JERUSALEM 



3142 



JERUSALEM 



and an imposing structure was erected as the 

 dwelling place of the national deity Yahweh. 

 The area of the city was also extended. 



When upon the death of Solomon the 

 Hebrew confederacy was split into two king- 

 doms, the northern and the southern, Jerusa- 

 lem continued to be the capital of the latter, 

 which, because of the prominence of the tribe 

 of Judah, became known as Judea. The city 

 shared the varying fortunes of the southern 

 kingdom until 586 B. c., when it was captured 

 by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. About 

 half a century later when Babylonia itself fell 

 into the hands of Cyrus, the Persian king, per- 

 mission was given to the Jews to return to 

 their country, and Jerusalem, which had suf- 

 fered terribly during the siege, was rebuilt. The 

 Temple of Solomon, which had been destroyed, 

 was re-erected on the ancient site, but the 

 structure was inferior in magnificence to that 

 temple whose building formed the great 

 achievement of Solomon's reign. 



In 332 B. c. Alexander the Great conquered 

 Syria, and Jerusalem passed into the control 

 of the Greek governors of Egypt known as the 

 Ptolemies. About two centuries later Jerusa- 

 lem and all of Palestine came under the con- 



WAILING PLACE OF THE JEWS 

 See location on map, on page 3141. 



trol of the Graeco-Syrian kingdom with its 

 center at Antioch, the rulers of which were 

 known as the Seleucides. A bitter conflict 

 arose between the Greeks and the Jews which 

 threatened at one time to stamp out the 

 Hebrew religion. The sacred temple was dese- 

 crated by being made the center of the wor- 

 ship of Greek gods. Under the leadership of 

 a family known as the Maccabees the Jews 

 regained control of Jerusalem, and a new era 

 of comparative prosperity ensued which lasted 



until the year 63 B.C., when the Romans 

 under Pompey made Palestine a province of 

 Rome. At the time of Jesus Jerusalem was 

 under the authority of the Roman procurator, 

 Pontius Pilate. The Jews submitted unwill- 

 ingly to the yoke of Rome and in the course 

 of a rebellion the ancient city once more be- 

 came a mass of ruins in A. D. 70 by the orders 

 of Titus. The Emperor Hadrian began the 

 rebuilding of the city sixty years later, but 

 changed its name to Aelia Capitolina. 



With the triumph of Christianity in the 

 Roman Empire, Jerusalem again began to gain 

 its position as a city now sacred to both Jews 

 and Christians. Constantine the Great, the 

 first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire, 

 did much to restore the ancient city. It was 

 he who built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher 

 over the traditional site of the burial of Jesus. 

 Jerusalem now became a shrine venerated by 

 Christian pilgrims from all over the known 

 world, and legends grew up concerning the 

 places associated with events in the life of 

 Jesus. As the years passed other beautiful 

 buildings were erected. Saint Stephen's, north 

 of the city, was built by the Empress Eudocia, 

 and Justinian built Saint Mary's Church on 

 the old Temple hill. 



In 637 Palestine was conquered by the Mo- 

 hammedans under the Caliph Omar, and in 

 691 the Mohammedans began the building of 

 the great mosque known as the Harem esh- 

 Sherif, popularly called the Mosque of Omar. 

 It was erected on the site of the Jewish Temple 

 around an ancient stone, the sanctity of which 

 reverts to the days long prior to the occupa- 

 tion of the country by the Hebrews. This stone 

 was known as the Dome of the Rock. Under 

 Mohammedan dominion the city passed 

 through many vicissitudes, culminating in the 

 Crusades, or Holy Wars waged by the Chris- 

 tians for the possession of the sacred place. 

 The Crusades ultimately failed, and in 1517 

 Jerusalem became a part of the Turkish 

 Empire. 



Modern Jerusalem. The modern city, whose 

 population numbers about 80,000, is still sur- 

 rounded by walls built in the Middle Ages. 

 Outside of the walls, however, to the north- 

 west, a large newer city has grown up con- 

 taining Christian churches, hospitals and 

 schools, many monasteries, and a large num- 

 ber of private dwellings, erected by Jews and 

 Christians. The city within the walls is 

 sharply divided off into four quarters, Chris- 

 tian, Armenian, Jewish and Mohammedan, and 



