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3. The Holy Land: a reading; a description of a series of lantern slides

Title:	29-Mosque of Omar, Jerusalem.
Authors:	Thomas Mason Optician Thomas Mason Optician South Dublin Libraries Local Studies
Keywords:	Clondalkin Branch Library lantern slide Holy Land Temple Mount Mount Zion
Issue Date:	1910
Publisher:	Thomas Mason Optician, 5-6 Dame St Dublin.
Description:	Slide 29: one of a collection of lantern slides shown at Clondalkin branch library c 1910. Description given in booklet: In any view of Jerusalem from the eastward, the vast enclosure, known as the Haram-es-Sherif, or the Noble Sanctuary, arrests the eye, from its size, its beauty, and the profound interest which attaches to it, for it is an undisputed fact that within its limits stood the Temple. The walls of the area enclose a rectangle of nearly 1500 feet by 900 feet, and, especially in the lower courses, the stones appear to occupy their original positions; but, in the upper courses, examination shows that the original materials had been used over and over again in successive walls and commonly reduced in size so as to be worked more easily. Columns of the finest marble, porphyry and serpentine, built in among the blocks of limestone are by no means rare. Entering at the north we find ourselves in an enclosure of extraordinary beauty. In spring and early summer the turf is of a brilliant green, enamelled with a profusion of wild flowers and dotted over with trees, most of them cypresses, and many of them of great size. Cloisters, colonnades, fountains, cupolas and shrines, are seen here and there within the spacious area. But the eye is arrested and detained by a marble platform, from the centre of which rises one of the most exquisite domes in the world. This is the “Dome of the Rock,” known to Europeans as the Mosque of Omar - next after Mecca the most sacred, next after Cordova the most beautiful of all Moslem shrines. There are several other mosques within the enclosure, but none claim special notice except one at the south end. The rock underneath is honeycombed with excavations, most of them cisterns or conduits, and some of these are supplied with water from Solomon's Pools, which we passed between Bethlehem and Hebron. It has been commonly assumed that the temple stood on the marble platform which marks its site, and that the mosque stands over the site occupied by the altar or Holy Place. This, however, cannot be proved, and every second explorer and investigator propounds a new theory as to the exact site. All that we can be sure of is that the temple stood somewhere within this enclosure on Mount Moriah.
URI:	https://hdl.handle.net/10599/11758
Copyright:	If you wish to reproduce this image please contact South Dublin Libraries Local Studies, County Library, Tallaght, or e-mail localstudies@sdublincoco.ie.
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Appears in Collections:	Published Items The Holy Land: a reading; a description of a series of lantern slides

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