskaya Sloboda
Where is? Moscow.
What is holiness? Rogozhskaya Sloboda is the historical spiritual center of the Russian Old Believers. In 1771, the Old Believer Rogozhskoye cemetery was founded near the Rogozhskaya outpost; a quarantine facility, a hospital and a small chapel were built here.
Then, at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries, two cathedrals were built near the cemetery - Pokrovsky and Rozhdestvensky, the St. Nicholas Chapel was rebuilt in stone, houses for clergy and a clergy, monastic cells, six almshouses and many private and merchant houses were erected next to the churches.
For two centuries, the Intercession Cathedral was the largest Orthodox church in Moscow, accommodating up to 7,000 believers at a time.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the number of Old Believers living in the vicinity of Rogozhsky reached 30,000 people
13. Great Bulgars
Where is? Republic of Tatarstan, 140 km from Kazan.
What is holiness? Bulgar, one of the greatest cities of the Middle Ages, is today an important place of worship for Muslims in Russia. In addition to the ancient ruins, what remains from Great Bulgaria is the village of Bolgari and the walls of a large mosque with a minaret from the 13th century. Across the road from the entrance to the mosque is the well-preserved Northern Mausoleum. To the east of the mosque is the Eastern Mausoleum.
The White Mosque is located near the entrance to Bolgar, at the South Gate of the Bulgarian Museum-Reserve. The architectural complex consists of the building of the mosque itself, the mufti's residence and madrasah, and the surrounding prayer area.
14. Aulia Spring
Where is?
Republic of Bashkiria, Mount Aushtau.
What is holiness? Aulia is translated from Bashkir as “saint”. This spring is believed to have healing properties. It flows for just over 30 days in late May and early June and attracts tens of thousands of people every year.
People bathe in it in the spring and drink the sacred water, which they believe can get rid of kidney stones, as well as treat respiratory and stomach diseases. In spring, the spring water is said to acquire its healing properties only after May 15th.
The ascent to Mount Aushtau consists of two stages: the first is to reach the sacred spring, the second is to climb to the top of the mountain, where there are three graves, which, according to legend, contain the remains of three Islamic missionaries from the city of Osh, killed in the 13th century by local residents. After repentance, the same local residents buried Sheikh Muhammad Ramadan al-Ush and his companions on the top of a mountain, on the slopes of which a sacred spring appeared
15. Mausoleum of Hussein-Bek
Where is? Republic of Bashkiria, 40 km from Ufa.
What is holiness? The mausoleum is located at the Akzirat cemetery. According to legend, it was built in the 14th century for Hadji Hussein Bek, the first imam on the territory of modern Bashkiria. The order to build the mausoleum was given by Tamerlane himself.
Not far from the mausoleum there are several tombstones with inscriptions in Arabic. It is believed that Tamerlane’s commanders were marked this way.
The Mausoleum of Hussein Beg is considered one of the most sacred Muslim sites in Russia. Just 10 km from this place there is another ancient mausoleum - the grave of Turukhan. According to some historians, he was a descendant of Genghis Khan. According to historians, Turukhan, like Hussein Bey, was an enlightened Muslim ruler.
16. Ziyarat Kunta-Hadji Kishieva
Where is? Chechen Republic, village of Khadzhi.
What is holiness? There are 59 holy burial places, ziyarat, in Chechnya. Ziyarat Kunta-Hadji Kishieva is the most revered of them. In the 19th century, the village of Khadzhi was the birthplace of the Sufi sheikh Kunta-Hadzhi Kishiev, a Chechen saint and missionary who preached zikr ("remembrance of Allah").
Near the place where Kishiev’s house stood, there is a holy spring, the water from which has healing properties. Those who wish can also visit the grave of Kishiev’s mother. It is located nearby on Mount Ertina, which the Chechens consider a sacred place.
17. Fortress of Qala of Quraish
Where is? Republic of Dagestan, 120 km from Makhachkala.
What is holiness? The mosque of the Qala Quraish fortress is one of the oldest mosques in Russia, it was built in the 9th century. Also on the territory of the fortress there is an ancient tomb and a museum.
The fortress is located at an altitude of 1000 meters above sea level. Because of its appearance, Qala Quraish is sometimes called Dagestan's Machu Picchu.
The Koreish, or Quraish, were considered the closest relatives and descendants of the Prophet Mohammed himself, therefore Kala-Koreish, founded by them, turned into the most important center for the spread of Islam in the region.
By the 20th century, Kala Koreish had virtually become a ghost town. Nearby residents claim that in the 1970s, two women and one man lived in Kala Koreisha. These were the last inhabitants of the ancient city of the descendants of Mohammed.
18. Tuti-bike Mausoleum
Where is? Republic of Dagestan, Derbent.
What is holiness? The Mausoleum of the Derbent Khans - the only mausoleum preserved in Derbent - was erected in 1202 AH (1787-1788) over the grave of the ruler of Derbent, Tuti-bike. In addition to her, her sons are buried in the mausoleum, as well as Hasan Khan’s wife Nur-Jahan Khanum.
The ruler of Derbent, Tuti-bike, is a very significant figure in the history of Dagestan. In 1774, during the assault on Derbent by the Kaitag Utsmi Emir-Gamza, Tuti-bike personally took part in the defense, was on the city wall, controlling the actions of the artillery. During the siege of the city, she did not interrupt the prayer and, upon its completion, going out into the courtyard of the Juma mosque, where an enemy detachment burst into, killed their leader with a blow of a dagger. The legend says that the enemies fled, amazed at the woman’s courage.
In the immediate vicinity of the mausoleum is Kyrkhlyar (“forty” in Turkic). This is the burial place of Islamic martyrs.
19. Mausoleum of Borg-Kash
Where is? The mausoleum is located on the northwestern outskirts of the modern rural settlement of Plievo, Nazran district of the Republic of Ingushetia, on the left hilly bank of the Sunzha, which is a spur of the Sunzha ridge.
What is holiness? Historians still disagree about how and why this mausoleum was built.
Borga-Kash translates as "Borgan's grave". According to one version, the mausoleum was the tomb of Burakan Beksultan, one of the main leaders of the Ingush in the fight against Timur’s troops, who invaded local lands in 1395. Burakan did not die in the war with Timur, but died ten years later, which corresponds to the time the mausoleum was built
The 600-year-old mausoleum is an important place of pilgrimage and one of the most valuable Ingush historical monuments. To this day, inscriptions in Arabic have been preserved on the mausoleum building.
20. Ivolginsky datsan
Where is? Republic of Buryatia, village of Verkhnyaya Ivolga. 30 km from Ula-Ude.
What is holiness? Ivolginsky datsan is the main datsan of Russia, the residence of Pandito Khambo Lama - the Head of the Buddhist traditional Sangha of Russia, a large Buddhist monastery complex, a historical and architectural monument.
In the Ivolginsky datsan there is the body of one of the main ascetics of Buddhism of the twentieth century, the head of the Buddhists of Siberia in 1911-1917, Khambo Lama Itigelov. In 1927, he sat in the lotus position, gathered his disciples and told them to read a prayer of good wishes for the deceased, after which, according to Buddhist beliefs, the lama went into a state of samadhi.
He was buried in a cedar cube in the same lotus position, bequeathing before his departure to dig up the sarcophagus 30 years later. In 1955, the cube was lifted. The body of Hambo Lama turned out to be incorrupt, and analyzes carried out by scientists already in 2000 showed that the protein fractions have intravital characteristics, and the concentration of bromine is 40 times higher than the norm.
Right here, in Ivolginsky Datsan, you can see a magic stone. Near it there is an inscription: “According to legend, it was this stone that Nogoon Dari Ehe (Green Tara) touched and left the imprint of her brush on it.
21. Nilovsky datsan
Where is? In the Tunka Valley, 4 km upstream of the river from the Nilova Pustyn resort, in the forest on the 10 km road on Mount Kholma-Ula.
What is holiness? According to ancient legend, the mythical god Khan Shargai Noyon, the head of the Khaats sitting on the ridges of the Sayan Mountains, landed at this place. In honor of this, a small log house for prayers was built here in 1867. Subsequently, two wooden datsans were built here.
On the territory of the Nilovsky datsan there is a tower made of a long and smooth log with a round wooden barrel on top. This design is not found anymore in any of the datsans of Buryatia. Local old-timers say that when the lamas converted the local population to Buddhism, they gathered all the shamans in this place and convinced them to accept the Buddhist faith.
All the tambourines and shamanic costumes were burned. Sacred relics and silver coins were placed in the barrel and raised up so that Buddha could see the gifts. The sand at the landing site of Khan Shargai Noyon is considered holy. It is a common belief that sand taken by a man gives him strength.
22. Mount Belukha
Where is? The highest point of the Altai Mountains. Located on the territory of the Ust-Koksinsky district.
What is holiness? Many researchers correlate the highest Altai mountain Belukha with the sacred Mount Meru. In particular, the Russian philosopher Nikolai Fedorov tried to confirm this theory. Based on a map depicting the sacred Mount Meru, dated to the 2nd century BC, Turkologist Murat Adji supplemented the popular hypothesis.
At equal distances from Meru were the four then known oceans, and Belukha was equally distant from the Indian, Pacific and Arctic Oceans.
Belukha is considered a sacred mountain among Buddhists; Old Believers came here to escape the world in search of the legendary Belovodye. According to Altai beliefs, the goddess Umai, the supreme female deity, comparable in importance to Tengri, lives on Belukha.
23. Olkhon Island
Where is? Olkhon is the largest island on Lake Baikal. Located 256 km from Irkutsk.
What is holiness? One of the main places of worship is the Shamanka rock. Women and children are prohibited from entering the cave, located in the rock. There was once a Buddhist shrine there.
Since ancient times, the mountain has been revered as a shrine by both the Barguzin Buryats and the Mogul-speaking peoples. Buryat mythology tells about the owners of the mountain, the dune baabai and Khazhar-Sagaan-noyon - heavenly lords who descended to earth.
There is also a legend that a noble khan from the golden family of Borjigins was buried on Barkhan-Uula. There is a legend about Soodoy Lama, a great yogi who chose Baraghan for his meditations.
It is believed that whoever climbs this mountain will be connected with it by mystical power, and the righteous can see the image of Buddha on its slopes. Climbing the mountain is usually accompanied by the monks of the Ivolginsky datsan; a huge prayer service was written in Sanskrit in honor of Baraghan.
On the Tepteehei plateau, at the very top of the mountain, there is an ancient and sacred stone structure called Obo, honoring the spirit of the mountain. There is also a Lamaist sacred sign here, symbolizing the eternity and infinity of the universe.
Nowadays, Buddhist prayers and rituals are held on Barkhan-Uula. Pilgrimage ascents to the top of the mountain take place annually.
But not everyone can climb the mountain. To do this, you need to obtain permission from the lama at the Kurumkan datsan. Women are prohibited from climbing Barkhan-Uula.
25. Merkit Fortress
Where is? In the south of Buryatia, in the Mukhorshibirsky district, 110 km from Ulan-Ude on the right bank of the river mouth. Push.
What is holiness? According to legend, it was here that the first battles of Genghis Khan took place with the Merkits, who once inhabited these lands. From 1177 to 1216, the Merkits fought fierce battles against Genghis Khan and Khan Jochi until they were defeated. The Merkit fortress today is not a fortress in the usual sense of the word. These are rocks on which elements of former fortifications, recesses for signal lights, a well, and observation platforms have been preserved.
In the Merkit fortress there are two so-called “humming stones”, which, according to popular belief, can heal a woman from infertility and bring good luck in love. Pilgrimages are held to the Merkit fortress; shamans and lamas come here.
in 2010, Buddhist scrolls and thangka icons were discovered here, which were hidden here by lamas during the years of persecution of religion. Since nothing could be taken from the mountain, the scrolls were examined and returned to their place.
UDC 911.531
Al.A. Grigoriev
SACRED SITES AS HERITAGE SITES
What is sacred?... That which connects many souls.
Johann W. von Goethe (1749-1832), poet,
thinker, naturalist.
Introduction.Sacred places (revered, holy places, shrines) are found throughout the planet. They are included in the category of Heritage sites, including UNESCO monuments, and at the same time occupy a special niche among them. The purpose of the article is to define the concept of “Sacred places” (and it is interpreted by the author in contrast to what is usually used in a broader sense), their classification, occurrence, informativeness as an object of Heritage, significance for peoples and states.
Approach to identifying sacred sites . Sacred places are places where we worship. And that is why they are special, rare and even unique. Shrines should not be confused with the most expressive, beautiful “corners” of the Earth. They have both common and different. The commonality is precisely seen in their uniqueness. The main thing that distinguishes them is that natural and man-made (natural-man-made) shrines are places on Earth with which one is spiritually connected. And further: people worshiped the stone not because it was a stone, but because it was sacred. These words of the outstanding modern philosopher Mircea Eliade, in my opinion, make it possible to even more clearly distinguish sacred places from other unique phenomena.
The shrines are very different, they are not similar to each other. It could be a “wild” stone - some boulder or temple on the river bank; any tree or battlefield on which the blood of ancestors was shed. What places can be classified as sacred, and why people have the worldview of such a place - this will be discussed in this section. However, first let's look at the root of the word saint.
Root Word Researchers holy, holy, holy – holy(philologists I.A. Letova, V.N. Toporov, O.M. Freidenberg) came to the conclusion that it is associated with the ancient (pagan) ideas of the Slavs about patronage from above over certain places or phenomena. Moreover, the word saint akin to the Greek word denoting things, phenomena (objects) associated with the cosmos, with supreme powers (for example, god-tree, god-terrain).
In the leading religions of the world, the light given to people by the Sun is considered as the main principle of life. After all, life itself is a confrontation between light and darkness (the latter personifies death). The sun (as the main source of light) is considered the light of Buddha, the eye of the Universe for Hindus, the all-seeing and all-knowing eye of Allah for Muslims, and a symbol of righteousness for Christians (Fig. 1).
Fig.1. Sun: Ill. to the poem “The Sun” visiting Mayakovsky. Hood. D. Burliuk. (New York. 1925).
Interestingly, only Russians currently have the root word saint(holy) practically coincides with the word light. For the Slavs and Russians, light in all its meanings, one way or another, ascends to the Sun, as its main source. The concepts holy (holy, holy) or sacred are also associated with the highest manifestation of “heavenly” forces on Earth, with the Sun.
The outstanding philosopher and religious thinker P. Florensky equated light with God as the highest principle on Earth: “ God is light, and this is not in a moralizing sense, but as a judgment of perception... of the glory of God: contemplating it, we see one, continuous indivisible light". In his opinion, light is the complete opposite of darkness: “ Light is unalloyed light, pure light, in which “there is not a single darkness.”».
Specific observations are interesting, proving the undoubted connection between holiness and the color white. So, in particular, the White Sea was most likely named this way not only and not simply for the amazing beauty of the white, milky color of its waters (and in winter the snow and ice cover). White color among the Slavic and other northern peoples has long been considered a sign of holiness and extraordinary transcendence (Fig. 2)
Fig.2. White Sea. Near the Solovetsky Islands. Hood. M. Nesterov: “Silence”. 1903
This especially applied to water bodies - rivers, lakes, regardless of the color of their waters. - Which, already by their “watery” basis, always stood out among others and were called saints more often than others. Those of them, which were also distinguished by the whiteness of the waters, stood out to the greatest extent. They were already ranked not just physically, materially, but also, to the highest degree, spiritually remarkable places.
Sacred, or holy, places differ from all others in their connection with the Light, the Sun, some higher principle for life. It is there that miraculous visions, signs, and simply miracles in everyday life (not associated with one or another religious ideas) occur. A person who believes in the exceptional peculiarity of such places and is present in them experiences an epiphany (and this is Light again).
Sacred places in the shrine system. Along with the religious interpretation of the concepts of holy, sacred and shrine, there is also another – civil. According to her, “sacred” is something most precious, cherished, and hidden. It is precisely this broad view of the concept of “sacred” that also reflects the opinion of some famous philosophers and writers. Let's try to build on their views and also take a broader look at a related concept - “shrines”.
Let's begin our comparative consideration with the ideas of A.S. Pushkin. In the poem “Two Senses,” the poet calls the ashes and fatherly tombs holy. However, it is clear that the land itself, their natural environment, are just as sacred to him. This is exactly how he treated the landscape, the natural area in the Pskov region, the lands of his ancestors. Everything there was sacred for the poet: the forest, the river, and the fields.
The philosopher P. Florensky understood shrines as “ that which is above the ordinary, natural, ordinary”. In other words, this is something extraordinary, sublime. It follows from this that one of the types of shrines - natural phenomena - are not just beautiful places (and such can be found in any region of the Earth). These may include such natural (and natural-man-made) corners of the Earth, not necessarily the most photogenic, moreover, not at all visually expressive, but necessarily elevating a person spiritually.
The writer and philosopher I.V. Goethe very accurately noticed another feature of shrines that unites people spiritually: “ What's sacred? - asks I.V. Goethe asked the question in one couplet and answered: " Something that connects many souls". Another philosopher G.V.F. Hegel agrees with him, who quotes the words of Goethe. And in fact, the Ganges or the Volga are shrines for all Hindus or Russians, they are in their souls, even those of them who have not visited on the banks of these rivers.
Another important feature of the shrines is noted by the philologist and ethnographer-traveler V.I. Dahl: “A shrine is something that is sacred to someone, something we worship, and honor inviolably.”. Sacred places are not only something sublime that exists in our consciousness, in our souls. These are also real, earthly phenomena that we worship, an object of highest veneration. From what has been said, it follows that shrines include only those corners of the Earth that have had a great influence on a person, that have illuminated him, helped (protected) or even protected him.
Writer and thinker F.M. Dostoevsky in “The Diary of a Writer” definitely connects the concept of shrine with the place of birth, with the Motherland. In his opinion, a Russian will understand a European as his own person if he understands and loves his shrines: “ First love my shrine, you are almost what I honor, then you are exactly like me” .
Of course, natural shrines are not just some attractions of nature, and man-made (natural-man-made) shrines are not just some phenomena of co-creation between the hands of man and nature. They may be places that are not at all pretentious in this regard. - That is, not the most expressive visually and not the most significant and interesting in geological, biological, architectural and other senses. For Russians they will be one, for Arabs - different, for each nation their own.
It should be noted that nature has always played an important role in the lives of people and the nation as a whole. Let us recall the thoughts of the historian V.O. Klyuchevsky about the role of the natural environment in the formation of the Russian state. He was one of the first to notice the great role in the life of our multinational people, the formation of Rus', of three natural elements - forests, steppes and rivers. This historian's view is largely modern. It helps to understand the essence of natural shrines. These are natural places in forests, steppes or on river banks that in the past provided special services to the Russian people. In some cases, they are expensive simply because nature itself helped the Russians survive, resist the enemy. This happened in the 20th century on the Volga, which served as a barrier for the Nazis.
In other cases, such special lands are sacred because they served as a place of exile or voluntary solitude, escape from worldly bustle, oppression, injustice, including Solovki and Altai (both are UNESCO heritage sites). Finally, there are places with which the fates of great citizens of a particular country or even the world are connected (in Russia, for example, Peter the Great - and without him it is difficult to imagine the surroundings of St. Petersburg).
According to our contemporary geographer and historian L.N. Gumilyov, the Russian people (ethnos) arose as a unique organic component of the landscape of the Russian Plain. - Moreover, the natural landscape had a significantly greater influence on the education of the people than social reasons. If you listen to the opinion of L.N. Gumilyov, then natural shrines will correspond to important, even key moments in the life of the people (and not only, of course, Russians) in certain places of their residence.
According to the philosopher Mircea Eliade, people of primitive society identified the sacred with power. Is it not from here and in the shrines that people still draw their strength? In any case, in Russia, the Russians, fighting for the Volga, for the sacred cities, including Leningrad, felt an extraordinary surge of strength.
Just like the broader concept of “shrine,” the concepts of natural and man-made (natural-man-made) sacred places cannot be connected and explained only by religious ideas. At the same time, religious ideas are undoubtedly very significant in the formation of the concept of shrine. And it is no coincidence, because the worship of our ancestors began precisely from the Earth, from the graves of our ancestors.
It should also be noted that the concept of “sacred” can be associated with such different concepts as Religion and Culture. Therefore, all the sacred places considered in the article can be connected both with faith, religion (including the Orthodox Church), and with history and culture. In this regard, the thoughts of the philosopher N. Berdyaev are interesting: “ There is not only the sacred tradition of the church, but also the sacred tradition of culture... Culture arose from cult. In a cult there is always a connection between the living and the dead, the present and the past... And culture received as a legacy from the cult... the veneration of gravestones and monuments, this is the maintenance of a sacred connection of times» .
The origin of sacred places and their environmental conditions. Shrines appeared in ancient times. Since pagan times, people believed in the powerful forces of nature, in supernatural, divine forces that controlled them. And therefore, the real objects of their faith, whether stones or trees, undoubtedly became one of those that people worshiped. Gradually, everything that was, in one way or another, connected with the events of “sacred” history began to be classified as shrines. However, closer to our time, shrines began to be called not necessarily objects or phenomena associated with cult, religious events, rituals.
And yet, most (if not all) of the sacred places of antiquity arose not only because of the worship of deities and spirits, but, above all, as a result of human natural needs for orientation in space and time. These skills were vitally necessary for a person - like food and water, which, by the way, he could not properly obtain without them. Without knowledge and skills in this, a person was threatened with all sorts of dangers (hunger, natural and other natural disasters, enemies).
The most ancient places of orientation by the Sun - megaliths, labyrinths, megalithic temples almost immediately became sacred, since with their help the necessary knowledge was obtained. – This is a new, geographical-ecological approach to understanding the sacralization of geographic space, based on field research (including astroarchaeological), proposed by G.N. Paranina and L.S. Marsadolov, also developed by the author. The sacralization of space in ancient times occurred primarily in places chosen for orientation. Thus, it was environmentally determined.
Everyday concerns about obtaining food by hunting, fishing, gathering, choosing a place for favorable safe living, and later for farming. - The ability to read signs of impending natural phenomena, ideas about adjacent territories, other peoples, about possible routes of movement to safer, more favorable areas - all this required perfect knowledge of location in space and time.
Natural (natural) and man-made phenomena that helped to obtain and consolidate the acquired knowledge became more than just necessary for life. They were a kind of “keys” for existence and therefore were carefully guarded and became sacred. Such knowledge became the lot of the chosen few.
It is worth noting that places or orientation centers (and in ancient times it could have been a megalith, a labyrinth, and later temples in their place) actually brought light to people - the light of knowledge obtained with the help of light from the Sun (in the process of orientation on the ground) .(Therefore the proximity of words light and holy, at least in Russian, this is not a play on words. There is a deep connection between them. An example is the Circle of Brodgar - a ring of menhirs with a diameter of 104 m, which according to legend was called the Temple of the Sun (Fig. 3). This cromlech is a Neolithic structure built in the period 2000-2500 BP. BC, included in the UNESCO List (Neolithic Monuments of the Orkney Islands).
Consciously or unconsciously, sacred places were associated with higher, incomprehensible forces, spirits, deities, “forever” fixed in the consciousness, and overgrown with all sorts of legends. Over time, other methods of orientation in space and time were invented. However, such knowledge has always been the preserve of a few. Knowledge about sacred places, divorced from their primary use, nevertheless, was preserved in the memory of the people and entered into culture. This was largely facilitated by the “inheritance” of sacred places.
Fig.2. The Circle of Brodgar is the ancient Temple of the Sun. Orkney Islands. http://wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Ring_of_Brodgar_6.
Classification of sacred places. They can be divided into two large groups: 1. natural and 2. man-made. The first group includes trees, stones, springs (springs), hills (mountains), rivers, lakes. The second group of sacred places includes places of battles and, especially, great battles, landscapes “marked” by temples, bastions (fortresses) on the banks of rivers, lakes, landscapes “marked” by churches, monasteries, simply crosses, some ancient estates or palaces and parks ensembles. For man-made shrines, both the natural environment and architectural (engineering) structures complement each other. Therefore, man-made sacred places can also be called natural-man-made, emphasizing their inextricable connection with the natural environment.
It should be noted that the line between actually natural and man-made shrines is sometimes fragile and transparent. In fact, the Volga, the great river of Russia, or the Ganges, the great river of India, are sacred in many ways because many of the most important historical, cultural and religious events in the life of the peoples living along the banks and tributaries of these rivers are associated with them, moreover, these states in general.
Sacred places can also be divided into several groups depending on their significance. Some of them are such for a small circle of people. This, for example, is some spring with healing water, which is visited by residents of one or several nearby villages. The following groups of especially revered sacred places are of local and regional significance. We are talking about phenomena that are known to the residents of a locality or (respectively) of a large region or region. Shrines of higher rank are national. These include such phenomena that are equally dear to residents of various regions of Russia or any other country. Finally, there are natural places on Earth that have non-national, global significance. These undoubtedly include the Jordan River, Lake Baikal or Mount Fuji and Mount Ararat.
Fig.3. Sacred Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania-Kenya, UNESCO site) http://phototravelguide.ru/
World-class shrines are also included in the UNESCO Heritage List (including the aforementioned Baikal and Fuji), but not always. – Sometimes obviously for political reasons. This is the world famous Mount Ararat (territory of Turkey), the sacred symbol of Armenia. Sometimes - due to the strong development of the territory, such as the river. Jordan and R. Volga, shrines (respectively) for Israel (and not only for it) and Russia. However, individual objects on the banks of both rivers are UNESCO monuments.
Sacred places are very diverse in age. Among them there are those that arose in our time, already in the twentieth century, and those that formed several thousand years ago. Undoubtedly, natural revered phenomena must be older than man-made ones. Natural-man-made shrines are a “fusion” of man-made structures (temples, fortresses, cities...) with the landscape, with the earth, which played a big role in people’s lives, sometimes at critical moments in their lives. Some of them are up to several thousand years old. However, most of the most ancient pagan sacred places have now ceased to be objects of worship.
In conclusion of this section, we emphasize what was already mentioned earlier - all sacred places are divided into religious shrines and shrines of our culture. Moreover, the latter, seemingly having nothing to do with religion, are associatively compared in the human mind with the former and are also perceived as something higher, exceptional and even divine. Let us remember how visitors from distant places who first saw the palace and park ensembles of Peterhof, Pushkin or Pavlovsk in the vicinity of St. Petersburg (UNESCO sites) sometimes call what they saw a divine creation.
Distribution and “energy” of sacred places. In every country in the world, or rather, in the territory of residence of a particular people, sacred places have their own characteristics and at the same time some common features with neighboring countries. This is explained by the natural environment and the peculiarities of the historical and cultural development of each country. Thus, everywhere various water bodies are considered sacred phenomena: rivers, springs, lakes. In a number of lowland countries, rivers have long been the main organizing links, both in natural and social terms. It was they, the main arteries of the country, that were revered as sacred places. Let's remember the Nile, Volga, Ganges (Fig. 3).
In mountainous countries, the most revered places include prominent mountains, or, rarely, entire ridges. This is not surprising, since the life of mountain peoples is largely subordinated to the mountains, which provide people with everything they need; just remember mountains such as Fuji in Japan (UNESCO site) and Kilimanjaro in Kenya on the border with Tanzania (Kilimanjaro National Park - UNESCO site), Mount Kailash in Tibet (not yet included in the UNESCO List). There is no doubt that people, first of all, consider sacred places that amazed them with their grandeur and the manifestation of powerful forces and energy.
In European countries, whose territory was exposed to either ancient glaciers advancing from the north, or, rather, the ocean (there is some debate), among the sacred phenomena there are many boulders - rounded stones brought from rocky Scandinavia. Such boulders, still revered today, can be found in Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Russia. In Russia, springs (springs) take precedence among sacred natural places. They give people the opportunity to “touch” one of the most revered foundations of life - clean water. And although the territory of Russia is by no means a desert and is replete with rivers and lakes over a large area, it is the springs that are especially revered among us.
People’s attitudes towards trees also change from country to country, which is determined by the geographical features of their distribution, the difference in natural features on the territory of different states and, of course, the national characteristics of the perception of certain trees. Thus, in forest-steppe Ukraine, oaks take precedence among the revered trees, and in the taiga landscapes of the north of European Russia, spruce and pine trees take precedence.
Fig.4. Volga is a sacred river. "Above eternal peace." Hood. I. Levitan.
The historical, cultural and religious development of the country is inseparable from the nature of its territory. Due to this, the emerging geocultural and places of worship within its borders are specific within each state, as well as the distribution of a particular ethnic group. In England, among the ancient sacred places, there are especially many mounds. For the most part, these are the sites of ancient Celtic burials and even more ancient megalithic structures. Among them, Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, Stonehenge (a UNESCO monument) and Silbury Hill in Wiltshire (part of the UNESCO Neolithic site of Avebury) stand out.
There are many “corners” in Russia, revered because the blood of its inhabitants was shed there, defending their land from alien enemies. Particularly memorable, for example, are the sites of past battles during the Second World War, called the Great Patriotic War in Russia.
In different countries of the world, individual leaders of states who played an outstanding role in the prosperity of their state and in protecting it from enemies are especially respected. In Russia this is Peter the Great, also called Peter the Great. In England it is Winston Churchill. For the Swedes this is Karl XΙΙ. In France it is Charles de Gaulle. Places associated with their lives and deeds are revered in each of these countries. In Russia, for example, there are countless oak trees under which Peter the Great allegedly rested or which he planted.
In the USA, in the rocks of the Black Mountains (Black Hills) in the state of Wyoming, at a sacred place of the Indians, huge faces of the country's presidents were carved (on Mount Rushmore). And although their role in the history of the country is very different, together they made this place iconic for Americans (this is a US National Monument). And they, as we know, are more proud than residents of many other states to be citizens of their country.
A specific feature of states in which communist ideology dominated is the proliferation of revered places associated with its leaders and with the events of communist history. In China, for example, these are places of residence or some important moments in the life and activities of the Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung. In Russia, “corners” of the earth are still revered, covered with memories of the great founder and leader of the Soviet state, V.I. Lenin. Mausoleum with the body of V.I. Lenin is part of the ensemble of the Kremlin and Red Square of Moscow (UNESCO site).
Religious shrines are widespread in all countries of the world. Their character changes depending on the religious views of the population. Among many peoples of Siberia and the North of the European part of Russia, various natural phenomena are observed among their revered places - stones, caves, rocks, to which the pagan shrines of the northern peoples of Russia are located. Tibet is a land of monasteries, the number of which and the importance among other sacred phenomena cannot be compared with any other region in the world. The ensemble of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the main religious center of the Lamaists of Tibet, is included in the UNESCO List. Among religious sacred places in India, places associated with Buddhism and Hinduism dominate, in Russia - with Orthodoxy and Islam, in France - with Catholicism.
As already mentioned, the most important property of sacred places is miracles. Science does not always provide an answer to their origin. Nevertheless, it is precisely because of the miraculous phenomena occurring at sacred places that they are sometimes considered to be the unique energy centers of the planet. Researchers of non-traditional science, primarily physicists and chemists, have recorded (by dowsing) the presence of a certain energy field in the locations of some sacred places. It was discovered on about. Valaam on Lake Ladoga (UNESCO Tentative List), as well as in Sergiev Posad near Moscow, where the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius (UNESCO site) is located. Similar anomalies have been identified in a number of sacred places in England, in particular in the area of Stonehenge (UNESCO site) (Fig. 5).
Rice. 5. The oldest megalithic observatory and at the same time the Stonenge sanctuary. England .
A number of sacred places are known to have healing effects. Some sacred stones, trees, and springs have this effect on people. It is also widely known that certain natural-man-made phenomena have an impact on the human psyche: enlightening or, conversely, depressing. These include, in particular, the pyramids in Egypt (UNESCO monument).
I will also note that in Russia a connection has been established between some revered places of various sizes - from individual churches to cities - with cracks in rocks (rock faults). Through cracks, deep groundwater can flow to the surface of the earth, including thermal (heated) water and enriched with rare chemical elements. Through them, various gases can also be released into the atmosphere.
An example of the profound influence of the bowels of the earth on the formation of a sacred place is the Delphic Oracle in Greece (the complex of temples at Delphi is a UNESCO site). As has now been established, it was indeed in the area of the Delphic Oracle that at that time, for several hundred years, an outpouring of underground gases (ethane, methane and ethylene, traces of which were found in the calcareous tuff directly below the sanctuary) occurred through rock cracks.
From the perspective of traditional sciences, there are no scientific explanations for the impact of sacred places on humans. One can only assume the direction of this influence on the psyche, on the human soul.
The evolution of natural and man-made shrines . Sacred places are an integral part of natural-historical territories and geocultural space. Each such territory has its own components, that is, those natural elements that are significant for the life of people, and specific cultural elements that correspond to the level of cultural development and development of the area. The natural-historical territory changes over time and each of its segments, historical eras, has its own element of geocultural space.
The above applies equally to natural and man-made shrines. Such places are especially sensitive to all “ideological” changes in society. Therefore, as a rule, a new religion, a new cultural-historical consciousness has always denied the old.
Chapels were installed on the roads in place of stone signs (including menhirs). Where there were pagan sanctuaries, after their destruction, Christian churches were built throughout Europe. This happened, for example, at a pagan sacred place, on the island of Konevets, on Ladoga. On the site of the unique destroyed ancient megalithic sanctuaries on the islands of the White Sea and Lake Ladoga, complexes of structures of the Solovetsky (UNESCO site) and Valaam monasteries (Valaam archipelago - on the UNESCO Tentative List) were erected (respectively).
The huge mound Glastonbury Tor in Somerset is one of the most revered Christian sites in England. According to Christian legend, the Holy Grail cup is hidden in it, from which, according to legend, Jesus Christ drank during the Last Supper. At the same time, this hill appears in Celtic myths. For them, in the pre-Christian period, it was also a sacred place.
In the former USSR, such a tradition of destroying old sacred places and inheriting them with new symbols also existed in Soviet times. In Murmansk, on one of the plateaus, on the site of an ancient pagan sanctuary and at the same time one of the centers of ancient orientation, from which some of the largest megaliths - seids - have been preserved, a huge modern megalith was built. - A reinforced concrete monument to the city’s defenders rises above Murmansk. Thus, the memory of the sacredness of the place itself is passed on “by inheritance.”
On the territory of France, cathedrals and churches mark the line of the prime (Paris) meridian along which they are built. In the Church of Saint-Sulpie in Paris, a gnomon has been preserved - in the form of a copper strip marked with divisions. It, oriented from south to north, received a ray of sunlight, the fixation of which made it possible to determine the daily and annual time. On the site of the temple in X century there was a chapel, it was erected on the site of a megalithic sanctuary and at the same time - an orientation center. A whole network of similar lines, oriented along the cardinal points and significant directions of the solstices, connecting sacred places and at the same time centers of ancient orientation (megaliths, on the site of which temples are now located), is also revealed on the Russian Plain.
Conclusion.Thus, the concept of “sacred” can be associated, firstly, with such different concepts as Religion and Culture. Secondly, all shrines are characterized by their ecological dependence, and religious ones are also characterized by the ecological conditionality of their genesis. Let us note the most important aspects of sacred places as such and their research.
People's aspirations are directed not so much to religious places as to sacred places of our Culture. Some of them are personal, known only to one or a few people (in the words of the philosopher Mircea Eliade - these are “ places of his personal Universe"), others are national. Both of them are associated in the souls of Russians with the concept of Motherland.
Shrines are peculiar energy, spiritual centers Lands, the force of influence of which on people has a natural origin (however, in many ways still not explained). They belong to the highest spiritual values of humanity. The above convinces us of the special uniqueness sacred places, which are the most important key spiritual and at the same time material centers of the planet. Many sacred sites are essential components World Heritage(Fig. 6). Various phenomena of this kind carry information about various aspects of events and phenomena in the history of the Earth and humanity. Shrines of different ages display state of geocultural (or natural-historical) space at a certain historical stage, being its memorial places.
Rice. 6. Temple on the Nerl. Russia. World Heritage Monument.
Significant for any state are all shrines - of any type and age, including prehistoric ones - petroglyphs, megaliths. - This is both the spiritual and material historical and cultural wealth of the country. Sacred places may not be in any way connected with the peoples living today, but they are the ones that have non-national and even global significance. Unfortunately, unlike, for example, Great Britain, in Russia almost no attention is paid to the megaliths of the North of its European part, the Urals, and the Far East.
Sacred places like super valuable phenomena for humanity as a whole and for the individual, they are not just milestones of its cultural development. Bearers of memory of the past, they represent a kind of guidelines in spiritual life person. The deep meaning of shrines lies in the fact that they tie peoples to a certain territory, individuals to their Small Motherland. They are important for realizing the identity of an individual, ethnic group, people, “tying” them to the land. In this regard, the experience of neighboring Mongolia is indicative for Russia. – Research, systematization and protection of sacred places in this country takes place at the state level, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science. However, in Russia their study is an integral part of the concept of teaching the basics of regional studies at St. Petersburg University. However, this is clearly not enough.
The identification and conservation of sacred sites has a clear ecological focus. – It is important for preserving the diversity of natural and cultural resources - a necessary condition for the development of society. One should agree with prof. K.M. Petrov that Culture (and thus – Heritage – Al.G.) plays a significant role in preserving society, maintaining an environment favorable for life. I will add that the role of sacred places as the “quintessence” of Heritage monuments is especially significant.
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On the territory of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher there are sixteen places of worship and chapels, most of them associated with the Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection, and other shrines:
1. Stone of Anointing - the place where Joseph prepared the body of Christ for burial.
2. Women's place from which the holy women and John watched the Crucifixion.
3. Calvary - place of the Crucifixion and location of the Cross
4. Tomb of Jesus in the center of the rotunda. The tomb of Jesus includes two separate rooms: the vestibule and the burial chamber. The modern canopy allows this plan to be preserved. The tomb, originally hewn out of rock, was then lined with marble by the architect Komninos.
5. Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea , hewn out of the rock, is located at the rear of the Canopy.
6. "Don't Touch Me" Place - the place of the appearance of Christ after His Resurrection and appearance before Mary Magdalene, where He told her: “Do not touch Me” (John 20: 17).
7. Pillar of Flagellation, A Catholic chapel, in the center of which a large part of the column is preserved, to which Christ is believed to have been tied and suffered.
Joint liturgy of Orthodox bishops in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher during the Orthodox Congress held in Jerusalem in June 2000
8. Jesus Prison and Chapel of Lamentations is located in the depths of the arcade of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where it is believed that Christ was temporarily detained and His tormentors squeezed His feet with a board with two holes.
9. Chapel of the centurion (centurion) Longinos, located on the left side of the corridor surrounding the Catholic part of the church. According to tradition, the centurion Longinos, a Roman officer who saw the Crucifixion, believed in Christ and died as a martyr.
10. Chapel of the Lot. Here, according to tradition, the soldiers after the Crucifixion, “... cast lots for My clothing” (John 19: 24).
11. Chapel of St. Helena and the grotto of the discovery of the Life-Giving Cross located in a natural rock crypt, into which 42 carved steps lead, where St. Helena discovered the Cross of Christ, nails and the crosses of two robbers.
12. Chapel of the Flagellation and Crown of Thorns. Under the holy table of the chapel, part of the column has been preserved, on which, according to tradition, they put a purple robe on Christ and placed a crown of thorns on His head (Matt. 27:27-29).
13. Adam's Chapel. Located under the elevation of Golgotha. According to ancient tradition, Christ was baptized over the grave of the skull of the first man Adam and thereby washed away original sin. The place of Christ's baptism was called the Place of the Skull, or Golgotha in Hebrew.
14.-16. Chapel of the 40 Martyrs and Brother of God Jacob , although not related to the Passion of Jesus, relates architecturally to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is located in the west of the Holy Court and was annexed to places of worship during the reign of Emperor Constantine Monomakh (11th century).
Funeral Ceremony in the prayer hall of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Greek minister of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with the key to the Temple
In addition to the sixteen chapels described above, there are many others in the Temple belonging to various Christian communities, such as the Coptic, Syrian and Armenian chapels, dedicated to the story of the Passion of Christ and other saints. In general, the Temple and the places of pilgrimage located in it belong to various Christian communities and patriarchates of Jerusalem. The years of struggle for possession of the Temple and its places of pilgrimage, which began after the departure of the Crusaders in 1187, are a dark and difficult chapter in the Christian history of the Holy Places of Palestine. Hatred, rivalry, fanaticism and frequent bloody clashes between Christian communities were exploited by the Mamelukes and later the Ottomans, turning holy places of pilgrimage into profitable bargains, selling them to the highest ransom. This situation continued until until the middle of the nineteenth century, and only after intervention of the Community of European States in 1857, the rival Christian communities came to an agreement in the famous Agreement on the regime of places of pilgrimage, also known as "status quo".
Jewish graves carved into the rock behind the sacred Canopy
Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Holy Court in front of it
According to the old Christian tradition, the first martyr Stephen was stoned outside the eastern wall of Jerusalem, near the town of Gethsemane in the Kidron Valley.
The modern monastery of St. Stephen was built by the Cypriot monk of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Archbishop Arcadius.
Place of pilgrimage to the monastery of the first martyr Stephen in the Kidron Valley
Gethsemane
Gethsemane is located in the east of Jerusalem, in the bed of the Kidron stream, also known by its biblical name Valley of Jehoshaphat . Starting in Jerusalem, it flows through the Judean Desert, goes around the Lavra of St. Sava and flows into the Dead Sea. According to Christian tradition, the Last Judgment will take place in the Kidron Brook, precisely in the Gethsemane region. This tradition has to do with the name Jehoshaphat, which comes from the Hebrew Yahweh-Shafot, meaning God judges (Joel 3:2).
Gethsemane, according to the creators of the Gospel (Matt. 26, 36. Mark 14,32. Luke 22, 39. John 18) is associated with the prayer of Christ before the cross, the betrayal of Judas and the arrest of Jesus. In other words, this is where the Passion and Way of the Cross of the God-Man began.
In the fourth century, the events of Jesus' Passion and Dying Prayer were recorded topographically and recognized as places of pilgrimage and cult centers.
The town of Gethsemane and its places of pilgrimage
On the site of Jesus' dying prayer, during the reign of Emperor Theodosius the Great (378-395), a Christian basilica was erected, the ruins of which can still be seen today inside the modern Catholic Church of All Nations (or Church of the Passion of Jesus).
The olive trees that surround the area today also existed in ancient times, hence the name Gethsemane, which means grinding olives in Hebrew.
There is a belief that many of today's olive trees are the same age as the times of Christ.
Tomb of the Virgin Mary
Gethsemane is associated not only with the dying prayer and Passion of Christ, but also with the tomb of His Mother, Theotokos.
Interior of the Church of the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Gethsemane
After the Fifth Ecumenical Synod recognized and legitimized the dogma of the divinity of the Mother of God, from the mid-5th century her tomb became a place of pilgrimage.
Facade of the Church of the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Gethsemane
The modern huge crypt covering the tomb is only the remains of a two-story church built by Emperor Marcian (450-457) and the first patriarch of Jerusalem, Juvenal.
Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Gethsemane
Pools of Siloam (Shiloah)
The Pools of Siloam, located on the western side of the Kidron Brook, on the territory of the modern Arab village of the same name, have been one of the most important reservoirs of drinking water for the inhabitants of Jerusalem since the biblical era.
Water from the Gihon spring entered the reservoirs through an underground pipeline, hewn out during the reign of King Hezekiah (Hezekiah). (2 Chronicles 32:2-4).
King Herod (37-4 BC) transformed the pool area, adding public buildings and marble colonnades. The waters of the pools of Siloam are considered healing, and Christ sent a blind man to them so that he could wash and be cured (John 9).
In 450, Empress Eudokia built a three-nave Christian basilica here, the ruins of which remain today. Although the basilica was destroyed by the Persians in 614, the pools continued to be considered a place of pilgrimage throughout subsequent centuries and to this day.
Sheep spring
The Sheep Spring is located in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem, near Lion Gate and the northern wing of the destroyed Jewish Temple. It was built during the Maccabean period (2nd century BC) in the form of a five-chamber reservoir, the waters of which were used for the needs of the Temple. The belief was that the waters of the spring were healing, due to which a large number of sick people visited it in the hope of being cured (John 5:13).
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After Hadrian founded Aelia Capitolina in 136, the site of the reservoir became an idolatrous cult center dedicated to the gods Serapius and Asclepius. The temples built in honor of these gods were interconnected by hundreds of medicinal baths.
In the Byzantine era, in the mid-fifth century, the reservoir was recognized as a place of pilgrimage, and a three-aisled basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary was built above it, since according to tradition, this was the home of Her parents, Joachim and Anna.
In the eleventh century, the Crusaders built a new church above the Byzantine basilica and dedicated it to St. Anne. This church has survived to this day.
Vethesda with the Temple of St. Anne from the Crusader era
Praetorium
The Praetorium, the official residence of the Roman procurator in Jerusalem of the era of Christ, was the Antonia fortress, located in the northwestern corner of the courtyard belonging to the architectural complex of the Jewish Temple. Here Pilate decided to execute Christ by crucifixion. In the same courtyard, Roman soldiers mocked Him, put a crown of thorns on Him and gave Him a cross - thus began the Way of the Cross of the Passion of the Lord.
Prison cells of the Roman Praetorium
Graphic restoration of the Praetorium from the era of Christ
The ruins of the Roman Praetorium are scattered in today's Jerusalem across three different Christian monasteries.
Part of the tiled floor of the praetorium courtyard, known as foxostrothus (pavement) (John 19:13), kept in the Franciscan monastery Esce Homo. Another part of the lithostratus, underground cisterns built for the needs of the Jewish Temple and a three-door apse known as “Behold the Man” ( Ekke Homo), are located in the convent of the Sisters of Zion. According to tradition, from here Pilate presented Christ to the Pharisees, who demanded His condemnation. In the third monastery - Greek Pretoria - various grottoes carved into the rock have been preserved. It is believed that one of them was used to temporarily detain Christ in Pretoria, and the other, lower one, served as a prison for the robber Barrabas.
Catholic Church of Pretoria with the apse of Se Man.
Way of the Cross
In addition to the theological significance of the Passion and Christ's dying prayer during the Crucifixion, the Way of the Cross has chronological and topographical significance. It includes the entire Passion of Jesus in Jerusalem, from His arrest to His burial. In other words, the Way of the Cross was to begin in the Garden of Gethsemane and end at Golgotha and the Tomb.
Way of the Cross on Good Friday
However, beginning in the eleventh century, Jerusalem Christians defined this path as beginning with His condemnation in Praetoria and ending with the Holy Sepulcher in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In modern Jerusalem, the route and duration of the Path, which does not exceed even a kilometer, does not necessarily have to coincide with the one taken by Christ two thousand years ago, since the layout of the city underwent fundamental changes in the second and fifth centuries. However, the general direction of the Path remained almost unchanged. The Way of the Cross (Via Dolorosa) along its length includes 14 stops that are associated with the events of the Torment and Passion of the Lord. The first two of them are in the territory of Pretoria, the next seven are in the city, and the rest are in the territory of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The 14 stops include:
1. Lysostrotos and Pilate's condemnation of Jesus
2. Receiving the Cross
3. The first fall of Jesus (according to tradition)
4. Jesus meeting his Mother (according to tradition)
5. Cross given to Simon from Cyrene (according to the Gospel testimonies: Matt. 27: 32. Mark 15: 21, Luke 23: 26)
6. Veronica wiping the sweat-covered face of Jesus (ancient Christian tradition)
7. The second fall of Jesus (medieval tradition)
8. Jesus comforting the Jerusalem virgins (Luke 23:18-27)
9. The third fall of Jesus (medieval tradition)
10. Jesus stripped for crucifixion (John 19:30)
11. Nailing of Jesus to the Cross
12. Jesus giving His Soul (John 19:40)
13. Descent from the Cross and preparation for burial (John 19:40)
14. Burial of Jesus (John 19: 41-42).
Orthodox ceremony with the participation of bishops from all over the world
Zion
The word Zion (Zion in Hebrew) is used in the Old Testament to name various areas of the Holy Land, such as: the mountains of Judea (Psalm 132.3), Mount Hermon (Deuteronomy 4:49), Jerusalem (Psalm 77:2), etc. .
In the later Jewish tradition, the same name means the Kingdom of Judah, the entire land of Israel, the people of Israel and, most importantly, Jerusalem and the spiritual connection with it of the Jewish people, where, as the prophet Micah says, "... He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths,... "(Mic. 4:2). At the same time, there was an ancient Jewish tradition identifying the name Zion with the western hill of Jerusalem. The church fathers from the first Christian years recognized this tradition and associated it with many religious figures and events. According to Christian tradition, the following events took place on Mount Zion:
The Last Supper and the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and the creation of the first Christian church(Acts 2.). In other words, the Church Fathers saw the words of the prophet Micah about the Teachings of the Lord come true on Mount Zion.
Later, in the 5th and 6th centuries, Zion was associated with other events, such as: Denial of Peter, Dormition of the Virgin Mary, Burial of Jacob, brother of God, Burial of the biblical King David etc.
Mount Zion with Christian pilgrimage sites
Patriarchal School of Zion
Chapel of the Last Supper and the Descent of the Holy Spirit.
The most important and oldest (2nd century AD) Christian place of worship in the Holy Land is the Upper Room of the Last Supper, a two-story building in which The Last Supper and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles.
In the fourth century on the top of Zion, at the site upper chambers of the Secret suppers, a large basilica was built, called the Church of St. Zion. The Basilica of Zion was destroyed by the Persians in 614, rebuilt by Patriarch Modestus and again destroyed by the Muslims in 966. After the departure of the Crusaders, the Upper Room of the Last Supper was converted by the Mamelukes into a mosque and was used for a long time as a Muslim temple.
Although today the Upper Room of the Last Supper belongs to Muslims, it is accessible to all Christians as a place of pilgrimage and prayer.
Panorama of Mount Zion and its Christian pilgrimage sites
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives (Har HaZeitim in Hebrew or Tjabal-e-Tur in Arabic) is a mountain range 730 meters above the Mediterranean Sea, located in the east of Jerusalem. She is mentioned both in the Old (Zech. 14.4) and in the New (Matt. 24. Mark 13. Luke 26. Acts 1, 4 -12) Testaments. Its three peaks: the northern one - Mt. Scopus (Har Hatzofim in Hebrew) with the Hebrew University built on it, the middle one on which the hospital is located Augusta Victoria and southern e-Tour or the peak of the Ascension, where all Christian places of pilgrimage, churches and monasteries are concentrated, are associated for Christians with two important events in the life of Christ: Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 24, Luke 21) and Ascension. In the fourth century, on the site of the Sermon on the Mount, St. Helena built a large basilica, which was called Church of Olives. The ruins of this basilica are located today inside the Catholic Church of Our Father (Pater Noster).
In 387, a large octagonal church was built on the site of the Ascension - Chapel of the Ascension, as the Byzantines called it, the luminous cross of which was visible to all of Jerusalem. The Church of the Ascension was destroyed by the Persians and rebuilt by the Crusaders according to almost the same plan.
In 1187 it was converted into a mosque by Saladdin, and the pilgrimage sites around it were distributed to Muslim families in Jerusalem. In addition to these two important pilgrimage sites, 24 other Christian institutions were built on the Mount of Olives in the 5th and 6th centuries, including churches, monasteries and hotels for pilgrims. Some of the most important pilgrimage sites located today on the northern peak of the Mount of Olives are Greek Church of the Galilean Pilgrims (Viri Galilei, place of meeting of Christ with the Apostles after the resurrection (Matt. 28:10)), Russian monastery with church St. John's Baptist, newly built Greek Church of the Ascension, pilgrimage site of the Ascension, still in Muslim possession today, Catholic churches Our Father (Pater Noster) and The Lord's Lament(Dominus Flevit), and also Russian monastery of the Penitent Magdalene, located on the west of the summit.
The majestic Orthodox temple in Lesser Galilee on the Mount of Olives
Bethagia
The pilgrimage site of Bethagia is mentioned in the Gospel as the starting point of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:12; Mark 11:12) and is located in the eastern part of the Mount of Olives. From the 2nd century BC. e. and throughout the Roman and Byzantine eras there was a small village on this site, the inhabitants of which were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding.
The town of Vithagia and its places of pilgrimage
Since the 4th century it has been consecrated as a Christian place of pilgrimage. The first church was built during the Crusader era. The modern Greek Church of Bethagia was recently built by Archbishop Gregory of Tiberias.
The pilgrimage site of Bethagia and the church built by the Archbishop of Tiberias Gregory.
Place of pilgrimage to the Basilica of the stoned First Martyr Stephen
St. Stephen, deacon of the first Christian community in Jerusalem, was the first Christian punished by stoning for his faith in Christ and Christianity (Acts 7). For this reason, he was canonized by the church and called the First Martyr. The place of his stoning and suffering (Beit Haskelah in Hebrew) was, according to Jewish tradition, in the northern part of Jerusalem, outside the city walls, near the rock of the prophet Jeremiah. The body of the stoned saint was buried by Christians, according to tradition, in his hometown of Gamla. At the beginning of the fifth century, when the tomb of the first martyr was discovered, his remains were reburied on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. A couple of years later, Bishop Juvenal, the future patriarch of Jerusalem, transferred the bones of the saint to the Garden of Gethsemane and buried them in the church built in his honor. In 460, Empress Eudoxia, the wife of Theodore II, built a large Basilica - Martyrium, on the traditional site of stoning, in which the remains of the saint were reburied for the third time. The Dominican Fathers, who discovered the ruins of this basilica, built a new basilica on them in 1881, located a few meters north of the Damascus Gate. The Orthodox place of pilgrimage to the first martyr Stephen in Gethsemane is the place where Archbishop Juvenal built a church where the remains of the Saint were buried for the second time.
Ancient Christian Basilica of St. Stephen in Jerusalem (5th century)
Places of pilgrimage: basilica dedicated to the visit of Elizabeth by the Virgin Mary; Church of St. John the Baptist
These two pilgrimage sites belong to the Catholic Church and are located in the western part of Jerusalem in the small village of Ein Karem (Grape Spring). This hill, located today within the city, was called the hill country in the era of Christ (Luke 1:39). In the fifth century, above these two places of pilgrimage, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem built two magnificent three-nave basilicas with floors of colored mosaics, one dedicated to John the Baptist and the other to the visit of Elizabeth by the Virgin Mary. Later, new Catholic churches were built on the ruins of these two basilicas.
Ein Karem also houses the Russian Orthodox monastery of St. John the Baptist and a Greek church dedicated to the same
Monastery of Simeon the Righteous (Katamony)
The Monastery of Simeon the Righteous is located on a hill called Katamon (or Katamon) (a name derived from the Greek kata-monas (to the side), since this hill was located far from the city center). Medieval Christian tradition defines the finding graves of Simeon the Righteous on Katamon Hill. His grave, carved into the rock and located in the building of the monastery church, is still shown today.
Monastery and Church of Simeon the Righteous in Katamon
According to the same tradition, Simeon the Righteous participated in the translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek (the translation known as the Septuaginta) and, knowing about the coming of the Messiah, asked God to give him the opportunity to see the Messiah before he died. His request was fulfilled, and it was he who pointed to the Virgin Mary and Child Jesus in the Temple, saying “Now You are releasing Your servant, O Master, according to Your word, in peace, for mine eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the face of all nations,...» (Luke 2:25-32). The first monastery and church in Katamon were built by the Georgian monks of the Holy Cross in the twelfth century. After their departure from Jerusalem, the monastery was abandoned and empty. In 1879, monk Abraham restored it, adding the tomb of Simeon the Righteous to the northern wing of the church.
Jewish Temple and Western Wall
The famous Jewish Temple was built on the hill of Moriah, which is located in the east of Jerusalem. The history of Mount Moriah as a Jewish cult center begins in the tenth century BC. e., when King David bought it from Ornan of Ebosia in order to build an altar-altar to Yahweh on this place (24:18-25). In 960 BC. e. King Solomon built the famous Jewish Temple on the site of the altar, which is the only cult center of Judaism. This first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. e. and a few years later, in 520 BC. e., rebuilt by Zerubbabel (Ezra 3:8-9).
King Herod (37-4 BC) rebuilt the Temple and erected a new, much more impressive one. The new Temple was built on a high and spacious fenced area. The outer walls of the Temple complex are what remains today of Herod's Temple. Wall of Tears -the most sacred place of pilgrimage for Jews all over the world is none other than the outer western wall of this complex. The Temple building in the era of Christ consisted of the Temple itself, Holy of Holies, a large altar for sacrifices, spacious covered galleries and courtyards, purification structures and many auxiliary rooms.
Wailing Wall during prayer
Underpass along the Western Wall from the era of Christ
In the eastern corner of the enclosure, Herod built a large building in the form of a basilica, which was used as Central Market and served as a meeting place for pilgrims. The angry Christ drove out the money changers and merchants from the gallery of this basilica (John 2:13). In 70 AD e. The temple was destroyed and burned by the legionnaires of the Roman Emperor Titus. Since then, the site where the Temple stood remained abandoned and was not used until the Arab conquest of Jerusalem.
Omar and Al-Aqsa mosques
Sixty years after the Arab conquest of Jerusalem, around 643 AD. e., Caliph Marouan built a famous mosque over the ruins of the fence of the Jewish Temple, which received the name Mosque of Omar. In the center of the building there is a huge rock from which, according to Muslim tradition, Mohammed ascended to heaven. This rock was actually the threshing floor of Ornan of Ebosia, which King David bought to build an altar to Yahweh.
Mosque of Omar during prayer
Christian and Jewish traditions also identify this rock with the sacrifice of Abraham and with the great Altar-Altar of the Jewish Temple.
Seventy years later, around 710 AD. BC, another caliph, Abed el-Malik, built a large mosque over the northern part of the fence of the Jewish Temple El - Aksa. It was later believed that El Aqsa was built on a Christian basilica known as Nea ("New" in Greek), built by Emperor Justinian.
Today, after the discovery of the ruins of this huge Christian basilica in the eastern part of the Jewish Quarter, this assumption has become irrelevant.
The Crusaders turned the Mosque of Omar into a church dedicated to God (Templum Domini), and the El-Aqsa Mosque was converted into the palace of the kings of Jerusalem (Templum Solomonis or Palatium).
In 1118, the Crusader palace was founded Order of the Knights Templar (templars).
In 1187, Saladdin returned these buildings to their original purpose - Muslim mosques, which, after Mecca, are the most sacred Muslim places of pilgrimage.
Interior of Al-Aqsa Mosque
The most sacred place in the world. Many people, under the influence of stereotypes of consciousness, in search of the most sacred things, begin to travel, visiting all kinds of religious places of pilgrimage, places of power, visit various temples and sacred buildings, spend invaluable time and a huge amount of material resources in the hope of finding what is originally present in themselves. Without even suspecting that everything is much closer, simpler and easier. The fashion for traveling into God has distorted the truth that the most beautiful and amazing journey a person can take is a journey within himself, to know his soul. After all, the soul is precisely the door that many people are looking for, including travelers who want to know God. The complexity is in the simplicity!
When creating man, God endowed him with everything he needed for the most important journey in life - returning Home! From time immemorial, people found God and were saved without leaving their village. They knew that God was indeed very close, closer than the carotid artery, and with great joy they recognized God within themselves. After all, initially it would not be fair if only travelers found God. What if a person does not have the opportunity to travel, so the road to God is closed to him? God has created all the conditions for spiritual development for each of us, regardless of where a person was born and lives.
— Travel agency, Stepan! I'm listening! Yes, yes, at 7.30. Okay, come on over. Yes, see you later! All the best!
- Hello!
- Hello Sasha! I beg you, please look, it refuses to work, it doesn’t want to work at all: the Internet has disappeared, the system has frozen...
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- Hello!
- Good afternoon!
- Please! What brought you to our travel agency? Where do you want to go?
— I have an unusual request.
— Our company has many tours for every taste.
— I would like to go to a place where I can find God.
- I think this is an easy task. We have many catalogs with different tours where people from all over the world go to these holy places and find God there. Look. Here's another option.
“The fact is that I have already been to these places, but I could not find God there. Maybe you have some special place where you can definitely find God?
- You know, I’ll go and consult, we have avid travelers who have visited many holy places. I think we can help you in this matter. I'll just go and ask them. Yes, I’ll go now, I think they were definitely able to find God there.
- Now everything will be all right! Forgive me, please, I witnessed your conversation, I know how to help you.
—Do you know a special place where you can find God?
- Were you there?
- Yes! I visit him constantly. You could even say that I try not to leave it.
- And where is this place where you found God?
- Everything is much simpler and closer than we think. I spent my entire life looking for God wherever I could. Wherever I have been: in holy places, in temples, in ashrams, I have been in religious sects and movements. Where have I never been? What haven't I seen? But over time I realized that places are just places, and religious organizations are just organizations. God is always with us, and He is truly much closer than the carotid artery, He is inside us. There is no need to waste precious time and money traveling in search of God. Look inside yourself. Turn to your soul. Helped me understand this issue more deeply. This is not a movie. It's much more than that. This is a live conversation “Consciousness and personality. From the obviously dead to the eternally Alive.” I recommend. Take a look and I'm sure you will really like it.
World Travel
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22.08.14 11:03
There are many beautiful holy places in Russia - millions of Orthodox pilgrims flock to them every year. This is Optina Monastery, and Diveevo, and the island of Valaam, and the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery, and the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. But today we will talk about sacred places located far beyond the borders of Russia.
The most beautiful holy places on Earth: true greatness
Aborigines, Celts, Mayans
National Park, located on the Green Continent, Uluru-Kata Tjuta, is rightfully considered one of the World Heritage Sites. And the rock of Uluru, towering above the plain, is a sanctuary of the local aborigines. They believe that the spirits of their ancestors still protect the peace of Australians. The giant sandstone monolith is decorated with drawings made many centuries ago. These are the patron deities of the tribes that lived here.
Glastonbury Hill (now more often called St. Michael's Hill) played a huge role in the life of the pagans who once inhabited Britain. It was here that the Celts believed that there was an entrance to the house of the lord of the underworld. In the 12th century, the monks announced that they had found the coffins of the crowned couple, Arthur and Guinevere, in Glastonbury. Today's occultists tend to assume that this is where Avalon is located.
“Sacred Cenote” is the name of the funnel-shaped well, the work of nature itself. The Mayans used it for their sacrifices. It was discovered during excavations of the Mexican ancient city of Chichen Itza. In the depths of this well, those whom the priests sacrificed during times of drought perished (human bones, as well as jewelry, golden bells, bowls, and knives were found at the bottom).
Enlightened One and the Sacred Mountains
The Indian town of Bodh Gaya is a Buddhist shrine. It was here, in their opinion, that enlightenment came to Buddha - before this, Prince Gautama (the secular name of Buddha) meditated for three days under the branches of the Bodhi tree. Two and a half centuries later, the ruler of the Mauryan Empire, Ashoka, arrived in these places and founded the majestic Mahabodhi Temple.
The Tibetan peak Kailash (6638 m) is considered a sacred mountain, moreover, among representatives of four religious movements at once. Thus, adherents of Hinduism think that Kailash is the heavenly abode of Shiva, and Buddhists revere the peak as the home of one of the incarnations of Buddha. No one has yet been able to reach the top of the peak (all attempts to conquer the mountain are stopped by believers).
Another mountain, the Egyptian Sinai, is an even more famous shrine. After all, it was in this place that Moses received the 10 Commandments from God (as the Bible testifies). At the foot, on the site of the burning of the thorn bush (Burning Bush), the monastery of St. Catherine was built.
Muslim shrines
The Blue Mosque, the pride of Turkish Istanbul, can accommodate more than 10 thousand believers. Built at the beginning of the 17th century, the beauty with six minarets is famous for its sky-blue tiles decorating the inside of the mosque.
An unusual city lies 100 km from the Red Sea. And if you are not a Muslim, your way there is closed. After all, this is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, the holiest corner of the Earth for all adherents of the Islamic faith, Mecca. More than 16 million people visit this place in Saudi Arabia every year (which is almost 8 times the number of residents of the city itself). The largest tent city on Earth has been set up for pilgrims near Mecca. The Al-Haram Mosque houses the main Muslim shrine, the Kaaba.
Jesus walked on this earth
For representatives of three religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity), Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is the most revered shrine. The Temple Mount, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (it is here that the Holy Fire descends before the great holiday) - all these places are worshiped by millions of people every year.
Near Moscow in the middle of the 17th century, on the initiative of Patriarch Nikon, the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery was built - in the image and likeness of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It has its own Golgotha and its own edicule. And if you don’t have the money to travel to Jerusalem yet, at least visit this holy place in Istra.
