List of religious sites

This article provides an incomplete list and broad overview of significant religious sites and places of spiritual importance throughout the world.

[citation needed] Located in Bahji, near Acre, Israel the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh is the most holy place for Baháʼís and their Qiblih, or direction of prayer.

The second holiest site in the Baháʼí Faith – which is also revered by the few remaining Azalis (post-Baháʼí/Bábi split followers of Bábism, who number just several thousand worldwide) – is the Shrine of the Báb, located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.

The BWC also contains the Monument Gardens – wherein can be found the graves of some of Bahá'u'lláh's family – as well as a house in which 'Abdu'l-Bahá lived, and the resting place of Rúhíyyih Khánum (8 August 1910 – 19 January 2000; born Mary Sutherland Maxwell; the wife of Shoghi Effendi).

The area of the Church is regarded as the site, according to their understanding, where Jesus Christ suffered, was crucified, died, buried and resurrected from the dead along a temporal pathway known as the Via Dolorosa (from the Latin; lit.

Outside Jerusalem are pilgrimage places including the Sea of Galilee, as well as locations in Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Capernaum: Other important locations identified with the life of Jesus include areas around the Sea of Galilee – for instance Cana and the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha – as well as the Mount of Temptation (in the Judean desert), Mount Tabor, Jacob's Well, Bethany and Bethabara (on the Jordan River).

One important landmark is the Sistine Chapel (L.: Sacellum Sixtinum; I.: Cappella Sistina), in which the Papal conclave takes place.

Other locations of reverence for ardent Catholics include Marian shrines, particularly the localities of Fátima and Lourdes, where miracles or apparitions attributed to the Virgin Mary took place.

Mount Athos arguably comprises the largest community of Christian monastics, ascetics, and mystics (specifically hesychasts) in the world.

Mormon homes are also treated as sacred areas due to the church's emphasis on the sacredness of family union and family-based ceremonies performed in LDS temples.

Other venerated sites for Latter-day Saints include historical locations throughout the United States, due to their particular connection to Mormon history and theology.

Mormon breakaway sects, sub-sects and fundamentalist groups sometimes hold the belief that their particular church alone can claim true authority and succession from Joseph Smith, and that other LDS denominations are therefore incorrect or heretical.

[23] The Kaaba, a cuboid structure located within the Masjid al-Haram (Sacred Mosque) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is the holiest site of Islam.

Many millions of Muslims visit Mecca and the surrounding areas each year during a pilgrimage known as the Hajj – the fifth and final pillar of Islam – during which they circumambulate the Kaaba as part of the ritual.

Its holiness derives from its being the site from which Muhammad ascended to heaven in the Isra and Mi'raj, and also for having been the first qibla (the direction towards which Muslims face when praying).

The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, is claimed by some to be the fourth holiest site in Islam, and many Muslims believe it to be the place where Jesus will return.

Five Percenters hold a special annual event known as Show and Prove every June at the Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Harlem.

Beneath it a tunnel runs closer toward what was the original Kodesh Hakodashim, ending approximately 150 ft. inward at a place called Warren's Gate.

The Biblical Mount Sinai is believed to be the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God – although there is considerable debate as to the location of the mountain.

The Samaritan ethnoreligious group (Hebrew: שומרונים Shomronim, Arabic: السامريون as-Sāmariyyūn) mostly resides in the areas of present-day Israel and Palestine and claim to be the successors of the Israelite Northern Kingdom of Samaria.

: הַר גְּרִיזִּים Har Gərizzim; also romanized as Jirziem), a mountain in the immediately know vicinity of Nablus, in the West Bank, the holiest place on Earth.

These are:[27] In the later commentarial tradition, four more sites were added to make Eight Great Places, places where a miraculous event is reported to have occurred: There are various other locations in India and Nepal associated with the Buddha, and there are holy sites located throughout Asia for each Buddhist tradition, for instance in Afghanistan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Thailand.

Shugendō is a small, syncretic, highly esoteric and ascetic sect or sub-sect of Buddhism (mostly related to, and often considered a distinct branch of the Tendai and Shingon schools) combining elements of Zen, Taoism, Koshintō, Japanese folk animism and shamanism.

Confucianism is often regarded as either a religion, philosophy or quasi-religious system of beliefs based upon the teachings of the ancient Chinese sage Confucius.

Ise Shrine is the formal home of Amaterasu ōmikami, the primary deity of Shinto and traditionally believed to be a direct ancestor of the Japanese Imperial Family.

Access is strictly limited, with the public allowed to see merely the thatched roofs of the central structures, hidden behind three tall wooden fences.

Four sacred mountains of Taoism: Followers of Tenrikyo believe that creation of the world occurred at a point called the Jiba, in Tenri City, Nara Prefecture, Japan.

There are actually five of these sacred grounds in the world: three in Japan, in the cities of Atami, Hakone, and Kyoto; one in Saraburi, Thailand; and one in São Paulo, Brazil.

Sicily Apulia Veneto Thelemites do not normally carry out pilgrimages, but a certain number of adherents of Thelema regard Egypt, and Cairo and Giza in particular, to be important.

Other notable sites of historical or spiritual significance to many Thelemites are the now derelict Abbey of Thelema in the Sicilian city of Cefalu, Italy, and Boleskine House near Loch Ness in Scotland.