Religious significance of Jerusalem

[2][full citation needed] Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the spiritual land of the Jewish people since the 10th century BC.

The first section, the Torah, only mentions Moriah, the mountain range believed to be the location of the binding of Isaac and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and in later parts of the Tanakh the city is written explicitly.

[13] At the end of each of the gospels, there are accounts of Jesus' Last Supper in an "upper room" in Jerusalem, his arrest in Gethsemane, his trial, his crucifixion at Golgotha, his burial nearby and his resurrection and ascension.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is said to have been built over the location where Jesus was crucified and where the tomb was buried.

[citation needed] In medieval times, Christians thought Jerusalem was the center of the world (Latin: umbilicus mundi, Greek: omphalos), and was so represented in the so-called T and O maps.

[citation needed] Byzantine hymns speak of the Cross being "planted in the center of the earth," and the imagery is tied to the concept of the Death and resurrection of Jesus being for the benefit of all mankind.

[citation needed] In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city after Mecca and Medina.

[23] The Qur'an describes how the prophet was taken by the miraculous steed Buraq from the Great Mosque of Mecca to Al-Aqsa ("the farthest place of prayer") where he prayed, and then to visit heaven in a single night in the year 621.

[25] The story of Muhammad's ascension from Al-Aqsa Mosque was understood as relating to the Temple in Jerusalem (referred to as Bayt Al-Maqdis).

[23][Quran 2:142-151] Another part of Jerusalem's significance and holiness to Muslims derives from its strong association with Abraham, David, Solomon, and Jesus.

According to the Haran Gawaita, the Mandaeans loved the Lord Adonai until the birth of Jesus and had to flee Jerusalem due to persecution in the 1st century CE.

This is similar to the Christian account that viewed the destruction of Jerusalem as vengeance for the persecution of Jesus and his followers.