Palestine, seat of the three major monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – has throughout its history been host to a succession of cultures which have left in their wake a widely varied architectural and artistic heritage. For though indeed a ‘holy land’, its geographical situation between the great empires of Egypt and Asia has made it the scene of continual invasions and conquests.
Palestine is particularly rich in dramatic archaeological sites, none more so tha Qumrân. Here, in petrified salt cliffs rising sheer above the Dead Sea, are the caves in which, in 1947, was discovered as incomparable collection on scrolls containing almost the entire Old testament.
From the Nabataean cities which sprang up in the first century B.C. – capital of which was that unique masterpiece, Petra – to the last great Ottoman buildings in Akka at the end of the eighteenth century, Palestine has been endowed with a diversity of magnificient monuments. The Romans, during their period of occupation from 63 B.C. to the beginning of the fourth century A.D., built aqueducts, ports and amphitheatres in the true Roman style, although many of the buildings of his period also show indigenous influences. Herod’s reputation as a builder was consolidated by his work in Jerusalem and by his great fortresses, crown of which was the famed and ill-fated Massada.
After these turbulent times came a period of relative stability for Palestine in which the original culture flowered alongside the Greco-Roman. The recognition of Judaism as a legitimate religion led to the building of many fine synagogues. The birth of Jesus Christ, while leaving few material traces at the time, made Palestine the centre of religious zeal. This found expression both in the richly ethereal Byzantine basilicas that sprang up on sacred sites commemorating events in the Old Testament or the life of Jesus, and, in contrast, the many simple monasteries built by the monks and ascetics who flocked to the Holy Land.
Then came the third of the monotheistic religions, Islam, and with in the splendours of Umayyad art. Jerusalem was the site chosen for the immensely ambitious and sophisticated Dome of the Rock, to be followed by the nearby al-Aqsa mosque and by the masterly Umayyad mosque in Damascus.
Thus in this beautiful book we see, side by side, the synagogues, churches and mosques that give testimony to the three great religions founded in the Holy Land.