Another view of the Jewish cemetery
A street dancer playing near the Jerusalem Wall:
Road to Mt Zion:
Dale of the Old City of Jerusalem, and Jewish cemetery:
Dale of the Old City of Jerusalem:
The Dormition Abbey Church is located on Mount Zion, outside of the old
city walls and 100M south-west to Zion gate. It is easily accessed from the
parking lot near the Zion gate.
A
view of the Dormition church, as seen from the "lower city":
The
grand Abbey was designed by Heinrich Renard, and constructed in the years
1901-1910. It included a large church, a bell tower and a number of buildings.
It was named "Dormitio Beatae Mariae Virginis" or "Holy sleep of
Virgin Mary", and in short the "Dormition".
The Dormition Abbey complex was built in the beginning of the 20th C over the ruins of a Byzantine church. It is also called Hagia-Maria-Sion Abbey, named after the Byzantine church.
The way to Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion is believed to be the spot where Mary fell into eternal sleep:
The sign board showing the way to
Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion is believed to be the spot where Mary fell into
eternal sleep, Below:
The hill of Mount Zion, the highest
point in ancient Jerusalem, is dominated by the Church of the Dormition. The
location is identified in Christian tradition as the place where the Virgin
Mary died - or “fell asleep”, as the name suggests.
The fortress-like building, with a
conical roof and four corner towers, stands south of the Old City’s Zion Gate.
Nearby soars the bell tower of the Hagia Maria Sion Abbey is (formerly the
Abbey of the Dormition), a Benedictine monastery.
The Dormition Abbey, is believed to be the spot where Mary fell into eternal sleep. Just to the left in this picture is the location to where Jesus held The Last Supper:
The Dormition Abbey Church:
The main entrance to the church, below:
Two cities, Jerusalem and Ephesus (in
present-day Turkey), claim to be the place where the Virgin Mary died. The
Ephesus claim rests in part on the Gospel account that Christ on his cross
entrusted the care of Mary to St John (who later went to Ephesus).
But the earliest traditions all locate
the end of Mary’s life in Jerusalem, where the Tomb of Mary is venerated at the
foot of the Mount of Olives.
Accounts of Mary’s death in Jerusalem
appear in early sources such as De Orbitu S. Dominae, Transitus Mariae and
Liber Requiei Mariae. These books are described as apocryphal (meaning “hidden”
or “secret”). Their authenticity is uncertain and they are not accepted as part
of the Christian canon of Scripture.
But, according to biblical scholar
Lino Cignelli, “All of them are traceable back to a single primitive document,
a Judaeo-Christian prototype, clearly written within the mother church of
Jerusalem some time during the second century, and, in all probability,
composed for liturgical use right at the Tomb of Our Lady.
“From the earliest times, tradition
has assigned the authorship of the prototype to one Lucius Carinus, said to
have been a disciple and fellow labourer with St John the Evangelist.”
By the reckoning of Transitus Mariae,
Mary would have been aged no more than 50 at the time of her death.
From
the church are two spiral staircases that lead down to the crypt. The crypt is
a round pillared room ("Rotunda"), which is located in a level under
the church. In the center of the crypt, surrounded by six pillars, is a
sculpture of Mary's deathbed, made of ivory and cherrywood. Visitors light up candles before the
sculpture.
There
are 6 chapels around the wall, which are decorated by mosaics. The chapel below,
the first on the right side of the hall, is of St. Benedict - the founder of
the order of the German Benedictines who were entrusted with the Dormition:
There is a
long narrow hall leading with beautiful pillars to the most impressive chapel,
located at the end, below:
The
photo below shows: A mosaic picture of Mary and child Jesus in the center of
the semicircular apse above the altar, inside the basilica.
In
the Picture below, Jesus holds an open book with the inscription from John 8,
12 ("I am the light of the world"), words that Jesus said when he
visited Mount of Olives. Underneath are pictures of eight Prophets, and a Latin
verse from Isaiah 7, 14 with the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah:
"...Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel". The Greek initials
on both sides of Mary and Jesus mean "Mary, mother of God".
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