Israel was home to several sacred sites important to
Jews and Christians. Jerusalem has been the holy city of the
Jews since about 1000 b.c.e. and has been a destination for
religious pilgrimages since that time. Th e Temple Mount
was the site of the Jewish temple, the center of organized
worship, and the holiest place in Judaism. Two temples
succeeded each other there in ancient times. Th e fi rst one,
Solomon’s Temple, was built in the 10th century b.c.e. and
was destroyed by the Babylonians around 587 b.c.e. Th e
second temple was built in 515 b.c.e. and was destroyed by
the Romans in 70 c.e. Th e Western Wall, or Wailing Wall,
is the retaining wall that supports the western side of the
Temple Mount. It was built along with the second temple
and survived when the Romans destroyed the temple. Ac-
cording to Jewish tradition, the emperor Titus (r. 79–81 c.e.)
left it standing to remind the Jews that Rome had conquered
them, but the Jews regarded it as a sign of God’s promise
that they were his chosen people. Th e wall has been a popu-
lar site for prayer since ancient times.
Th e tomb of the biblical Jewish woman Rachel (wife of
Jacob) was traditionally believed to be on the outskirts of
Bethlehem. Th e town of Bethlehem also contained a grotto
where the Roman Church father Jerome (ca. 347–419 or 420
c.e.) translated the Bible into Latin—a translation known
as the Vulgate—around 400 c.e. Bethlehem’s Church of the
Nativity was built by the emperor Constantine the Great (r.
306–337 c.e.) in 330 c.e. over a holy cave where Jesus was be-
lieved to have been born. Constantine also built the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre over the spot in Jerusalem where Jesus
was said to have been crucifi ed.
Ancient Persian worshippers of Zarathustra, or Zoro-
aster, centered their worship on fi res. Each home had its own
sacred fi re at which family members worshipped daily. In the
fourth century b.c.e. Persians began building fi re temples that
became centers of community worship. Cities and towns had
their own temples; famous temples were located in the cities
of Shiz, Baku, and Kabulistan. Zoroastrians disposed of dead
bodies by leaving them on mountaintops inside stone-walled
enclosures called towers of silence, where the bodies were
eaten by vultures and dried by the sun. Th is was considered
the cleanest way of dealing with the dead because it prevented
decaying fl esh from polluting the ground.
Many sacred sites were located in Asia Minor. Mount
Ararat, in the mountains of Armenia, was a sacred site for
millennia. Th e Asklepion in Pergamum was a hospital built
in honor of the god of health, Asklepios; it was famed for a
sleeping cure in which the god was supposed to visit patients
in their dreams. Th e Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was one
of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Christian sites
included the Cave of the Seven Sleepers in Ephesus, a cave
in which seven Christian boys pursued by persecuting Ro-
mans hid themselves; the soldiers walled them up inside, and
they were said to have fa llen asleep until the fi ft h century c.e.,
when they were released by an earthquake and learned that
Christianity was now prevalent.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
For many in the ancient Asia and Pacifi c region, unusual or
impressive geological features carried spiritual power. For ex-
ample, in ancient Japan a mountain would have kami, a spiri-
tual power, just because it was massive. Mount Fuji, which
stands tall over eastern Honshū, was especially sacred not
only for its size but also for its individuality, standing sepa-
rate, as it does, from the main mountain chain of the island.
Ayers Rock in Australia is another example. Called Ul-
uru by the ancient Australians, it fell from the sky during the
dreaming time, the era of the Creation. It was also the site of a
great battle between the lizard men and the snake men, before
human beings appeared. Uluru is impressive: made of sand-
stone, it stands 1,143 feet high and is a mile and a half long.
It seems to glow red as the sun sets. Th e rock was said to be
“owned” by a single person at a time. Th is person controlled
who visited the rock. Many ancient sacred sites in Austra-
lia were “owned” by someone. Th e owner also owned all the
stories associated with the sacred place. He or she could tell
others the stories, but they were not supposed to repeat the
stories unless they themselves became “owners” of the sacred
place. Th is custom continued through the 20th century for
Uluru, with owners taking people into special meeting areas,
usually just outside caves, to tell them the stories about the
sacred site. As is the case with many ancient sacred rocks,
Uluru was painted with symbols. Some of them tell the story
of Creation. Th ey were painted with ocher shades and blood
drawn from the arm of the painter, which emphasized the
artist’s spiritual connection to the rock and what he was de-
picting. Caves that were painted oft en served as places for
initiation rites for children moving toward adulthood, where
they would learn some of the sacred lore of their people.
Th e Chinese had many sacred places. During the Shang
Dynasty (ca. 1500–1045 b.c.e.) there were many cultures out-
side the Shang Empire, and they had numerous diff erent be-
liefs about their sacred places. Most of these beliefs have been
lost. One site that was sacred throughout ancient times was
Mount Tai Shan. It is about 5,000 feet high, and its summit
is a huge crag of rock that seems to thrust out into the sky,
giving those who stand on it a breathtaking view of the rocky,
lumpy countryside in Shandong Province. Th e route up to the
summit is marked by shrines. A pilgrim in ancient times was
expected to leave off erings at each shrine, and even today peo-
ple leave gift s of fruit and fl owers as they scale the mountain.
Confucius climbed the mountain and was recorded as saying,
“I feel the world is much smaller,” as he gazed at the world
from the summit. Th e emperor Liu Ch’e (r. 141–87 b.c.e.) of
the Han Dynasty (202 b.c.e.–220 c.e.), climbed Mount Tai
Shan to speak with the gods. He made his climb a proper
pilgrimage by stopping at every shrine to pray and leave of-
ferings. By his era Mount Tai Shan had become a symbol of
Chinese culture, and Liu Ch’e’s climbing the mountain dis-
played his commitment to Chinese civilization as well as hissacred sites: Asia and the Pacific 9010895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i901 901 10/10/07 2:30:22 PM