Friday, 16. May 2008
Jerusalem 3000

Eye Candy! Click the pictures for a larger view.


This colorful print depicts the traditional view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, with Jesus weeping over the city. It was produced by an American Syro-Maronite church belonging to a Roman Catholic sect based in Lebanon, and was apparently designed as a souvenir for pilgrims. Christian, Islamic, and Jewish holy sites are shown.

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West Roxbury, Mass., ca. 1900


This dramatic scene is taken from The Cyclorama, an enormous three-dimensional panorama of Jerusalem on the day of the Crucifixion. It was created in Munich between 1878 and 1882, and has been on view since 1895 in Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre, near the city of Quebec in Canada. The tableau is of monumental size, measuring 46 feet in height and 361 feet in circumference. The lifelike character of the display creates the illusion of being a spectator at the historic event, a quality that is captured in the illustration.

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Historical Pub[lishin]g. Co. Litho., Philadelphia, 1890


This curious map appeared in a late sixteenth-century rendition of the Bible in the form of an illustrated travel book. It reflects outmoded medieval theologic-geographic concepts, placing Jerusalem at the center of the world and at the intersection of three continents.

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From: Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae - Magdeburg, Germany, 1581


Jerusalem's unique position among cities of the world derives from its crucial role in religious history as a holy city for three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For thousands of years Jerusalem has been the temporal and spiritual center of the Holy Land, for which more tears and blood have been shed and more prayers offered than for any other region of the world. Jerusalem's powerful emotional appeal has inspired a prodigious outpouring of prose and poetry, artistic renderings, and, of course, maps.

This exhibition presents a selection of maps and views to illustrate the history of Jerusalem as it celebrates the 3000th anniversary of its establishment as the capital of King David's unified Kingdom of Israel. Many of these documents are centuries old. Some of them are imaginary and idealized portrayals based on Scriptural interpretation, and reflect the ideologies and religious persuasions of their makers.

Jerusalem 3000: Three Millennia of History, Exhibition by Osher Map Library.
Category: Buildings & Places |


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