Sometimes Santa could use a little bribery..... just saying

 

For the Me Again Monday theme, "Decorations of red (or green)"

Illinois Central Gulf Railroad GP38-2 9614 in Chicago, Illinois on an unknown day in October 1979, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Built in December 1974 ( c/n 74646-15 ), this locomotive was named "Henry S. McComb".

 

In 1872 Colonel Henry Simpson McComb, a Director on the Union Pacific Railroad and also the President of the New Orleans Jackson and Great Northern Railroad ( later absorbed by the IC ) decided, for moral reasons, to move the locomotive and car maintenance shops to a location outside of New Orleans. Land was purchased in Pike County and building lots in the city were offered at low prices to employees with families. Not being a drinking man, Colonel McComb wanted to remove his men from the dreadful influences of the New Orleans saloons. It was later stipulated in the McComb City charter that there would be no alcoholic beverages sold within the city limits. News about the brand-new city even reached as far north as New York City when an article was published in the newspapers to advertise for jobs. In the new town, almost every family was involved with the railroad in some way.

 

There is more to the story of Colonel McComb. The Credit Mobilier of America ( CMA ), incorporated by the Pennsylvania legislature on March 26, 1864, was a firm designed to enhance profits from federal funding of the transcontinental railroad, partially through bribes to federal officeholders. The second section of track, totaling 267 miles, began construction in 1867. United States Representative Oakes Ames ( who also held the position of Director on the Union Pacific Railroad ) became president of CMA and oversaw the project. During his oversight, CMA began the process of wooing members of Congress. When Congress assembled in December 1867, Ames and a CMA official, the eccentric ( and ironically named ) George F. Train, traveled to Washington DC to offer shares in CMA at reduced value as a means of enticing them into investing. This first offer appeared to be legitimate, unlike future such offers.

 

By encouraging investment by members of Congress, Ames and Train hoped to increase their willingness to vote for needed legislation ( particularly voting to pay CMA for its trackwork at a higher rate than originally agreed upon ). One means of retaining his tie to members of Congress was to issue stock in the corporation to members of Congress without their knowledge. Ames then held the profit in trust for the member of Congress until needed in the future, which came sooner than he had anticipated, when Representative Washburn of Wisconsin introduced a bill to regulate rail rates. In order to defeat the measure, Ames entered into the first agreements clearly falling into the realm of bribery. In one such transaction, a bribed Congressman from the South promised to "take care of the Democratic side of the aisle". By the end of 1867, CMA billed the U.S. Government $57.1 million for work costing the corporation $27.3 million.

 

News of the scandal broke two months before the Presidential Election of 1872. McComb had a disagreement with Ames and delivered documents to leading newspapers. Though members of Congress on both sides of the aisle were implicated, the Democratic newspapers took up the issue as a means of undermining President Grant's re-election effort. The New York Sun in particular carried stories of how Ames had skimmed off profits for his friends in Congress. The stolen profits represented staggering numbers for 1872, including $19 million from the last leg of the transcontinental railroad. One of the elected officials implicated in the scandal was then U.S. Representative from Ohio ( 1863-80 ) James A. Garfield, who went on to become ( you guessed it ) the President of the United States.

In 2000, my wife and I sat on the edge of our bed watching CNN. The Supreme Court had just announced that time had run out on the weeks-long series of recounts for Florida’s 25 electoral votes. George W. Bush had beat Al Gore and was declared the winner in the state. Bush won the Electoral College and the presidency by one electoral vote. Disappointed? You bet. But I remember thinking, “The office of President is one of compromise. Those around him will temper the effects of his decisions.” I was wrong.

 

Twenty-one years later, I sat on that same bed watching as Trump loyalists, incited by President Trump and others, stormed the Capitol shouting, “Stop the Steal” and “Hang Mike Pence.” After Trump’s 2016 campaign, his four years of authoritarian reign, and the aftermath, I no longer believed that Constitutional checks and balances would hold back the right. Our culture had changed. In the Republican Party, conspiracy theories replaced common sense and critical thinking. This is the world of Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. How did we get here?

 

The Road Downhill: Lee Atwater

 

We find deceit at every level of American politics. As mass media developed, backroom deals gave way to more public dirty tricks. In the 1980s, Lee Atwater was this strategy’s most prominent disciple. As South Carolina Republican Congressman Floyd Spence’s campaign consultant in his 1980 re-election bid, he released the results of a fake survey aimed at White suburban voters. The survey showed that Spence’s opponent, Tom Turnipseed, was a member of the NAACP. At a press briefing, he hired a fake reporter to say, “We understand Turnipseed has had psychiatric treatment.” Atwater replied that he “got hooked up to jumper cables,” referring to electroshock therapy Turnipseed had as a teen. Spence was re-elected.

 

Atwater went on to greater notoriety later that decade by suggesting Ronald Reagan could extend the GOP’s Southern Strategy (a racial appeal to White Southerners) without it appearing racial. In an anonymous interview for political scientist Alexander P. Lamis’ book The Two-Party South, he said,

 

“Y’all don’t quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigg*r, nigg*r, nigg*r.’ By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigg*r’—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.”

 

As Atwater’s star rose in the GOP, its zenith was the infamous Willie Horton television ad during George H. Bush’s 1988 presidential bid. In 1976, Bush’s opponent, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, supported a prison furlough program for felons started by Republican Governor Francis Sargent in 1972. The state legislature passed a measure outlawing the practice, but Dukakis vetoed it. Shortly after that, the state released convicted murderer Willie Horton on a weekend furlough when he assaulted, robbed, and raped a couple.

 

The ad showed prisoners going through a revolving exit from prison. Only one was African American, and he was the only one who looked directly into the camera. “That’s the guy to be afraid of,” said ABC newsman Sam Donaldson. Atwater used this incident to suggest that Dukakis was too liberal and soft on crime. He vowed to “strip the bark off the little bastard” and “make Willie Horton his running mate.” Dukakis’ seventeen-point summer lead vanished, and Bush won the race.

 

Slash and Burn: Newt Gingrich

 

Lee Atwater’s vision was to get Republicans elected no matter what it took. The man who led those Republicans on a slash and burn sortie into our legislative process was Newt Gingrich. Running in his first successful race for Congress in 1978, he told college Republicans, “One of the great weaknesses of the Republican Party is we recruit middle-class people. Middle-class people, as a group, are told you should not shout at the table, you should be nice, you should have respect for other people, which usually means giving way to them.” He admonished the students to “raise hell” if you’re going to be in politics. And during his twenty years in the House, raising hell was precisely what he did.

 

Gingrich upended the niceties and conventions of Congress. As Congressional scholar Thomas Mann has stated, “Most members still believed in the idea that the Framers had in mind. They believed in genuine deliberation and compromise … and they had institutional loyalty.” Gingrich’s focus was less on legislation and more on tactics to discredit Democrats and moderate members of his party. He did this by ignoring etiquette, sensationalizing issues for TV viewers, and using ethics regulations to spotlight one’s political enemies. “He thought a lot about confrontation and saying things that were explosive because he believed that the more confrontational, the more outlandish you were, the more the media would cover you, and the more the media would replicate what you said about your opponent—whether it was true or not true,” according to Julian E. Zelizer, in his book, Burning Down the House.

 

We can credit Gingrich with the “fierce, institution-destroying partisanship” that gave birth to the tactics of the Tea Party and Donald Trump. Newt sent out a memo to aspiring Republican candidates entitled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control,” in which he listed words for them to use to describe Democrats. They included words like sick, pathetic, lie, anti-flag, traitors, radical, and corrupt. When you hear Trump give people obnoxious nicknames like President Biden’s “Sleepy Joe,” that comes directly from Gingrich’s playbook.

Release the Kraken: The Ginny and Clarence Thomas Story

 

In our present rarified atmosphere, when laws do get passed, partisan objections often end up on the docket of the Supreme Court. As the ultimate arbiters in legal matters, we hope justices base their opinions on their interpretations of the Constitution. But unlike lower court judges, there are no ethical standards by which they must abide. Each justice determines their own ethics. The only safeguard we have for a rogue justice is impeachment. That has only happened once.

 

The founders of our country envisioned a court that rose above the politics of the Legislative and Executive branches of government. But partisanship has seeped into the court with justice nominees’ confirmations decided by today’s factional Senate. In February 2022, Justice Neil Gorsuch gave a speech behind closed doors to the Federalist Society, a group of conservatives and libertarians. So what did he speak about? We’ll never know. The Society barred the media from the Justice’s talk. That veil of secrecy only magnifies the aura of politicization, questioning the court’s impartiality.

 

This is the backdrop to Ginni Thomas’ power and activism. As the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, she has been a forceful advocate for Trump’s attack on our democratic process. She firmly believes the Democrats stole the election despite a long list of dismissed court challenges to the election results. Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham confirmed Ms. Thomas’ direct access to President Trump on a recent episode of The View. She said that Thomas would often have lunch with the President, bringing lists of people who should be fired and hired. Grisham described the damage control the staff would have to do after these meetings.

 

Two days after the 2020 election, Ms. Thomas texted Trump’s Chief-of-Staff, Mark Meadows, to “Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down.” In mythology, a Kraken is a gigantic sea monster that resembles a giant squid or octopus. #ReleaseTheKraken is a tag used by conspiracy theorists to discredit President Biden’s victory.

 

She also texted Meadows, “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!... You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.” Also, “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc.) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition. I hope this is true.” (emphasis mine). She wants a revolution!

 

Thomas and Meadows exchanged twenty-nine texts he released to the House committee investigating the January 6th Insurrection. Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times, said, “It is one thing, experts in legal ethics said, for the spouse of a Supreme Court justice to express political views, even ones shot through with wild conspiracy theories. That may not by itself require the justice’s recusal from cases touching on those views. . . . But the text messages from Ms. Thomas . . . revealed something quite different and deeply troubling.” The texts Thomas sent to Meadows clearly showed she was directly involved in the attempt to overturn the election.

 

So should her husband recuse himself in any case about the 2020 election? Any judge with close relationships with people or institutions associated with an issue should do so. That’s what Justice Elena Kagan did when she ascended to the bench in 2010. Because of her former job as Supreme Court Solicitor General (the court’s chief legal representative to the court and lower appellate courts), she recused herself in 25 of 51 cases during her first term.

 

Justice Thomas has not recused himself in at least one case concerning the 2020 election. In January 2022, he was the lone dissenter in litigation Trump brought to the Supreme Court to prevent the January 6th Committee from obtaining his presidential records. The US Code of Laws expressly prohibits judges from participating in cases where their impartiality might be questioned. Title 28, § 421(5) states that judges shall disqualify themselves when a spouse is likely to be a material witness. Yet there are no penalties when a Supreme Court Justice violates this law.

 

The Thomases are very close and share many political views. In his memoir, Justice Thomas wrote that he and his wife are “one being—an amalgam.” They call each other their best friends. If he’s ethical, he has a moral obligation to stand down in any proceeding concerning the 2020 presidential election, including the January 6th Insurrection. If he doesn’t, he should resign or be impeached. Thomas’ sole job is to interpret the Constitution. There’s no room in American jurisprudence for activist judges. Isn’t that what conservatives say?

 

The System Is Broken. What Can We Do About It?

 

What can we do when people like Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows (political elites with direct access to power) strongly believe in these conspiracy theories? Or when our legislators aren’t interested in solving the economic and social issues that affect millions of Americans. This animosity is destroying our country. Having to call for Clarence Thomas’ recusal on cases where his wife is deeply involved reveals a much larger problem.

 

The Problem

 

Sixty percent of Americans approve of a woman's right to an abortion. Sixty-four percent support a “wealth tax” to fund public programs. Seventy-six percent of the public wants to protect LGBTQ rights. Why can’t we have reasonable gun control legislation when 84% of Americans approve of universal background checks (including 77% of Republicans)? The effects of climate change concern 60% of Americans. These issues are under attack or considered unimportant in Republican-run states. Yet the majority of Americans support them.

 

Negative partisanship is creating an existential threat to our democracy. “In today’s environment, rather than seeking to inspire voters around a cohesive and forward-looking vision, politicians need only incite fear and anger toward the opposing party to win and maintain power.” According to the Economist magazine’s “Democracy Index 2021,” the United States is no longer considered a full democracy. We’re now considered a “flawed democracy.” Eighty percent of Americans have no confidence in our legislators.

 

In a Princeton University study, Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, the impact of average citizens’ influence on public policy is near zero when compared to economic elites and organized interest groups. This is the fundamental problem with our political system.

 

The Answers

 

RepresentUs suggests that fixing our elections and ending political bribery will restore influence to the American people. Consulting with Constitutional scholars and strategists, they found that 87% of all Americans (no matter their party affiliation) supported an anti-corruption law that would reduce the influence of special interests. Their model, The American Anti-Corruption Act, provides a plan for ending bribery at all government levels, restores the public's influence over moneyed interests, and fixes our broken elections.

 

Enact Campaign Finance Reform. The costs of a political campaign are staggering. Congresspeople spend 50% of their day fundraising instead of legislating. Political candidates are beholden to large donors to win elections. In 2020, only 1.44% of Americans donated more than $200 to political campaigns and political action committees. Mega-donors have more clout, while the public has little to none. And with these high rollers come the strings of special interests. Lobbyists ply politicians with money to ensure their support. So, instead of legislating on issues important to most Americans, they pass laws that favor these special interests. Where’s health care reform? Why are drug prices so high, and why is Medicare prevented from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for lower prices? Because “Big Pharma” makes sure any attempt to change the system will be defeated.

 

RepresentUs hired Tulchin Research, a polling and strategic consulting firm, that polled a diverse group of Americans on the financial problems with our elections. Their findings are revealing.

 

While we’re aware of the deep divide in American politics and ideology, voters across the board agreed political corruption is rampant. Instituting reforms is critical to restoring health to our system. Reframing political finance reform as ending political corruption was compelling to poll respondents.

 

Conflict of interest reforms are most important to voters. The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision damaged financial election reform by allowing corporations and other groups to contribute unlimited funds to elections. This exacerbated the advantage that wealthy donors have and increased the use of “dark money” in our elections. The top three anti-corruption measures supported by those polled were: prohibiting politicians from taking money from the industries they regulate, reducing how much money lobbyists can contribute to political campaigns, and instituting clear limits on unregulated Super PACs.

 

Public Funding is critical to reform. The tax refund and public voucher model was the most supported by those polled. Many local jurisdictions are developing these types of programs. Seattle gives every voter a publicly funded voucher to contribute to candidates. And as the number of jurisdictions using public financing rises, this can eventually have ramifications on the national level.

 

We should also reinstate a nationwide matching fund program, and institute total fundraising and spending transparency. Former elected officials should be prohibited from working for lobbyists, and legislators should be banned from fundraising during working hours (they’re raising funds on our dime!).

 

Eliminate Gerrymandering. One of the most egregious misuses of power is gerrymandering. It makes races less competitive and reduces voters’ say. Several states (both Republican and Democrat) are being called to task for gerrymandering after the 2020 census. State courts are forcing both Republican and Democrat-run states to redraw their maps. Only 16% of Congressional districts are competitive (64 districts are still under review). So 75% of elected officials are winning office without having to communicate outside of their own party.

 

According to Gallup, Independents represent the largest group of voters in America. Yet registered Independents can’t vote in most Democrat or Republican primaries. Nor are third parties invited to take part in presidential debates. Not every vote is equal.

 

But a different way of holding elections would change that. Using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), you get to rank your choices for public office. This reduces voting for the “lesser of two evils,” candidates with similar platforms form coalitions, and campaigns become less divisive. Forty-three jurisdictions used RCV in their most recent elections.

 

We already know that voter participation increases when we make voting more accessible. But look at how many times the GOP challenged automatic voter registration and voting by mail during the pandemic. The party knows that if more Americans vote, they’ll lose support. Even Trump admitted that. In a Pew study, the number of voters in the US was 31st out of 35 developed countries. Full democracies encourage voter participation.

 

The Electoral College. As our country has developed, we’ve made changes to the Electoral College. We’ve refined the role of electors and allowed citizens to vote for these electors in every state (some states initially gave that role to their legislatures). In addition, we have expanded voting rights (initially, only White male landowners and taxpayers could vote). So the process for electing presidents is not historically set in stone. It’s time to consider making changes that reflect our present society.

 

Some of our Founders thought that most 18th-century voters didn’t have the resources to make fully informed decisions. So they rejected direct voter participation. They also feared mob mentality relying on the populous to make such an important decision. Today, mass media saturates society with information. And, as for mob rule, the Electoral College didn’t prevent the storming of the Capitol on January 6th.

 

Our Founders also believed that this system would stop a drawn-out national recount. But look what happened in 2020. Donald Trump refused to accept the results of the Electoral College and filed over sixty suits to overturn elections in crucial states. Eighteenth-Century concerns about the tyranny of the majority (another original reason for the Electoral College) have given way to the tyranny of conspiracy theorists today.

 

The Electoral College was a compromise when our founders first implemented it. Small states feared the power of larger states. Today, that dynamic has shifted. Now the system emphasizes the role of a few swing states. This means that candidates spend much more time and money in those areas than broadening their campaigns nationwide.

 

Since our country’s inception, there have been five presidential elections where the loser of the Electoral College received more popular votes. The 2000 election between Bush and Gore and the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the latest examples. Partisan politics would make it an uphill battle to amend the Constitution to change how we elect presidents. So, many states and the District of Columbia have signed on to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. They promise to give their electoral votes to the popular vote winner. This provision will go into effect when enough signatories’ electoral votes reach 270, the amount required for the Electoral College to declare a winner. So far, the Compact has 195 Electoral votes. They need only 75 more to implement the pact. But that could be an uphill battle, as the red states fear the voter's will.

 

Let’s Not Forget Ginni and Clarence Thomas

 

Ginni Thomas’ desire to overthrow our government is a clear example of a corroded political system. Justice Thomas’ refusal to recuse himself in cases that are apparent conflicts of interest should concern Americans. Together, their power undermines the foundation of the American ideal. It smacks of special interests and political corruption at the highest levels of our government.

 

As David Frum wrote in The Atlantic, “Washington has always been full of polarizing people like the Thomases, and always will be. What’s been different in the Donald Trump years has been the complicity and cowardice of the people who should have kept those polarizing figures in check.” My initial expectations about the people surrounding the president (or any government official) were correct. Trust in our politicians demands constant oversight.

 

It’s time we the people release our own Kraken.

  

Feel free to pass this poster on. It's free to download here (click on the down arrow just to the lower right of the image).

 

See the rest of the posters from the Chamomile Tea Party! Digital high res downloads are free here (click the down arrow on the lower right side of the image). Other options are available. And join our Facebook group.

 

Follow the history of our country's political intransigence from 2010-2020 through a seven-part exhibit of these posters on Google Arts & Culture.

Taken at Tifft Nature Preserve.

Witness Hammad Bashi testifying. The trial was in many languages. He spoke English.

 

In 1998 I was the courtroom artist for the Belgian newspaper Le Soir. It was for the big trial The Agusta-Dassault Case. It was one of Belgium's most infamous trials of the century, some of the country's most senior political figures had been sucked into a scandal extending from bribery to money-laundering, forgery and possibly even murder. It was one of the best jobs I ever had. Sitting in that courtroom for days and drawing was very exciting.

 

Bribery was once described by William Morris (1834-96) as "the most beautiful village in England".

 

3 photos combined into one with HDR post processing with Lightroom

THREAVE CASTLE A MASSIVE TOWER HOUSE (69 FT), OR 5 STOREYS HIGH OF GREY STONE STANDS ON AN ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RIVER DEE.TO VISIT THE ISLAND (BY BOAT ONLY) THERE IS SMALL JETTY WITH A BRASS BELL WHICH YOU MUST RING AND THE CUSTODIAN WILL SAIL OVER IN A MOTORISED BOAT FROM THE ISLAND TO COLLECT YOU TO TAKE YOU OVER TO THE CASTLE. ONCE ON THE ISLAND AND YOU PURCHASE A TICKET FROM THE SHOP, YOU ARE FREE TO EXPLORE THE AREA FOR THE WHOLE DAY IF YOU WISH. WHEN I VISITED THERE WERE A PAIR OF PEREGRINE FALCONS NESTING IN THE CASTLE AND ALSO A PAIR OF OSPREYS NESTING IN A LARGE TREE ON THE ISLAND, SO TRAVELING TO THE ISLAND WAS CLOSED DURING THIS TIME.

DURING THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD THE WATER LEVEL WAS HIGHER AND THE ISLAND WAS ONLY ABOUT A THIRD OF THE SIZE THAT IT IS TODAY. LEGEND TELLS THAT THREAVE ISLAND WAS THE HOME OF THE ANCIENT RULERS OF GALLOWAY, BUT THERE IS NO PHYSICAL PROOF OF THIS. ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE DOES SEEM TO SUGGEST THAT THERE WAS AN EARLIER CASTLE ON THE SITE, WHICH BY TRADITION WAS THE RESIDENCE OF FERGUS, LORD OF GALLOWAY, AND HIS DESCENDANTS FROM THE MID 11TH CENTURY ONWARDS, AND WAS DESTROYED BY ROBERT THE BRUCE IN 1308.

THE CURRENT REMAINS DATE BACK TO THE LATE 14TH CENTURY WHEN ARCHIBALD 'THE GRIM', THIRD EARL OF DOUGLAS, BUILT A CASTLE ON THE ISLAND. THE FORTRESS WAS CENTRED ON ONE OF THE EARLIEST TOWER HOUSES TO BE BUILT IN SCOTLAND. THE DOUGLAS FAMILY WERE THE MOST POWERFUL FAMILY IN SCOTLAND AND DOMINATED SCOTTISH POLITICS. BY THE MID 15TH CENTURY THE KING, JAMES II, WAS DETERMINED TO BREAK THEIR POWER BY SYSTEMATICALLY DESTROYING ALL THE MAJOR DOUGLAS STRONGHOLDS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. BY JUNE 1455, THREAVE WAS THE LAST CASTLE STILL BEING DEFENDED IN THE NAME OF THE NOW EXILED EARL OF DOUGLAS. DURING A TWO MONTH SIEGE THE KING USED THE LATEST CANNONS AND BOMBARDS (GIANT SIEGE GUNS) IN AN ATTEMPT TO TAKE THE CASTLE BY FORCE, BUT ITS FINAL SURRENDER WAS MORE LIKELY DUE TO BRIBERY THAN THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THESE WEAPONS. THE CASTLE'S ABILITY TO STAND UP TO SUCH AN ATTACK WAS PROBABLY DUE TO THE ARTILLERY FORTIFICATION THAT WAS BUILT AROUND THE TOWER HOUSE SHORTLY BEFORE 1455. THE ARTILLERY WALL HAD VERTICAL SLITS THROUGH WHICH DEFENDERS COULD FIRE LONG-BOWS AND CROSS-BOWS, AND AT THREE OF THE CORNERS WAS A ROUND TOWER THAT WAS DESIGNED TO ACCOMMODATE SMALL GUNS. IT WAS ONE OF THE FIRST ARTILLERY DEFENCES TO BE BUILT IN BRITAIN.

THREAVE CASTLE THEN BECAME A CROWN PROPERTY. A SUCCESSION OF CUSTODIANS WAS PUT IN CHARGE, AND IN 1513 THE MAXWELLS WERE MADE KEEPERS, A POSITION THAT BECAME HEREDITARY IN 1526. THE LAST MAXWELL KEEPER FINALLY ABANDONED THE CASTLE IN 1640 FOLLOWING A 13 WEEK SIEGE BY AN ARMY OF COVENANTERS. THE CASTLE WAS SLIGHTED AND PARTLY DISMANTLED, BUT WAS STILL SUBSTANTIAL ENOUGH IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY TO ACT AS A PRISON FOR FRENCH TROOPS CAPTURED DURING THE NAPOLEONIC WAR.

 

Built between 1902 and 1906, this Beaux Arts-style building was designed by Joseph Miller Huston to house the state government of Pennsylvania. The building was constructed around a nucleus consisting of a heavily modified temporary capitol building, which was built in 1898-99 by Henry Ives Cobb after the previous capitol building, built in 1822 on the same site as the present building, was destroyed by a fire in 1897. The only surviving portion of the previous 1822 Capitol is the Ryan Office Building, which was built in 1893-94, and originally served as the Executive, Library & Museum Building, which was not directly connected to the Capitol building, allowing it to survive the incident with minimal damage.

 

The building was the subject of a graft and corruption scandal after its completion, which led to four people being sent to prison on charges of corruption and bribery, including the building’s architect. As a result, the rest of the complex was laid out by architect Arnold W. Brunner, whom designed the landscape of the Capitol Complex to the rear of the building, as well as the North and South (Irvis) Office Buildings, which were constructed during the 1920s, flanking the rear of the capitol and framing a central courtyard behind the building. One block to the east, a quad known as the Soldier’s Grove was created, which is framed by the Forum Building and Finance Building, which visually connects the capitol building to the State Street Sailors and Soldiers Memorial Bridge, with all three structures having been completed in the 1930s on the site of the old 8th Ward neighborhood, which was removed via eminent domain to allow for the state government office buildings to be constructed adjacent to the new capitol. Thus, the capitol is part of a larger state government office complex built between 1893 and 1987, which complements the building’s architectural style and houses office space and major amenities for the Pennsylvania state government.

 

The building features a granite exterior with corinthian columns and pilasters, roman lattice transoms and window mullion patterns, a balustrade along the roof, oxeye windows, semicircular and triangular pediment headers over the windows, one-over-one double-hung windows, two-story porticoes at the front facades of the central and side wings with pediments, decorative sculptures and friezes, a green tile roof, cornices with modillions and dentils, large staircases up to the building’s entrances, arched openings at the entrances with decorative keystones, vaulted ceilings, and decorative light fixtures, doric pilasters on the side facades, domes at the crossings of the central and side wings with copper and green tile roofs, a central dome based on the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, with paired corinthian pilasters, festoons in the panels between the pilasters, a balustrade around the base of the drum, which is ringed by windows with decorative pediments, multiple dormers clad in copper on the dome, and a lantern with a drum that resembles a smaller version of the drum below the dome, topped with a concavely curved roof and golden statue known as “Commonwealth”, created by sculptor Roland Hinton Perry.

 

The building’s interior is clad in lavish materials and artisan decorations, including marble walls and trim, murals on the walls and ceilings, a tall rotunda below the dome with a grand staircase and multiple tiers of balconies and columns, a Moravian Pottery and Tile Works floor with symbols representing Pennsylvania culture and nature hand crafted by artisan Henry Chapman Mercer, sculptures, classical columns, trim panels, coffered ceilings, decorative crown moldings, chandeliers, sconces, and torchiere lamps, corinthian pilasters below the dome, broken pediments over major entrances, corridors with vaulted ceilings, and ornate glass display cases. The house and senate chambers, which sit in wings immediately adjacent to the north and south sides of the rotunda, and the supreme court chamber in the building, which is located in another wing of the building, are also lavishly decorated with murals, decorative trim, ornate ceilings, and stained glass windows.

 

The capitol building received a rear addition to the east in 1986-1987, which features a neoclassical exterior with modern and postmodern flourishes, including glass domes, which is faced with a darker stone to differentiate it from the historic portion of the building, designed by Celli-Flynn Associates and H.F. Lenz Company to provide additional space in the building and a secure vehicle entrance. The addition features a large podium that supports a rooftop plaza with planters that create gardens around the building’s rear, with a large semi-circular recessed portion of the structure framing a large fountain and tiered garden that sits at the center of the visual axis, tying the rear of the State Capitol to the State Street Sailors and Soldiers Memorial Bridge across the block-long Soldier’s Grove Quad, and unifies the North and South (Irvis) office buildings into a single structure connected directly to the State Capitol and Ryan Office Building.

 

The State Capitol and historic portions of the State Capitol Complex were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The State Capitol Complex was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 2006, and saw a boundary increase in 2013 to include some previously omitted historic structures.

This is the third and final entry in my Stripperwear Contest. This little outfit is another buy from Liberette of London, suppliers of professional striptease costumes. I hope you like it! The rules remain the same - absolutely no rules whatsoever! Express your preference in any way you see fit - bribery, offers of sexual favours and so on are all within the rules of the contest!

More to come [very] soon - but in the meantime, a very happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

xxxxx

Rebecca

I can't tell you how I managed to get this shot of Chipper on his chopper other than to tell you it involved a lot of bribery. ;~) Have a great week!

Greed (Latin, avaritia)

 

Greed (or avarice, covetousness) is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess. However, greed (as seen by the church) is applied to the acquisition of wealth in particular. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that greed was "a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things." In Dante's Purgatory, the penitents were bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. "Avarice" is more of a blanket term that can describe many other examples of greedy behaviour. These include disloyalty, deliberate betrayal, or treason, especially for personal gain, for example through bribery . Scavenging and hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by greed. Such misdeeds can include simony, where one profits from soliciting goods within the actual confines of a church.

in Wikipedia

 

Laziness is still flowing in my veins, but we need to go forward with the sins series...

This time greed is the chosen one... Hard work! I cant see myself as a greedy person..

I wanted to do something different than this, but I tried to make copy's of Euro bills and that is forbidden.. not even after begging and telling this was to a photo session the guys melted before my arguments.. so.. and before someone called the cops... I had to change the method and started withdrawing money from an ATM... :D After 500€.. I decided it was time to stop foolishnesses and if needed I would clone bills too.. No needed btw... :P

 

Hope you like it and please.. give me always your honest feedback!

Take Care sweeties

Beijinhss*****

   

Managed to get this mother to pose with her baby by giving her a biscuit. Small price to pay for this shot taken outside Nainital, India.

So this week is Seven Deadly Sins week in totw. I decided to kick my week off with Greed, also known as Avarice (which I happen to find a much cooler word, hence the title of this shot). :)

 

Greed is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess. However, greed is applied to a very excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of wealth, status, and power. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that greed was "a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things." In Dante's Purgatory, the penitents were bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. "Avarice" is more of a blanket term that can describe many other examples of greedy behavior. These include disloyalty, deliberate betrayal, or treason,especially for personal gain, for example through bribery. Scavenging and hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by greed.

 

But really, come on St. Thomas Aquinas...are you telling me you wouldn't want to roll around in diamonds? ;)

 

Hope you're all enjoying the last of the weekend. Today has been all about lounging and doing laundry. And rolling in diamonds. It's been a very chill Sunday.

 

Ten days left of my 365! Eep!

 

365 Days (self portraits): Day 355

TOTW: Seven Deadly Sins - Greed/Avarice

Ever so slighty more yummy on a black background.

 

To be reworked if I can get my piano guinea pigs to play ball again! Easier said than done! Bribery might be required! Or threats of beatings :-)

~Story People~

 

I finally got a picture of all 4!!! yeah!! It only took some bribery with ice cream :)

During the "Bribery" session where I held treats just out of reach. Didn't know my "kids" had this much intensity

 

Yeah - my first Explore!!! #134

The price for this photo was 5 gummi bears. Luckily, I recently restocked the bribery stash.

 

We ordered Baxter a big boy bed today. Kid is almost three and he just recently starting acting on the ability to get out of his crib on his own. (I know, how lucky are we?) BK said he went into Baxter's room this morning and Baxter was standing there on the other side of the door: "Oh hi, Dada!"

 

For the D300 Challenge Group's No Rule of Thirds challenge. (This one was actually pretty difficult for me -- I hadn't realized until I went through this week's photos just how much I adhere to the rule of thirds. Blame it on the math nerd within.)

 

Oh, and I should add, I took this photo after reading this reminder about shooting in open shade.

 

#21 in Explore.

The secret's out! Redd bribed Santa with yummy cookies and peppermint cocoa with marshmallows to get on the good kids list

Had this shot in mind for ages now and finally got round to doing it.

This shot involved strobism, props, models and some Photoshop work.

I ordered the Safari hat from Amazon and I must say for £12 it was fantastic quality, I tried to get the same hat in a local shop and they was charging £30 pounds, big difference.

The top and shorts came from Asda and the socks and shoes came from Primark, after the shoot all the clothes can be worn normally which was great.

The whole outfit was around £25 pounds.

I improvised as I didn't want to buy a proper Safari outfit that was going to be left in the cupboard afterwards.

The rifle is just an air gun which my dad gave to me and also looks the part thanks to the attached scope.

 

For the lighting I got out my Elemental M Series Ultra Pro Studio 600 kit.

I had one strobe to my camera left with silver beauty dish and white diffuser pointing directly at my daughter @1/2 power

To my camera right was a bare strobe with the silver spill dish pointing at the back wall to my daughters left @1/32 power

Both strobes where fired off camera using my yongnuo RF602 trigger and receivers.

 

I used the same lights to get my portrait right after this shoot which my wife took for me.

 

My daughter is brilliant with expressions and poses as this time I wanted her to have a naughty, mischievous look with attitude thrown in, really pleased with how she done for me here.

Obviously a bit of sugary bribery was thrown in to the situation which helped lol.

 

The hard bit was the Photoshop work which is great fun and also a bit frustrating at times.

For my post processing knowledge I am very pleased with how the picture came out but I would have liked it to be a bit more realistic.

This was made up of loads of different layers including the background, the trophy shield, my head and the plaque, not including all the other layers for saturation, levels, etc etc etc.

I think with a bit more pre planning for the Photoshop work I can do a better job next time.

 

Would love to know what you guys think :)

Please feel free to give any advice on how to improve things especially the post processing.

Even though I don't reply in the comments I do read every single comment.

  

Must be seen on black please Press 'L' on your keyboard to view on black.

 

Check out my blog

www.simonanderson-photography.blogspot.co.uk

 

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"Mmmm, bithgit!"

One out of the many wind turbines on Pindus mountain range, Greece. The most picturesque and unspoiled autumnal scenery could once be admired there. Then, the hideous wind turbines grew on these mountains… The country's Supreme Court has made a judicial decision allowing wind turbines' installation on woodland or on land marked for reforestation after wildfires!

 

One had earlier thought that renewable technologies would be environmentally-friendly, but we now comprehend that wind farms cause more environmenal impact than previously thought.

 

Whenever there is a long history of political corruption and bribery in a country, one can have misgivings about the motives of any government officials insisting on replacing forests (burnt) with wind farms.

The Henley Bridge, sometimes referred to as Henley Street Bridge, is a vehicle bridge that crosses the Tennessee River in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Completed in 1931, the 1,793-foot (547 m) bridge is one of four vehicle bridges connecting Downtown Knoxville with South Knoxville, the other three being the Gay Street Bridge, the Buck Karnes Bridge, named for James Ernest Karnes, (Alcoa Highway), and the James C. Ford Memorial Bridge. The bridge carries U.S. Route 441, which is known as "Henley Street" in downtown Knoxville and "Chapman Highway" in South Knoxville.

 

The bridge and its associated street are named for Colonel David Henley, a Revolutionary War officer and War Department agent stationed in Knoxville in the 1790s.

 

Design

The Henley Bridge is a reinforced concrete open-spandrel arch bridge with six dual-ribbed arches connected by lateral bracing. The lengths of the arches are (from north to south) 203 feet (62 m), 232 feet (71 m), 317 feet (97 m), 232 feet (71 m), 220 feet (67 m), and 185 feet (56 m). The deck consists of six concrete girders, and has a total width of just over 70 feet (21 m) and a curb-to-curb width of just over 54 feet (16 m).

  

History

In the late 1920s, Knoxville developed a new city plan that called for, among other things, the widening of Henley Street and the construction of a 54-foot-wide (16 m) bridge connecting the street with South Knoxville. The city initially hired J. E. Griner and Company of Baltimore, but after the company insisted that a 36-foot width was adequate, the city rejected their design. In April 1930, after intense debate, the city selected a design submitted by the Des Moines, Iowa-based Marsh Engineering Company, which was led by long-time bridge engineer James B. Marsh (1856–1936).

 

Throughout 1930, Knoxville's city council, various local engineers, and the Knoxville News-Sentinel argued relentlessly over the bridge, bickering with one another over everything from the bridge's size to the construction materials to be used. One councilman charged that bribery had taken place. Furthermore, rather than allow Marsh Engineering to choose its own construction supervisor, the city installed local engineers L. M. Dow and S. B. Goodsey as supervising engineer and resident engineer, respectively, and made numerous modifications to Marsh's design. Work finally began on September 30, 1930, with Pittsburgh contractor Booth and Flinn overseeing construction. The cost of construction was $1.15 million, which was split between the City of Knoxville and Knox County.

 

The completion of the Henley Bridge roughly coincided with the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the bridge became for Knoxvillians the "gateway" to the Smokies (US-441, which crosses the bridge, is still the main route connecting Knoxville with the park). From 1987-2015, the bridge was also the primary fireworks launching area during Knoxville's annual Boomsday celebration.

 

The Henley Bridge is mentioned in three novels by author Cormac McCarthy. In The Orchard Keeper (1968), a bootlegger's car breaks down on the bridge. In Suttree (1979), a homeless man known as "The Ragpicker" lives under the south end of the bridge. In The Road (2006), the Henley Bridge is the "high concrete bridge" the father and son cross near the beginning of the novel en route to the Great Smoky Mountains to the south It is also mentioned in the start of Mountain Treachery, an Amazon.com e-novel by Matt Reid.

 

Rehabilitation

In 2011, the Tennessee Department of Transportation began a major rehabilitation project on the bridge. The improvements called for five total lanes of vehicular traffic, two bike lanes and sidewalks, as well as improved lighting.

 

The project was plagued with delays, most notably when two workers were killed in two separate incidents on the construction site. Britton Bridge LLC, the project's contractor, was fined and the construction progress was halted for two weeks by TDOT. There were also several previously undetected deficiencies in the bridge's structure that lagged progress and increased cost.

 

The project was partially completed with the opening of two of the five lanes of traffic on October 17, 2013. The final cost of the project is estimated at $32 million. Contractors will finish paving work, striping and lighting improvements, with a final completion date of June 2014.

 

(Wikipedia)

2 - Mei contently sits and eats the special boo delivery

Another shot of the third entry in my Sweater Dress competition! For those of you who like to keep a close watch over how these competitions develop, here are the current standings in my two winter/spring contests:

 

Party Prints

Dress One: 163 votes

Dress Two: 139 votes

Dress Three: 127 votes

 

Sweater Dresses

Dress One: 183 votes

Dress Two: 132 votes

Dress Three (one shot posted to date): 48 votes

 

There is plenty of time left to influence the judges, and remember – there are no rules in my contests. Bribery, multiple voting, or offers of special “favours” are not just tolerated but positively encouraged by the official tournament referee!

 

Lots more to come soon, but bye bye for now! Kisses to all my fabulous friends!

xxxxxxx

Rebecca

 

Defendant Jean-Louis Mazy (right) with his lawyer Monsieur Klees. Famous for their bow ties!

 

In 1998 I was the courtroom artist for the Belgian newspaper Le Soir. It was for the big trial The Agusta-Dassault Case. It was one of Belgium's most infamous trials of the century, some of the country's most senior political figures had been sucked into a scandal extending from bribery to money-laundering, forgery and possibly even murder. It was one of the best jobs I ever had. Sitting in that courtroom for days and drawing was very exciting.

 

Annie is convinced that the way to Santa's heart might be through his reindeer!! It never hurts to try!!

...says Charlie. This is beneath me.

 

Unless of course you have treats.

 

Charlie actually sat still and didn't move for this. I have the suspicion that it was the sweater that made him sit still.

He of course has no idea what 'sit' and 'stay' mean as those commands are meant for lesser dogs.

The sweater was a bit snug on him. I don't think it is meant to be worn by such a LONG dog with such a stout chest.

 

Good boy Charlie.

This is Eli. He was the only one visitor we had at our Help Portrait shoot. He was actually a regular in the area and with a little bribery, he came in out of the cold and serenaded us with his cello. He is actually very good and quite a funny character. To find out more, go here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOZjkRiqUfM

The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) by Lockheed.

 

One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard units until it was phased out in 1975. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) flew a small mixed fleet of F-104 types in supersonic flight tests and spaceflight programs until they were retired in 1994.

 

USAF F-104Cs saw service during the Vietnam War, and F-104A aircraft were deployed by Pakistan briefly during the Indo-Pakistani wars. Republic of China Air Force (Taiwan) F-104s also engaged the People's Liberation Army Air Force (China) over the disputed island of Quemoy. The ultimate production version of the basic fighter model F-104 was the F-104S all-weather interceptor designed by Aeritalia for the Italian Air Force, and equipped with radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow missiles. An advanced F-104 with a high-mounted wing, known as the CL-1200 Lancer, did not proceed past the mock-up stage.

 

A set of modifications produced the F-104G model, which won a NATO competition for a new fighter-bomber. Several two-seat trainer versions were also produced, the most numerous being the TF-104G. A total of 2,578 Starfighters were eventually produced, mostly by NATO members.The F-104 served with the air forces of over a dozen nations. The operational service of the Starfighter ended with its retirement by the Italian Air Force in May 2004, some 46 years after its introduction in 1958 by the USAF.

 

The poor safety record of the Starfighter brought the aircraft into the public eye, especially in Luftwaffe service. The subsequent Lockheed bribery scandals surrounding the original purchase contracts caused considerable political controversy in Europe and Japan.

The developer John Poulson (1910 - 1993) had an office at this address in the 1960’s. Poulson was was a British architectural designer and businessman who caused a major political scandal when his use of bribery was disclosed in 1972. He bribed local councillors and national politicians to get planning and funding for his projects. The highest-ranking figure to be forced out due to the scandal was Conservative Home Secretary Reginald Maudling. Through this address in Heriot Row he established a corrupt relationship with senior Scottish Office civil servant George Pottinger, which helped him land the £3million redevelopment of Aviemore in Speyside. Pottinger too went to jail. Poulson served a prison sentence, but continued to protest his innocence, claiming that he was "a man more sinned against than sinning" [Wikipedia & heriotrow.org ]

This is my wife, Jenny, nearing the top of what had been a long, steep and exhausting climb from the forest below to a high ridge running along the coast of Somerset. The views along the ridge made all the effort well worthwhile.

 

Seeing this shot reminded me of our first few walking holidays when our kids were small (about 5 and 7).

 

They hated it with a passion.

 

The first ever walk we did, it rained all day. I recall us crammed into a small church porch eating very soggy sandwiches. The kids were not happy bunnies.

 

Bribery and lies were the name of the game.

 

“You can have one square of chocolate when we reach that stile”

 

“Not much further now, soon be back”

 

“No, we’re not lost. It’s just the map that’s wrong”

 

These worked for a while. But the chocolate would run out and the “not much further comment” would be treated with derision after the tenth utterance.

 

My son in particular could be a stubborn little so and so. (A trait he inherits from his Mother).

 

On one occasion he just flopped down and wailed “I just can’t go on, Dad”. After promises of huge amounts ice cream he finally agreed to move and dragged along well behind us being overtaken by snails and tortoises.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 30 years pass ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

But it did them no lasting harm. Now they both love the outdoors and hill walking in particular.

 

They are also obviously much stronger and fitter now too.

 

Much stronger and fitter than me!

 

Now it is me that lags behind ……………………………. Well behind.

 

Sometimes out of sight behind.

 

And they have developed a cruel sadistic side (another one of their Mothers’ traits.)

 

Like waiting ages for me to catch up.

 

And when I do arrive, sweating, swearing, gasping and crimson faced, with pain etched on my face, they jump to their feet and rush on with comments like ……..

 

“………………. Only another 8 miles to the pub, Dad.”

 

“………………. Last one there buys the beer.”

 

“………………. Didn’t know anyone could walk that slow.”

 

“………………. Have you stopped for a sleep?”

 

“………………. If you can’t make it, we’ll just have to leave you here.”

  

Children can be so cruel.

 

View On Black

 

The Inquisitive eye of my beautiful two and a half year old Daughter , I've done this type of shot before but previously not managed to get her to stay still enough to be able to use the Macro tubes , on this occasion bribery with chocolate seemed to work ;-)

Shot with D610 and 85mm 1.8g + 36mm extension ,on camera flash and remote Yongnuo 568 ex ii

 

A bucket list shot from Nîmes in 2012. Plenty to improve on but good enough for an initial entry on the list :) For once I had to use to bribery to be allowed to take this shot. Not from the carousel owner but from the family -- two trips round the carousel for two daughters, about 8 euros I recall!

 

On technique: I used a poor man's tripod and remote release (aka: the pavement and self timer!). This creates the jaunty angle and helps to make the most of the lights at the top of the carousel. A single exposure didn't last a full rotation of the carousel so this image is made up of two 6 and 8 second exposures stacked together.

 

Now also posting on 500px.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. According to traditions dating back to the 4th century, it contains the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus's empty tomb, where he is believed by Christians to have been buried and resurrected. Each time the church was rebuilt, some of the antiquities from the preceding structure were used in the newer renovation. The tomb itself is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicule. The Status Quo, an understanding between religious communities dating to 1757, applies to the site.

 

Within the church proper are the last four stations of the Cross of the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of the Passion of Jesus. The church has been a major Christian pilgrimage destination since its creation in the 4th century, as the traditional site of the resurrection of Christ, thus its original Greek name, Church of the Anastasis ('Resurrection').

 

Control of the church itself is shared, a simultaneum, among several Christian denominations and secular entities in complicated arrangements essentially unchanged for over 160 years, and some for much longer. The main denominations sharing property over parts of the church are the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic, and to a lesser degree the Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopian Orthodox churches.

 

Following the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 during the First Jewish–Roman War, Jerusalem had been reduced to ruins. In AD 130, the Roman emperor Hadrian began the building of a Roman colony, the new city of Aelia Capitolina, on the site. Circa AD 135, he ordered that a cave containing a rock-cut tomb be filled in to create a flat foundation for a temple dedicated to Jupiter or Venus. The temple remained until the early 4th century.

 

After allegedly seeing a vision of a cross in the sky in 312, Constantine the Great began to favor Christianity, signed the Edict of Milan legalising the religion, and sent his mother, Helena, to Jerusalem to look for Christ's tomb. With the help of Bishop of Caesarea Eusebius and Bishop of Jerusalem Macarius, three crosses were found near a tomb; one which allegedly cured people of death was presumed to be the True Cross Jesus was crucified on, leading the Romans to believe that they had found Calvary. Constantine ordered in about 326 that the temple to Jupiter/Venus be replaced by a church. After the temple was torn down and its ruins removed, the soil was removed from the cave, revealing a rock-cut tomb that Helena and Macarius identified as the burial site of Jesus. A shrine was built, enclosing the rock tomb walls within its own.

 

In 327, Constantine and Helena separately commissioned the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to commemorate the birth of Jesus.

 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, planned by the architect Zenobius, was built as separate constructs over the two holy sites: a rotunda called the Anastasis ("Resurrection"), where Helena and Macarius believed Jesus to have been buried, and across a courtyard to the east, the great basilica, an enclosed colonnaded atrium (the Triportico, sometimes called the Martyrium) with the traditional site of Calvary in one corner. The church was consecrated on 13 September 335. The Church Of The Holy Sepulchre site has been recognized since early in the 4th century as the place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead.

 

This building was destroyed by a fire in May of AD 614, when the Sassanid Empire, under Khosrau II, invaded Jerusalem and captured the True Cross. In 630, the Emperor Heraclius rebuilt the church after recapturing the city. After Jerusalem came under Islamic rule, it remained a Christian church, with the early Muslim rulers protecting the city's Christian sites, prohibiting their destruction or use as living quarters. A story reports that the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab visited the church and stopped to pray on the balcony, but at the time of prayer, turned away from the church and prayed outside. He feared that future generations would misinterpret this gesture, taking it as a pretext to turn the church into a mosque. Eutychius of Alexandria adds that Umar wrote a decree saying that Muslims would not inhabit this location. The building suffered severe damage from an earthquake in 746.

 

Early in the 9th century, another earthquake damaged the dome of the Anastasis. The damage was repaired in 810 by Patriarch Thomas I. In 841, the church suffered a fire. In 935, the Christians prevented the construction of a Muslim mosque adjacent to the Church. In 938, a new fire damaged the inside of the basilica and came close to the rotunda. In 966, due to a defeat of Muslim armies in the region of Syria, a riot broke out, which was followed by reprisals. The basilica was burned again. The doors and roof were burnt, and Patriarch John VII was murdered.

 

On 18 October 1009, Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the complete destruction of the church as part of a more general campaign against Christian places of worship in Palestine and Egypt. The damage was extensive, with few parts of the early church remaining, and the roof of the rock-cut tomb damaged; the original shrine was destroyed. Some partial repairs followed. Christian Europe reacted with shock and expulsions of Jews, serving as an impetus to later Crusades.

 

In wide-ranging negotiations between the Fatimids and the Byzantine Empire in 1027–28, an agreement was reached whereby the new Caliph Ali az-Zahir (al-Hakim's son) agreed to allow the rebuilding and redecoration of the church. The rebuilding was finally completed during the tenures of Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople in 1048. As a concession, the mosque in Constantinople was reopened and the khutba sermons were to be pronounced in az-Zahir's name. Muslim sources say a by-product of the agreement was the renunciation of Islam by many Christians who had been forced to convert under al-Hakim's persecutions. In addition, the Byzantines, while releasing 5,000 Muslim prisoners, made demands for the restoration of other churches destroyed by al-Hakim and the reestablishment of a patriarch in Jerusalem. Contemporary sources credit the emperor with spending vast sums in an effort to restore the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after this agreement was made. Still, "a total replacement was far beyond available resources. The new construction was concentrated on the rotunda and its surrounding buildings: the great basilica remained in ruins."

 

The rebuilt church site consisted of "a court open to the sky, with five small chapels attached to it." The chapels were east of the court of resurrection (when reconstructed, the location of the tomb was under open sky), where the western wall of the great basilica had been. They commemorated scenes from the passion, such as the location of the prison of Christ and his flagellation, and presumably were so placed because of the difficulties of free movement among shrines in the city streets. The dedication of these chapels indicates the importance of the pilgrims' devotion to the suffering of Christ. They have been described as 'a sort of Via Dolorosa in miniature'... since little or no rebuilding took place on the site of the great basilica. Western pilgrims to Jerusalem during the 11th century found much of the sacred site in ruins." Control of Jerusalem, and thereby the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, continued to change hands several times between the Fatimids and the Seljuk Turks (loyal to the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad) until the Crusaders' arrival in 1099.

 

Many historians maintain that the main concern of Pope Urban II, when calling for the First Crusade, was the threat to Constantinople from the Turkish invasion of Asia Minor in response to the appeal of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Historians agree that the fate of Jerusalem and thereby the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was also of concern, if not the immediate goal of papal policy in 1095. The idea of taking Jerusalem gained more focus as the Crusade was underway. The rebuilt church site was taken from the Fatimids (who had recently taken it from the Abassids) by the knights of the First Crusade on 15 July 1099.

 

The First Crusade was envisioned as an armed pilgrimage, and no crusader could consider his journey complete unless he had prayed as a pilgrim at the Holy Sepulchre. The classical theory is that Crusader leader Godfrey of Bouillon, who became the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem, decided not to use the title "king" during his lifetime, and declared himself Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri ("Protector [or Defender] of the Holy Sepulchre"). By the Crusader period, a cistern under the former basilica was rumoured to have been where Helena had found the True Cross, and began to be venerated as such; the cistern later became the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross, but there is no evidence of the site's identification before the 11th century, and modern archaeological investigation has now dated the cistern to 11th-century repairs by Monomachos.

 

According to the German priest and pilgrim Ludolf von Sudheim, the keys of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre were in hands of the "ancient Georgians", and the food, alms, candles and oil for lamps were given to them by the pilgrims at the south door of the church.

 

Eight 11th- and 12th-century Crusader leaders (Godfrey, Baldwin I, Baldwin II, Fulk, Baldwin III, Amalric, Baldwin IV and Baldwin V — the first eight rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem) were buried in the south transept and inside the Chapel of Adam. The royal tombs were destroyed by the Greeks in 1809–1810. It is unclear if the remains of those men were exhumed; some researchers hypothesize that some of them may still be in unmarked pits under the church.

 

William of Tyre, chronicler of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, reports on the renovation of the Church in the mid-12th century. The Crusaders investigated the eastern ruins on the site, occasionally excavating through the rubble, and while attempting to reach the cistern, they discovered part of the original ground level of Hadrian's temple enclosure; they transformed this space into a chapel dedicated to Helena, widening their original excavation tunnel into a proper staircase. The Crusaders began to refurnish the church in Romanesque style and added a bell tower. These renovations unified the small chapels on the site and were completed during the reign of Queen Melisende in 1149, placing all the holy places under one roof for the first time. The church became the seat of the first Latin patriarchs and the site of the kingdom's scriptorium. It was lost to Saladin, along with the rest of the city, in 1187, although the treaty established after the Third Crusade allowed Christian pilgrims to visit the site. Emperor Frederick II (r. 1220–50) regained the city and the church by treaty in the 13th century while under a ban of excommunication, with the curious consequence that the holiest church in Christianity was laid under interdict. The church seems to have been largely in the hands of Greek Orthodox patriarch Athanasius II of Jerusalem (c. 1231–47) during the Latin control of Jerusalem. Both city and church were captured by the Khwarezmians in 1244.

 

There was certainly a recognisable Nestorian (Church of the East) presence at the Holy Sepulchre from the years 1348 through 1575, as contemporary Franciscan accounts indicate. The Franciscan friars renovated the church in 1555, as it had been neglected despite increased numbers of pilgrims. The Franciscans rebuilt the Aedicule, extending the structure to create an antechamber. A marble shrine commissioned by Friar Boniface of Ragusa was placed to envelop the remains of Christ's tomb, probably to prevent pilgrims from touching the original rock or taking small pieces as souvenirs. A marble slab was placed over the limestone burial bed where Jesus's body is believed to have lain.

 

After the renovation of 1555, control of the church oscillated between the Franciscans and the Orthodox, depending on which community could obtain a favorable firman from the "Sublime Porte" at a particular time, often through outright bribery. Violent clashes were not uncommon. There was no agreement about this question, although it was discussed at the negotiations to the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. During the Holy Week of 1757, Orthodox Christians reportedly took over some of the Franciscan-controlled church. This may have been the cause of the sultan's firman (decree) later developed into the Status Quo.

 

A fire severely damaged the structure again in 1808, causing the dome of the Rotunda to collapse and smashing the Aedicule's exterior decoration. The Rotunda and the Aedicule's exterior were rebuilt in 1809–10 by architect Nikolaos Ch. Komnenos of Mytilene in the contemporary Ottoman Baroque style.[citation needed] The interior of the antechamber, now known as the Chapel of the Angel, was partly rebuilt to a square ground plan in place of the previously semicircular western end.

 

Another decree in 1853 from the sultan solidified the existing territorial division among the communities and solidified the Status Quo for arrangements to "remain in their present state", requiring consensus to make even minor changes.

 

The dome was restored by Catholics, Greeks and Turks in 1868, being made of iron ever since.

 

By the time of the British Mandate for Palestine following the end of World War I, the cladding of red marble applied to the Aedicule by Komnenos had deteriorated badly and was detaching from the underlying structure; from 1947 until restoration work in 2016–17, it was held in place with an exterior scaffolding of iron girders installed by the British authorities.

 

In 1948, Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan and the Old City with the church were made part of Jordan. In 1967, Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem in the Six Day War, and that area has remained under Israeli control ever since. Under Israeli rule, legal arrangements relating to the churches of East Jerusalem were maintained in coordination with the Jordanian government. The dome at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was restored again in 1994–97 as part of extensive modern renovations that have been ongoing since 1959. During the 1970–78 restoration works and excavations inside the building, and under the nearby Muristan bazaar, it was found that the area was originally a quarry, from which white meleke limestone was struck.

 

East of the Chapel of Saint Helena, the excavators discovered a void containing a second-century[dubious – discuss] drawing of a Roman pilgrim ship, two low walls supporting the platform of Hadrian's second-century temple, and a higher fourth-century wall built to support Constantine's basilica. After the excavations of the early 1970s, the Armenian authorities converted this archaeological space into the Chapel of Saint Vartan, and created an artificial walkway over the quarry on the north of the chapel, so that the new chapel could be accessed (by permission) from the Chapel of Saint Helena.

 

After seven decades of being held together by steel girders, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) declared the visibly deteriorating Aedicule structure unsafe. A restoration of the Aedicule was agreed upon and executed from May 2016 to March 2017. Much of the $4 million project was funded by the World Monuments Fund, as well as $1.3 million from Mica Ertegun and a significant sum from King Abdullah II of Jordan. The existence of the original limestone cave walls within the Aedicule was confirmed, and a window was created to view this from the inside. The presence of moisture led to the discovery of an underground shaft resembling an escape tunnel carved into the bedrock, seeming to lead from the tomb. For the first time since at least 1555, on 26 October 2016, marble cladding that protects the supposed burial bed of Jesus was removed. Members of the National Technical University of Athens were present. Initially, only a layer of debris was visible. This was cleared in the next day, and a partially broken marble slab with a Crusader-style cross carved was revealed. By the night of 28 October, the original limestone burial bed was shown to be intact. The tomb was resealed shortly thereafter. Mortar from just above the burial bed was later dated to the mid-fourth century.

 

On 25 March 2020, Israeli health officials ordered the site closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the keeper of the keys, it was the first such closure since 1349, during the Black Death. Clerics continued regular prayers inside the building, and it reopened to visitors two months later, on 24 May.

 

During church renovations in 2022, a stone slab covered in modern graffiti was moved from a wall, revealing Cosmatesque-style decoration on one face. According to an IAA archaeologist, the decoration was once inlaid with pieces of glass and fine marble; it indicates that the relic was the front of the church's high altar from the Crusader era (c. 1149), which was later used by the Greek Orthodox until being damaged in the 1808 fire.

 

The courtyard facing the entrance to the church is known as the parvis. Two streets open into the parvis: St Helena Road (west) and Suq ed-Dabbagha (east). Around the parvis are a few smaller structures.

 

South of the parvis, opposite the church:

 

Broken columns—once forming part of an arcade—stand opposite the church, at the top of a short descending staircase stretching over the entire breadth of the parvis. In the 13th century, the tops of the columns were removed and sent to Mecca by the Khwarezmids.

The Gethsemane Metochion, a small Greek Orthodox monastery (metochion).

On the eastern side of the parvis, south to north:

 

The Monastery of St Abraham (Greek Orthodox), next to the Suq ed-Dabbagha entrance to the parvis.

The Chapel of St John the Evangelist (Armenian Orthodox)

The Chapel of St Michael and the Chapel of the Four Living Creatures (both are disputed between the Copts and Ethiopians), giving access to Deir es-Sultan (also disputed), a rooftop monastery surrounding the dome of the Chapel of St Helena.

North of the parvis, in front of the church façade or against it:

 

Chapel of the Franks (Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows): a blue-domed Roman Catholic Crusader chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, which once provided exclusive access to Calvary. The chapel marks the 10th Station of the Cross (the stripping of Jesus's garments).

Oratory of St. Mary of Egypt: a Greek Orthodox oratory and chapel, directly beneath the Chapel of the Franks, dedicated to St. Mary of Egypt.

The tomb (including a ledgerstone) of Philip d'Aubigny aka Philip Daubeney (died 1236), a knight, tutor, and royal councilor to Henry III of England and signer of the Magna Carta—is placed in front of, and between, the church's two original entrance doors, of which the eastern one is walled up. It is one of the few tombs of crusaders and other Europeans not removed from the Church after the Khwarizmian capture of Jerusalem in 1244. In the 1900s, during a fight between the Greeks and Latins, some monks damaged the tomb by throwing stones from the roof. A stone marker[clarification needed] was placed on his tomb in 1925, sheltered by a wooden trapdoor that hides it from view.[citation needed]

A group of three chapels borders the parvis on its west side. They originally formed the baptistery complex of the Constantinian church. The southernmost chapel was the vestibule, the middle chapel the baptistery, and the north chapel the chamber in which the patriarch chrismated the newly baptized before leading them into the rotunda north of this complex. Now they are dedicated as (from south to north)

 

The Chapel of St. James the Just (Greek Orthodox),

The Chapel of St. John the Baptist (Greek Orthodox),

The Chapel of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (Greek Orthodox; at the base of the bell tower).

 

The 12th-century Crusader bell tower is just south of the Rotunda, to the left of the entrance. Its upper level was lost in a 1545 collapse. In 1719, another two storeys were lost.

 

The wooden doors that compose the main entrance are the original, highly carved arched doors. Today, only the left-hand entrance is currently accessible, as the right doorway has long since been bricked up. The entrance to the church leads to the south transept, through the crusader façade in the parvis of a larger courtyard. This is found past a group of streets winding through the outer Via Dolorosa by way of a souq in the Muristan. This narrow way of access to such a large structure has proven to be hazardous at times. For example, when a fire broke out in 1840, dozens of pilgrims were trampled to death.

 

According to their own family lore, the Muslim Nuseibeh family has been responsible for opening the door as an impartial party to the church's denominations already since the seventh century. However, they themselves admit that the documents held by various Christian denominations only mention their role since the 12th century, in the time of Saladin, which is the date more generally accepted. After retaking Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, Saladin entrusted the Joudeh family with the key to the church, which is made of iron and 30 centimetres (12 in) long; the Nuseibehs either became or remained its doorkeepers.

 

The 'immovable ladder' stands beneath a window on the façade.

 

Just inside the church entrance is a stairway leading up to Calvary (Golgotha), traditionally regarded as the site of Jesus's crucifixion and the most lavishly decorated part of the church. The exit is via another stairway opposite the first, leading down to the ambulatory. Golgotha and its chapels are just south of the main altar of the catholicon.

 

Calvary is split into two chapels: one Greek Orthodox and one Catholic, each with its own altar. On the left (north) side, the Greek Orthodox chapel's altar is placed over the supposed rock of Calvary (the 12th Station of the Cross), which can be touched through a hole in the floor beneath the altar. The rock can be seen under protective glass on both sides of the altar. The softer surrounding stone was removed when the church was built. The Roman Catholic (Franciscan) Chapel of the Nailing of the Cross (the 11th Station of the Cross) stretches to the south. Between the Catholic Altar of the Nailing to the Cross and the Orthodox altar is the Catholic Altar of the Stabat Mater, which has a statue of Mary with an 18th-century bust; this middle altar marks the 13th Station of the Cross.

 

On the ground floor, just underneath the Golgotha chapel, is the Chapel of Adam. According to tradition, Jesus was crucified over the place where Adam's skull was buried. According to some, the blood of Christ ran down the cross and through the rocks to fill Adam's skull. Through a window at the back of the 11th-century apse, the rock of Calvary can be seen with a crack traditionally held to be caused by the earthquake that followed Jesus's death;[78] some scholars claim it is the result of quarrying against a natural flaw in the rock.

 

Behind the Chapel of Adam is the Greek Treasury (Treasury of the Greek Patriarch). Some of its relics, such as a 12th-century crystal mitre, were transferred to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Museum (the Patriarchal Museum) on Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Street.

 

Just inside the entrance to the church is the Stone of Anointing (also Stone of the Anointing or Stone of Unction), which tradition holds to be where Jesus's body was prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea, though this tradition is only attested since the crusader era (notably by the Italian Dominican pilgrim Riccoldo da Monte di Croce in 1288), and the present stone was only added in the 1810 reconstruction.

 

The wall behind the stone is defined by its striking blue balconies and taphos symbol-bearing red banners (depicting the insignia of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre), and is decorated with lamps. The modern mosaic along the wall depicts the anointing of Jesus's body, preceded on the right by the Descent from the Cross, and succeeded on the left by the Burial of Jesus.

 

The wall was a temporary addition to support the arch above it, which had been weakened after the damage in the 1808 fire; it blocks the view of the rotunda, separates the entrance from the catholicon, sits on top of four of the now empty and desecrated Crusader graves and is no longer structurally necessary. Opinions differ as to whether it is to be seen as the 13th Station of the Cross, which others identify as the lowering of Jesus from the cross and located between the 11th and 12th stations on Calvary.

 

The lamps that hang over the Stone of Unction, adorned with cross-bearing chain links, are contributed by Armenians, Copts, Greeks and Latins.

 

Immediately inside and to the left of the entrance is a bench (formerly a divan) that has traditionally been used by the church's Muslim doorkeepers, along with some Christian clergy, as well as electrical wiring. To the right of the entrance is a wall along the ambulatory containing the staircase leading to Golgotha. Further along the same wall is the entrance to the Chapel of Adam.

 

The rotunda is the building of the larger dome located on the far west side. In the centre of the rotunda is a small chapel called the Aedicule in English, from the Latin aedicula, in reference to a small shrine. The Aedicule has two rooms: the first holds a relic called the Angel's Stone, which is believed to be a fragment of the large stone that sealed the tomb; the second, smaller room contains the tomb of Jesus. Possibly to prevent pilgrims from removing bits of the original rock as souvenirs, by 1555, a surface of marble cladding was placed on the tomb to prevent further damage to the tomb. In October 2016, the top slab was pulled back to reveal an older, partially broken marble slab with a Crusader-style cross carved in it. Beneath it, the limestone burial bed was revealed to be intact.

 

Under the Status Quo, the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Apostolic Churches all have rights to the interior of the tomb, and all three communities celebrate the Divine Liturgy or Holy Mass there daily. It is also used for other ceremonies on special occasions, such as the Holy Saturday ceremony of the Holy Fire led by the Greek Orthodox patriarch (with the participation of the Coptic and Armenian patriarchs). To its rear, in the Coptic Chapel, constructed of iron latticework, lies the altar used by the Coptic Orthodox. Historically, the Georgians also retained the key to the Aedicule.

 

To the right of the sepulchre on the northwestern edge of the Rotunda is the Chapel of the Apparition, which is reserved for Roman Catholic use.

 

In the central nave of the Crusader-era church, just east of the larger rotunda, is the Crusader structure housing the main altar of the Church, today the Greek Orthodox catholicon. Its dome is 19.8 metres (65 ft) in diameter, and is set directly over the centre of the transept crossing of the choir where the compas is situated, an omphalos ("navel") stone once thought to be the center of the world and still venerated as such by Orthodox Christians (associated with the site of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection).

 

Since 1996 this dome is topped by the monumental Golgotha Crucifix, which the Greek Patriarch Diodoros I of Jerusalem consecrated. It was at the initiative of Israeli professor Gustav Kühnel to erect a new crucifix at the church that would not only be worthy of the singularity of the site, but that would also become a symbol of the efforts of unity in the community of Christian faith.

 

The catholicon's iconostasis demarcates the Orthodox sanctuary behind it, to its east. The iconostasis is flanked to the front by two episcopal thrones: the southern seat (cathedra) is the patriarchal throne of the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, and the northern seat is for an archbishop or bishop. (There is also a popular claim that both are patriarchal thrones, with the northern one being for the patriarch of Antioch — which has been described as a misstatement, however.)

 

South of the Aedicule is the "Place of the Three Marys", marked by a stone canopy (the Station of the Holy Women) and a large modern wall mosaic. From here one can enter the Armenian monastery, which stretches over the ground and first upper floor of the church's southeastern part.

 

West of the Aedicule, to the rear of the Rotunda, is the Syriac Chapel with the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, located in a Constantinian apse and containing an opening to an ancient Jewish rock-cut tomb. This chapel is where the Syriac Orthodox celebrate their Liturgy on Sundays.

 

The Syriac Orthodox Chapel of Saint Joseph of Arimathea and Saint Nicodemus. On Sundays and feast days it is furnished for the celebration of Mass. It is accessed from the Rotunda, by a door west of the Aedicule.

 

On the far side of the chapel is the low entrance to an almost complete first-century Jewish tomb, initially holding six kokh-type funeral shafts radiating from a central chamber, two of which are still exposed. Although this space was discovered relatively recently and contains no identifying marks, some believe that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were buried here. Since Jews always buried their dead outside the city, the presence of this tomb seems to prove that the Holy Sepulchre site was outside the city walls at the time of the crucifixion.

 

The Franciscan Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene – The chapel, an open area, indicates the place where Mary Magdalene met Jesus after his resurrection.

 

The Franciscan Chapel of the Apparition (Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament), directly north of the above – in memory of Jesus's meeting with his mother after the Resurrection, a non-scriptural tradition. Here stands a piece of an ancient column, allegedly part of the one Jesus was tied to during his scourging.

 

The Arches of the Virgin are seven arches (an arcade) at the northern end of the north transept, which is to the catholicon's north. Disputed by the Orthodox and the Latin, the area is used to store ladders.

 

In the northeast side of the complex, there is the Prison of Christ, alleged to be where Jesus was held. The Greek Orthodox are showing pilgrims yet another place where Jesus was allegedly held, the similarly named Prison of Christ in their Monastery of the Praetorium, located near the Church of Ecce Homo, between the Second and Third Stations of the Via Dolorosa. The Armenians regard a recess in the Monastery of the Flagellation at the Second Station of the Via Dolorosa as the Prison of Christ. A cistern among the ruins beneath the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu on Mount Zion is also alleged to have been the Prison of Christ. To reconcile the traditions, some allege that Jesus was held in the Mount Zion cell in connection with his trial by the Jewish high priest, at the Praetorium in connection with his trial by the Roman governor Pilate, and near the Golgotha before crucifixion.

 

The chapels in the ambulatory are, from north to south: the Greek Chapel of Saint Longinus (named after Longinus), the Armenian Chapel of the Division of Robes, the entrance to the Chapel of Saint Helena, and the Greek Chapel of the Derision.

 

Chapel of Saint Helena – between the Chapel of the Division of Robes and the Greek Chapel of the Derision are stairs descending to the Chapel of Saint Helena. The Armenians, who own it, call it the Chapel of St. Gregory the Illuminator, after the saint who brought Christianity to the Armenians.

 

Chapel of St Vartan (or Vardan) Mamikonian – on the north side of the Chapel of Saint Helena is an ornate wrought iron door, beyond which a raised artificial platform affords views of the quarry, and which leads to the Chapel of Saint Vartan. The latter chapel contains archaeological remains from Hadrian's temple and Constantine's basilica. These areas are open only on request.

 

Chapel of the Invention of the Cross (named for the Invention (Finding) of the Holy Cross) – another set of 22 stairs from the Chapel of Saint Helena leads down to the Roman Catholic Chapel of the Invention of the Holy Cross, believed to be the place where the True Cross was found.

 

An Ottoman decree of 1757 helped establish a status quo upholding the state of affairs for various Holy Land sites. The status quo was upheld in Sultan Abdülmecid I's firman (decree) of 1852/3, which pinned down the now-permanent statutes of property and the regulations concerning the roles of the different denominations and other custodians.

 

The primary custodians are the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches. The Greek Orthodox act through the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate as well as through the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre. Roman Catholics act through the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. In the 19th century, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syriac Orthodox also acquired lesser responsibilities, which include shrines and other structures in and around the building.

 

None of these controls the main entrance. In 1192, Saladin assigned door-keeping responsibilities to the Muslim Nusaybah family. The wooden doors that compose the main entrance are the original, highly carved doors. The Joudeh al-Goudia (al-Ghodayya) family were entrusted as custodian to the keys of the Holy Sepulchre by Saladin in 1187. Despite occasional disagreements, religious services take place in the Church with regularity and coexistence is generally peaceful. An example of concord between the Church custodians is the full restoration of the Aedicule from 2016 to 2017.

 

The establishment of the modern Status Quo in 1853 did not halt controversy and occasional violence. In 1902, 18 friars were hospitalized and some monks were jailed after the Franciscans and Greeks disagreed over who could clean the lowest step of the Chapel of the Franks. In the aftermath, the Greek patriarch, Franciscan custos, Ottoman governor and French consul general signed a convention that both denominations could sweep it. On a hot summer day in 2002, a Coptic monk moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians and eleven were hospitalized after the resulting fight. In another incident in 2004, during Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Orthodox and a fistfight broke out. Some people were arrested, but no one was seriously injured.

 

On Palm Sunday, in April 2008, a brawl broke out when a Greek monk was ejected from the building by a rival faction. Police were called to the scene but were also attacked by the enraged brawlers. On Sunday, 9 November 2008, a clash erupted between Armenian and Greek monks during celebrations for the Feast of the Cross.

 

In February 2018, the church was closed following a tax dispute over 152 million euros of uncollected taxes on church properties. The city hall stressed that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and all other churches are exempt from the taxes, with the changes only affecting establishments like "hotels, halls and businesses" owned by the churches. NPR had reported that the Greek Orthodox Church calls itself the second-largest landowner in Israel, after the Israeli government.

 

There was a lock-in protest against an Israeli legislative proposal which would expropriate church lands that had been sold to private companies since 2010, a measure which church leaders assert constitutes a serious violation of their property rights and the Status Quo. In a joint official statement the church authorities protested what they considered to be the peak of a systematic campaign in:

 

a discriminatory and racist bill that targets solely the properties of the Christian community in the Holy Land ... This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe.

 

The 2018 taxation affair does not cover any church buildings or religious related facilities (because they are exempt by law), but commercial facilities such as the Notre Dame Hotel which was not paying the municipal property tax, and any land which is owned and used as a commercial land. The church holds the rights to land where private homes have been constructed, and some of the disagreement had been raised after the Knesset had proposed a bill that will make it harder for a private company not to extend a lease for land used by homeowners. The church leaders have said that such a bill will make it harder for them to sell church-owned lands. According to The Jerusalem Post:

 

The stated aim of the bill is to protect homeowners against the possibility that private companies will not extend their leases of land on which their houses or apartments stand.

 

In June 2019, a number of Christian denominations in Jerusalem raised their voice against the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the sale of three properties by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate to Ateret Cohanim – an organization that seeks to increase the number of Jews living in the Old City and East Jerusalem. The church leaders warned that if the organization gets to control the sites, Christians could lose access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In June 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the sale and ended the legal battle.

 

The site of the church had been a temple to Jupiter or Venus built by Hadrian before Constantine's edifice was built. Hadrian's temple had been located there because it was the junction of the main north–south road with one of the two main east–west roads and directly adjacent to the forum (now the location of the Muristan, which is smaller than the former forum). The forum itself had been placed, as is traditional in Roman towns, at the junction of the main north–south road with the other main east–west road (which is now El-Bazar/David Street). The temple and forum together took up the entire space between the two main east–west roads (a few above-ground remains of the east end of the temple precinct still survive in the Alexander Nevsky Church complex of the Russian Mission in Exile).

 

From the archaeological excavations in the 1970s, it is clear that construction took over most of the site of the earlier temple enclosure and that the Triportico and Rotunda roughly overlapped with the temple building itself; the excavations indicate that the temple extended at least as far back as the Aedicule, and the temple enclosure would have reached back slightly further. Virgilio Canio Corbo, a Franciscan priest and archaeologist, who was present at the excavations, estimated from the archaeological evidence that the western retaining wall of the temple itself would have passed extremely close to the east side of the supposed tomb; if the wall had been any further west any tomb would have been crushed under the weight of the wall (which would be immediately above it) if it had not already been destroyed when foundations for the wall were made.

 

Other archaeologists have criticized Corbo's reconstructions. Dan Bahat, the former city archaeologist of Jerusalem, regards them as unsatisfactory, as there is no known temple of Aphrodite (Venus) matching Corbo's design, and no archaeological evidence for Corbo's suggestion that the temple building was on a platform raised high enough to avoid including anything sited where the Aedicule is now; indeed Bahat notes that many temples to Aphrodite have a rotunda-like design, and argues that there is no archaeological reason to assume that the present rotunda was not based on a rotunda in the temple previously on the site.

 

The New Testament describes Jesus's tomb as being outside the city wall,[l] as was normal for burials across the ancient world, which were regarded as unclean. Today, the site of the Church is within the current walls of the old city of Jerusalem. It has been well documented by archaeologists that in the time of Jesus, the walled city was smaller and the wall then was to the east of the current site of the Church. In other words, the city had been much narrower in Jesus's time, with the site then having been outside the walls; since Herod Agrippa (41–44) is recorded by history as extending the city to the north (beyond the present northern walls), the required repositioning of the western wall is traditionally attributed to him as well.

 

The area immediately to the south and east of the sepulchre was a quarry and outside the city during the early first century as excavations under the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer across the street demonstrated.[citation needed]

 

The church is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Old City of Jerusalem.

 

The Christian Quarter and the (also Christian) Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem are both located in the northwestern and western part of the Old City, due to the fact that the Holy Sepulchre is located close to the northwestern corner of the walled city. The adjacent neighbourhood within the Christian Quarter is called the Muristan, a term derived from the Persian word for hospital – Christian pilgrim hospices have been maintained in this area near the Holy Sepulchre since at least the time of Charlemagne.

 

From the ninth century onward, the construction of churches inspired by the Anastasis was extended across Europe. One example is Santo Stefano in Bologna, Italy, an agglomeration of seven churches recreating shrines of Jerusalem.

 

Several churches and monasteries in Europe, for instance, in Germany and Russia, and at least one church in the United States have been wholly or partially modeled on the Church of the Resurrection, some even reproducing other holy places for the benefit of pilgrims who could not travel to the Holy Land. They include the Heiliges Grab ("Holy Tomb") of Görlitz, constructed between 1481 and 1504, the New Jerusalem Monastery in Moscow Oblast, constructed by Patriarch Nikon between 1656 and 1666, and Mount St. Sepulchre Franciscan Monastery built by the Franciscans in Washington, DC in 1898.

 

Author Andrew Holt writes that the church is the most important in all Christendom.

 

Jerusalem is an ancient city in West Asia, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital; Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there, and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Neither claim, however, is widely recognized internationally.

 

Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. The part of Jerusalem called the City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th millennium BCE, in the shape of encampments of nomadic shepherds. During the Canaanite period (14th century BCE), Jerusalem was named as Urusalim on ancient Egyptian tablets, probably meaning "City of Shalem" after a Canaanite deity. During the Israelite period, significant construction activity in Jerusalem began in the 10th century BCE (Iron Age II), and by the 9th century BCE, the city had developed into the religious and administrative centre of the Kingdom of Judah. In 1538, the city walls were rebuilt for a last time around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. Today those walls define the Old City, which since the 19th century has been divided into four quarters – the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Since 1860, Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old City's boundaries. In 2022, Jerusalem had a population of some 971,800 residents, of which almost 60% were Jews and almost 40% Palestinians. In 2020, the population was 951,100, of which Jews comprised 570,100 (59.9%), Muslims 353,800 (37.2%), Christians 16,300 (1.7%), and 10,800 unclassified (1.1%).

 

According to the Hebrew Bible, King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel, and his son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the First Temple. Modern scholars argue that Jews branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the development of a distinct monolatrous—and later monotheistic—religion centred on El/Yahweh. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, assumed central symbolic importance for the Jewish people. The sobriquet of holy city (Hebrew: עיר הקודש, romanized: 'Ir ha-Qodesh) was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, which Christians adopted as their own "Old Testament", was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection there. In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. The city was the first qibla, the standard direction for Muslim prayers (salah), and in Islamic tradition, Muhammad made his Night Journey there in 621, ascending to heaven where he speaks to God, according to the Quran. As a result, despite having an area of only 0.9 km2 (3⁄8 sq mi), the Old City is home to many sites of seminal religious importance, among them the Temple Mount with its Western Wall, Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

 

Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the core issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the areas captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured and later annexed by Jordan. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently effectively annexed it into Jerusalem, together with additional surrounding territory.[note 6] One of Israel's Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the country's undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset (Israel's parliament), the residences of the Prime Minister (Beit Aghion) and President (Beit HaNassi), and the Supreme Court. The international community rejects the annexation as illegal and regards East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.

 

Etymology

The name "Jerusalem" is variously etymologized to mean "foundation (Semitic yry' 'to found, to lay a cornerstone') of the pagan god Shalem"; the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city.

 

Shalim or Shalem was the name of the god of dusk in the Canaanite religion, whose name is based on the same root S-L-M from which the Hebrew word for "peace" is derived (Shalom in Hebrew, cognate with Arabic Salam). The name thus offered itself to etymologizations such as "The City of Peace", "Abode of Peace", "Dwelling of Peace" ("founded in safety"), or "Vision of Peace" in some Christian authors.

 

The ending -ayim indicates the dual, thus leading to the suggestion that the name Yerushalayim refers to the fact that the city initially sat on two hills.

 

Ancient Egyptian sources

The Execration Texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (c. 19th century BCE), which refer to a city called rwšꜣlmm or ꜣwšꜣmm, variously transcribed as Rušalimum, or Urušalimum, may indicate Jerusalem. Alternatively, the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba (1330s BCE), which reference an Úrušalim, may be the earliest mention of the city.

 

Hebrew Bible and Jewish sources

The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua. According to a Midrash, the name is a combination of two names united by God, Yireh ("the abiding place", the name given by Abraham to the place where he planned to sacrifice his son) and Shalem ("Place of Peace", the name given by high priest Shem).

 

Oldest written mention of Jerusalem

One of the earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states: "I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem", or as other scholars suggest: "Yahweh is the God of the whole earth. The mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem". An older example on papyrus is known from the previous century.

 

In extra-biblical inscriptions, the earliest known example of the -ayim ending was discovered on a column about 3 km west of ancient Jerusalem, dated to the first century BCE.

 

Jebus, Zion, City of David

An ancient settlement of Jerusalem, founded as early as the Bronze Age on the hill above the Gihon Spring, was, according to the Bible, named Jebus. Called the "Fortress of Zion" (metsudat Zion), it was renamed as the "City of David", and was known by this name in antiquity. Another name, "Zion", initially referred to a distinct part of the city, but later came to signify the city as a whole, and afterwards to represent the whole biblical Land of Israel.

 

Greek, Roman and Byzantine names

In Greek and Latin, the city's name was transliterated Hierosolyma (Greek: Ἱεροσόλυμα; in Greek hieròs, ἱερός, means holy), although the city was renamed Aelia Capitolina for part of the Roman period of its history.

 

Salem

The Aramaic Apocryphon of Genesis of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QapGen 22:13) equates Jerusalem with the earlier "Salem" (שלם), said to be the kingdom of Melchizedek in Genesis 14. Other early Hebrew sources, early Christian renderings of the verse and targumim, however, put Salem in Northern Israel near Shechem (Sichem), now Nablus, a city of some importance in early sacred Hebrew writing. Possibly the redactor of the Apocryphon of Genesis wanted to dissociate Melchizedek from the area of Shechem, which at the time was in possession of the Samaritans. However that may be, later Rabbinic sources also equate Salem with Jerusalem, mainly to link Melchizedek to later Temple traditions.

 

Arabic names

In Arabic, Jerusalem is most commonly known as القُدس, transliterated as al-Quds and meaning "the holy" or "the holy sanctuary", cognate with Hebrew: הקדש, romanized: ha-qodesh. The name is possibly a shortened form of مدينة القُدس Madīnat al-Quds "city of the holy sanctuary" after the Hebrew nickname with the same meaning, Ir ha-Qodesh (עיר הקדש). The ق (Q) is pronounced either with a voiceless uvular plosive (/q/), as in Classical Arabic, or with a glottal stop (ʔ) as in Levantine Arabic. Official Israeli government policy mandates that أُورُشَلِيمَ, transliterated as Ūrušalīm, which is the name frequently used in Christian translations of the Bible into Arabic, be used as the Arabic language name for the city in conjunction with القُدس, giving أُورُشَلِيمَ-القُدس, Ūrušalīm-al-Quds. Palestinian Arab families who hail from this city are often called "Qudsi" (قُدسي) or "Maqdasi" (مقدسي), while Palestinian Muslim Jerusalemites may use these terms as a demonym.

 

Given the city's central position in both Jewish nationalism (Zionism) and Palestinian nationalism, the selectivity required to summarize some 5,000 years of inhabited history is often influenced by ideological bias or background. Israeli or Jewish nationalists claim a right to the city based on Jewish indigeneity to the land, particularly their origins in and descent from the Israelites, for whom Jerusalem is their capital, and their yearning for return. In contrast, Palestinian nationalists claim the right to the city based on modern Palestinians' longstanding presence and descent from many different peoples who have settled or lived in the region over the centuries. Both sides claim the history of the city has been politicized by the other in order to strengthen their relative claims to the city, and that this is borne out by the different focuses the different writers place on the various events and eras in the city's history.

 

Prehistory

The first archaeological evidence of human presence in the area comes in the form of flints dated to between 6000 and 7000 years ago, with ceramic remains appearing during the Chalcolithic period, and the first signs of permanent settlement appearing in the Early Bronze Age in 3000–2800 BCE.

 

Bronze and Iron Ages

The earliest evidence of city fortifications appear in the Mid to Late Bronze Age and could date to around the 18th century BCE. By around 1550–1200 BCE, Jerusalem was the capital of an Egyptian vassal city-state, a modest settlement governing a few outlying villages and pastoral areas, with a small Egyptian garrison and ruled by appointees such as king Abdi-Heba. At the time of Seti I (r. 1290–1279 BCE) and Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BCE), major construction took place as prosperity increased. The city's inhabitants at this time were Canaanites, who are believed by scholars to have evolved into the Israelites via the development of a distinct Yahweh-centric monotheistic belief system.

 

Archaeological remains from the ancient Israelite period include the Siloam Tunnel, an aqueduct built by Judahite king Hezekiah and once containing an ancient Hebrew inscription, known as the Siloam Inscription; the so-called Broad Wall, a defensive fortification built in the 8th century BCE, also by Hezekiah; the Silwan necropolis (9th–7th c. BCE) with the Monolith of Silwan and the Tomb of the Royal Steward, which were decorated with monumental Hebrew inscriptions; and the so-called Israelite Tower, remnants of ancient fortifications, built from large, sturdy rocks with carved cornerstones. A huge water reservoir dating from this period was discovered in 2012 near Robinson's Arch, indicating the existence of a densely built-up quarter across the area west of the Temple Mount during the Kingdom of Judah.

 

When the Assyrians conquered the Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE, Jerusalem was strengthened by a great influx of refugees from the northern kingdom. When Hezekiah ruled, Jerusalem had no fewer than 25,000 inhabitants and covered 25 acres (10 hectares).

 

In 587–586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered Jerusalem after a prolonged siege, and then systematically destroyed the city, including Solomon's Temple. The Kingdom of Judah was abolished and many were exiled to Babylon. These events mark the end of the First Temple period.

 

Biblical account

This period, when Canaan formed part of the Egyptian empire, corresponds in biblical accounts to Joshua's invasion, but almost all scholars agree that the Book of Joshua holds little historical value for early Israel.

 

In the Bible, Jerusalem is defined as lying within territory allocated to the tribe of Benjamin though still inhabited by Jebusites. David is said to have conquered these in the siege of Jebus, and transferred his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem which then became the capital of a United Kingdom of Israel, and one of its several religious centres. The choice was perhaps dictated by the fact that Jerusalem did not form part of Israel's tribal system, and was thus suited to serve as the centre of its confederation. Opinion is divided over whether the so-called Large Stone Structure and the nearby Stepped Stone Structure may be identified with King David's palace, or dates to a later period.

 

According to the Bible, King David reigned for 40 years and was succeeded by his son Solomon, who built the Holy Temple on Mount Moriah. Solomon's Temple (later known as the First Temple), went on to play a pivotal role in Jewish religion as the repository of the Ark of the Covenant. On Solomon's death, ten of the northern tribes of Israel broke with the United Monarchy to form their own nation, with its kings, prophets, priests, traditions relating to religion, capitals and temples in northern Israel. The southern tribes, together with the Aaronid priesthood, remained in Jerusalem, with the city becoming the capital of the Kingdom of Judah.

 

Classical antiquity

In 538 BCE, the Achaemenid King Cyrus the Great invited the Jews of Babylon to return to Judah to rebuild the Temple. Construction of the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE, during the reign of Darius the Great, 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple.

 

Sometime soon after 485 BCE Jerusalem was besieged, conquered and largely destroyed by a coalition of neighbouring states. In about 445 BCE, King Artaxerxes I of Persia issued a decree allowing the city (including its walls) to be rebuilt. Jerusalem resumed its role as capital of Judah and centre of Jewish worship.

 

Many Jewish tombs from the Second Temple period have been unearthed in Jerusalem. One example, discovered north of the Old City, contains human remains in a 1st-century CE ossuary decorated with the Aramaic inscription "Simon the Temple Builder". The Tomb of Abba, also located north of the Old City, bears an Aramaic inscription with Paleo-Hebrew letters reading: "I, Abba, son of the priest Eleaz(ar), son of Aaron the high (priest), Abba, the oppressed and the persecuted, who was born in Jerusalem, and went into exile into Babylonia and brought (back to Jerusalem) Mattathi(ah), son of Jud(ah), and buried him in a cave which I bought by deed." The Tomb of Benei Hezir located in Kidron Valley is decorated by monumental Doric columns and Hebrew inscription, identifying it as the burial site of Second Temple priests. The Tombs of the Sanhedrin, an underground complex of 63 rock-cut tombs, is located in a public park in the northern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sanhedria. These tombs, probably reserved for members of the Sanhedrin and inscribed by ancient Hebrew and Aramaic writings, are dated to between 100 BCE and 100 CE.

 

When Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire, Jerusalem and Judea came under Macedonian control, eventually falling to the Ptolemaic dynasty under Ptolemy I. In 198 BCE, Ptolemy V Epiphanes lost Jerusalem and Judea to the Seleucids under Antiochus III. The Seleucid attempt to recast Jerusalem as a Hellenized city-state came to a head in 168 BCE with the successful Maccabean revolt of Mattathias and his five sons against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and their establishment of the Hasmonean Kingdom in 152 BCE with Jerusalem as its capital.

 

In 63 BCE, Pompey the Great intervened in a struggle for the Hasmonean throne and captured Jerusalem, extending the influence of the Roman Republic over Judea. Following a short invasion by Parthians, backing the rival Hasmonean rulers, Judea became a scene of struggle between pro-Roman and pro-Parthian forces, eventually leading to the emergence of an Edomite named Herod. As Rome became stronger, it installed Herod as a client king of the Jews. Herod the Great, as he was known, devoted himself to developing and beautifying the city. He built walls, towers and palaces, and expanded the Temple Mount, buttressing the courtyard with blocks of stone weighing up to 100 tons. Under Herod, the area of the Temple Mount doubled in size. Shortly after Herod's death, in 6 CE Judea came under direct Roman rule as the Iudaea Province, although the Herodian dynasty through Agrippa II remained client kings of neighbouring territories until 96 CE.

 

Roman rule over Jerusalem and Judea was challenged in the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), which ended with a Roman victory. Early on, the city was devastated by a brutal civil war between several Jewish factions fighting for control of the city. In 70 CE, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple. The contemporary Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the city "was so thoroughly razed to the ground by those that demolished it to its foundations, that nothing was left that could ever persuade visitors that it had once been a place of habitation." Of the 600,000 (Tacitus) or 1,000,000 (Josephus) Jews of Jerusalem, all of them either died of starvation, were killed or were sold into slavery. Roman rule was again challenged during the Bar Kokhba revolt, beginning in 132 CE and suppressed by the Romans in 135 CE. More recent research indicates that the Romans had founded Aelia Capitolina before the outbreak of the revolt, and found no evidence for Bar Kokhba ever managing to hold the city.

 

Jerusalem reached a peak in size and population at the end of the Second Temple Period, when the city covered two km2 (3⁄4 sq mi) and had a population of 200,000.

 

Late Antiquity

Following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Emperor Hadrian combined Iudaea Province with neighbouring provinces under the new name of Syria Palaestina, replacing the name of Judea. The city was renamed Aelia Capitolina, and rebuilt it in the style of a typical Roman town. Jews were prohibited from entering the city on pain of death, except for one day each year, during the holiday of Tisha B'Av. Taken together, these measures (which also affected Jewish Christians) essentially "secularized" the city. Historical sources and archaeological evidence indicate that the rebuilt city was now inhabited by veterans of the Roman military and immigrants from the western parts of the empire.

 

The ban against Jews was maintained until the 7th century, though Christians would soon be granted an exemption: during the 4th century, the Roman emperor Constantine I ordered the construction of Christian holy sites in the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Burial remains from the Byzantine period are exclusively Christian, suggesting that the population of Jerusalem in Byzantine times probably consisted only of Christians.

 

Jerusalem.

In the 5th century, the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire, ruled from the recently renamed Constantinople, maintained control of the city. Within the span of a few decades, Jerusalem shifted from Byzantine to Persian rule, then back to Roman-Byzantine dominion. Following Sassanid Khosrau II's early 7th century push through Syria, his generals Shahrbaraz and Shahin attacked Jerusalem (Persian: Dej Houdkh) aided by the Jews of Palaestina Prima, who had risen up against the Byzantines.

 

In the Siege of Jerusalem of 614, after 21 days of relentless siege warfare, Jerusalem was captured. Byzantine chronicles relate that the Sassanids and Jews slaughtered tens of thousands of Christians in the city, many at the Mamilla Pool, and destroyed their monuments and churches, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This episode has been the subject of much debate between historians. The conquered city would remain in Sassanid hands for some fifteen years until the Byzantine emperor Heraclius reconquered it in 629.

 

Middle Ages

After the Muslim conquest of the Levant, Byzantine Jerusalem was taken by Umar ibn al-Khattab in 638 CE. Among the first Muslims, it was referred to as Madinat bayt al-Maqdis ("City of the Temple"), a name restricted to the Temple Mount. The rest of the city "was called Iliya, reflecting the Roman name given the city following the destruction of 70 CE: Aelia Capitolina". Later the Temple Mount became known as al-Haram al-Sharif, "The Noble Sanctuary", while the city around it became known as Bayt al-Maqdis, and later still, al-Quds al-Sharif "The Holy, Noble". The Islamization of Jerusalem began in the first year A.H. (623 CE), when Muslims were instructed to face the city while performing their daily prostrations and, according to Muslim religious tradition, Muhammad's night journey and ascension to heaven took place. After 13 years, the direction of prayer was changed to Mecca. In 638 CE the Islamic Caliphate extended its dominion to Jerusalem. With the Muslim conquest, Jews were allowed back into the city. The Rashidun caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab signed a treaty with Christian Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius, assuring him that Jerusalem's Christian holy places and population would be protected under Muslim rule. Christian-Arab tradition records that, when led to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites for Christians, the caliph Umar refused to pray in the church so that Muslims would not request conversion of the church to a mosque. He prayed outside the church, where the Mosque of Umar (Omar) stands to this day, opposite the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. According to the Gaullic bishop Arculf, who lived in Jerusalem from 679 to 688, the Mosque of Umar was a rectangular wooden structure built over ruins which could accommodate 3,000 worshipers.

 

When the Arab armies under Umar went to Bayt Al-Maq

The judges. I’d be very afraid to have to stand in front of them. I just drew them from the back….

 

In 1998 I was the courtroom artist for the Belgian newspaper Le Soir. It was for the big trial The Agusta-Dassault Case. It was one of Belgium's most infamous trials of the century, some of the country's most senior political figures had been sucked into a scandal extending from bribery to money-laundering, forgery and possibly even murder. It was one of the best jobs I ever had. Sitting in that courtroom for days and drawing was very exciting.

  

Sowerby is a small village in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England, it is situated immediately south of Thirsk. The parish boundary merges with that of Thirsk, so the village could be described as a suburb. The author James Herriot lived in the village.

 

The lines of a Roman road can still be seen in the fields to the north and east of the village along the Green Lane and was known as The Saxty Way.

 

The village is mentioned twice in the Domesday Book as Sorebi in the Yarlestre hundred. The land was split across both the head manors of Easingwold and Newsham. At the time of the Norman invasion, the manors were split between Earl Morcar and Ligulf, who granted land to Orm. Afterwards, the lands became Crown property. The overlordship was granted to the Mowbray family, who granted land to William Lascelles in 1228. The Lascelles family held their manor until 1602, when it was sold to the Meynell family. The manor has followed the inheritance of the manor at North Kilvington since then. William de Vescy of Kildare held a mesne lordship in the area in the 14th century.

 

The Lascelles (Lassels) family were also credited with building a terrace of houses at the north end of the village, still known as Blue Terrace, it was also known as Bribery Terrace since tenants were expected to vote for the candidate who supported the Tory political cause.

 

Sowerby's name comes from the Norse language, in which it means 'Farmstead by the muddy/sour ground', which is the origin of the word sewer.

 

The centre of the village has an avenue of English lime trees, planted to celebrate the jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, on its long road, are lovely period properties, an old timbered house, a church and a public house. In the south of the parish, at Blakey Lane, the Cod Beck is crossed by Town End Bridge, a pack horse bridge at Blakey Lane, which dates back to the seventeenth century. Further to the south, the beck is again crossed on South Moor Lane, by another seventeenth century pack horse bridge, known as World's End Bridge. The high arch allowed for the rise in river levels following heavy rain on the Hambleton Hills which lie to the east.

 

An artificial mound known as Pudding Pie Hill is located on the east bank of Cod Beck, just off Blakey Lane. This was partially excavated in 1855 by Lady Frankland Russell and was found to be a sepulchral tumulus of a type known as a bowl barrow. The remains of a Saxon warrior and two other skeletons were discovered, along with cremated bones, various artefacts and coins. Local legend has it that after a ritual seven lap run around the hill, a knife is stuck in the top of the mound, one can hear the fairies. It is a prefect place for sledging in Winter snow and egg rolling at Easter.

 

So I guess this is my first time meeting a celebrity. Obi Wan Kenobi. Guys a legend and I have always respected him even despite my distaste for Jedi running the show on the battlefield. We were tasked with capturing a tactical droid and knocking down communications. We spent about two hours wandering the desert in the general direction of the droid barracks. I sent a couple of troops in ahead of us. Since it would be best to take out communications before actually continuing ahead and capturing the head of their operation. The tactical droid we were after was down under the base in a bomb shelter type deal. I haven't seen one of these guys yet and I was a bit weirded out. These things were intelligent, resourceful and could be reasoned with... It tried bribery and pretty much any tool in the book to get away. Fascinating really.

Crate design by Justin Pyne. I shamelessly stole it. DEAL WITH IT.

(攝於台中北屯823紀念公園) 八二三公園

F-104星式戰鬥機（英語：F-104 Starfighter）是美國洛克希德公司所設計的第二代戰機。她的設計一反當時美國空軍朝向更大更重的趨勢，強調重量輕與簡單，被認為是韓戰經驗的總結作品（越戰經驗總結則被認為是F-16）。F-104是世界上第一架擁有兩倍音速速度的戰機，並在1960年代長期保持升速、航高（10萬英尺）的紀錄。除了美國使用以外，也外銷到許多國家，並且成為北約會員國的主要戰術核子武器投射力量。F-104因為強調高速飛行的性能，外型非常特別，擁有「有人飛彈」的暱稱，美國總計生產了2,580架各型F-104戰機。目前最後一個使用國家義大利已經將所有的F-104S退出現役，結束星式戰鬥機超過50年的生涯。

The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) by Lockheed. One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard units until it was phased out in 1975. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) flew a small mixed fleet of F-104 types in supersonic flight tests and spaceflight programs until they were retired in 1994.

USAF F-104Cs saw service during the Vietnam War, and F-104A aircraft were deployed by Pakistan briefly during the Indo-Pakistani wars. Republic of China Air Force (Taiwan) F-104s also engaged the People's Liberation Army Air Force (China) over the disputed island of Quemoy. The ultimate production version of the basic fighter model F-104 was the F-104S all-weather interceptor designed by Aeritalia for the Italian Air Force, and equipped with radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow missiles. An advanced F-104 with a high-mounted wing, known as the CL-1200 Lancer, did not proceed past the mock-up stage.

A set of modifications produced the F-104G model, which won a NATO competition for a new fighter-bomber. Several two-seat trainer versions were also produced, the most numerous being the TF-104G. A total of 2,578 Starfighters were eventually produced, mostly by NATO members. The F-104 served with the air forces of over a dozen nations. The operational service of the Starfighter ended with its retirement by the Italian Air Force in May 2004, some 46 years after its introduction in 1958 by the USAF.

The poor safety record of the Starfighter brought the aircraft into the public eye, especially in German Air Force service. The subsequent Lockheed bribery scandals surrounding the original purchase contracts caused considerable political controversy in Europe and Japan.

future guide dog, age 7 months, wearing...a tuxedo. and yes, his name really is homer. that wasn't my idea either.

 

the groom is a co-worker's latest puppy-in-training for Guide Dogs of America. GDA will be putting out a calendar for fund raising sometime down the road, so i was talked into taking this to be a contender for the final calendar shots. his outfit was handmade by a different co-worker whose newly married son had a dog as the ring bearer. like most wedding outfits, that dog knew he couldn't wear it again, so he was willing to part with it for charity.

 

a rambunctious jet-black retriever puppy wearing a slightly-too-small black and white tux sitting in front of wetlands (with ducks! oh the temptation!) wasn't exactly easy shooting, but i am more in love with this lens by the day. and much like his photographer, homer is willing to act like a perfect angel if there's food involved later :o)

A few shots of the top field Wryneck at Portland. Mostly taken cross lit unfortunately, as "Somebody" had introduced the resident horses to bribery who utterly refused entry to a better position without a bung of further apples! :-))

Roaming around the bivouac area at the Armed Forces event and while chit chatting with a "German" officer about his Leica collection a voice from behind me says, "Do you know where I can get some 620 film?" About 30 minutes later I had retrieved 2 rolls of re-spooled Tri-X out of the film fridge at work. As you can see Cameron was happy with his film gift. Funny he was using a US made Kodak folder and I had a German made folder, alas we were comrades.

 

Now that FPP has new 620 spools I always have a few rolls re-spooled and ready for customers or as in this case bribery to get through a German checkpoint!

  

I love the vintage look of RetroChrome for these reenactors.

 

Camera: Canon EOS A2E, 28-105 AFD

 

Film: RetroChrome 320, processed in it's native process E6

Film and spools are available from: filmphotographyproject.com/store

Processing done by thedarkroom.com

 

Image by: Leslie Lazenby

Armed Forces Day, Findlay, OH, May 2016.

So I'd mentioned elsewhere how I needed one of those weird old armless torsos in white to try out a straitjacket idea. And after writing Heather an Ambassador testimonial, she sends me not one but two, among other things. Clearly, this is a woman with her finger on the pulse of the community. We want free Lego, and we want it now.

 

The three other deadbeats I wrote testimonials for had better take note. You never get something for nothing. I want my bribes, goddammit!

Guess who had to be bribed with treats to climb down from the tree and go inside?

(The Accountant).

 

White-collar crime refers to financially motivated nonviolent crime committed by business and government professionals. Within criminology, it was first defined by sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation". Typical white-collar crimes could possibly include fraud, bribery, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, labor racketeering, embezzlement, cybercrime, copyright infringement, money laundering, identity theft, and forgery.

 

Candid street Shot "financial district" Toronto Canada.

This took some serious bribery.

 

Listening to Elephant (Todd Rundgren Mix) on the album Elephant by Tame Impala.

3 - The chubby cubby purposely ignores the big bowl of yummies and playing hard to get