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The Tomb of Joshua is the traditional burial site of Joshua belived by Jews and Christians to be located in. Muslim's have a tomb at Joshua's Hill.

The Bible relates that Joshua was buried in a place called Timnath-heres.

There a various site named as the location of Joshua's tomb.


 * Khirbet Tibnah, ruins located 3 miles SE of 'Abud: A tradition which dates from at least the fourth century CE locates Joshua's burial place in one of the funeral caves of Khirbet Tibnah, an archaeological area where remains of the time of the Israelite conquest have been found. This could be the site of Timnath-heres. But, as in the case of many other identifications, this one relating to Joshua's tomb is very doubtful.

Nine rock-cut tombs are located to the south of the ruins. The first tomb, furthest west, was known by the locals as Khubbet el Endieh. It was described as large, with a portico supported two pilasters and piers. The facade inside the tomb had over 200 niches for lamps. The inner chamber, entered by a small square doorway, contained 14 [Rock-cut tombs|kokim]] positioned outwards like a fan. A further passage leads into another chamber with only one koka.

Reasearch by Guerin suggested it was Joshua's Tomb based upon:

There is no direct evidence as to the date of this tomb, but it does not seem to be older than about the first century CE. There is therefore considerable doubt as to its being really that of Joshua.

the daylight, proves that it was a tomb held in the highest reverence.
 * It is a "magnificent tomb", evidently designed for some Prince in Israel.
 * The presence of the niches, not only in the chambers, but also in the vestibule open to
 * Joshua received the city of Timnath Terah in Mount Ephraim and was buried 'on the north side of the hill Gaash.' The Bible adds that the knives with which Joshua had circumcised the people were placed in his tomb with him. As to the 'knives' placed in Joshua's tomb, a large quantity of flint knives were found in the kokim at Tibneh. Modern Tibneh faces the northern slope of a hill, on which stand the tombs described. This may be Mount Gaash.

(5.) The tomb of Joshua was known in the time of Eusebius and of Jerome. Paula visited the tomb, and says that the tomb of Phinchas was at ' Gabaa,' which corresponds to the modern Jibia.

(6.) Eusebius goes on to say that the town of Qatn/aaaia belonged to the tribe of Dan, which could never be said of Kefr Haris, the rival site.

(7.) The tomb is of the greatest antiquity : the pilasters have no other ornamentation than a simple moulding.

(8.) The tomb has been planned and measured by De Saulcy, and on his drawings a careful study has been made by M. Aurfes, published in the Jievue Archeologique. He asserts in this paper that the measure used was the Egyptian royal cubit of seven palms — brought by the Hebrews from Egypt.

.K\\ these facts together seem to M. Gue'rin to make out a very strong case for Tibneh. Let us add to his remarks the words of Lieutenant Conder ('Quarterly Statement,' 1878, p. 22), in which he sums up briefly the rival claims, inclining, however, to Kcfr Hdris. It must be acknowledged that if this monument be actually the tomb of Joshua, it is the very oldest building in Syria, and the greatest ' find ' of modern days.

' There are t\vo places in Palestine which might claim the honour of being the place of sepulture of Joshua. The one is pointed out by Christian tradition, the other by Jewish and Samaritan.

'The name of the city where Joshua was buried was Timnath Heres, and it was situate in Mount Ephraim ; but the e.xact site of it is not defined in the Bible, except by the statement that it was on the north side of .Mount Gaash, a place as yet not known.


 * Kifl Hares about 9 miles south of Nablus: The second site for Timnath-heres is Kifl Hares. To the east are two tombs. One of them was is Nabi Kifl ("Prophet of the Division by Lot"). XYZ suggested that this possibly refers to Joshua who divided the inheritance among the children of Israel. The tomb of Joshua in this location was noted by Rabbi Jacob of Paris in 1258. The Samaritans were also reported to have stated that Joshua son of Nun was buried here. On the map of Marino Sanuto (1322) the same place is found marked as "Timnath Heres".

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GrkMDjRGAj8C&pg=PA187&dq=%22Tomb+of+Joshua%22&hl=en&ei=LL2pTKH8BoGaOqi_0dEM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22Tomb%20of%20Joshua%22&f=false

From el Me'dyeh I went to 'Abud, another village, north-east of the former. Since the Frenchman, M. V. Guerin, has discovered (in 1865) the identical tombof Joshua near Tibneh (Timnath Cheres or Timnath Serach), 'Abud, which is but three-quarters of an hour distant from Tibneh (west-north-west), has been visited by some very few travellers. Robinson, Thompson, Van de Velde — in fact, none of the travellers who have written books on Pales- tine speak of 'Abud, as far as I recollect; nor have you or Captain Wilson been there, for aught I know.* Well, it is just such out-of-the-way places that belong to my line of travelling, and to me they frequently are the most interesting virgin soil in more than one respect

' Of course I would not leave 'Abud without having seen the tomb of Joshua and the other rock tombs near Tibneh ; but after I came back to Jerusalem I discovered that Joshua's Tomb, which I had seen and taken for it, is not the one which Dr. Hermann Zschokke, the rector of the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem, has described in his " Beitrage zur Topographie der Westlichen Jordan's Au," Jerusalem, 1866. I showed you my sketches of those tombs. Yet it is not of them that I will now speak, but of another discovery of mine, the reward of my not pursuing the track of the tourists.

'Soon after my arrival at 'Abiid, I asked for the way to Tibach, whither I intended to go the next day. " If you want to see tombs," said one of the people, "you may see plenty of them here in the neighbourhood ;" and he pointed to the peak of a steep basement of rocks forming the north extremity of a ridge or spur running west of the village, at the distance of about \ mile from it. No doubt I went thither as soon as I was at leisure, and found all along a terrace extending at the foot of the rocks and below it, rock tombs which reminded me both of the tombs in the Valley of Hinnom, and of the so-called " Tombs of the Judges." For those in the steep cliff itself (south side of the terrace) the terrace formed the forecourt, and two of the tombs there had ante-chambers. That of the more distinguished was 600 metres long and 300 metres broad. On the architrave of this tomb were sculptured ornaments — a bunch of grapes in the middle, rosettes, triglyphs. In its chamber there were twelve niches. The other was plainer — i.e., without ornaments. At the foot of the peak and near its middle were small entrances to tombs of an artless description. The length of the terrace was from 170 to 180 paces. On its north and east sides were other tombs of a plain kind, with forecourts. The one next to the east side of the terrace had a very large forecourt, about 100 paces long; the entrance to its tomb was on the south side, and in a rock receding a little from the line of that side there was another tomb or chamber, down to the entrance of which led a few steps. This chamber contained five niches ; but as I had to make my survey in a hurr)-, I am not quite sure whether my statements as regards the interior of the tombs are conect It was after sunset that I began to examine them, because I had spent the short time left to me before sunset in walking over the whole ground and sketching the principal tombs. The place may have been a burying-ground for centuries before, and during the limes of the Seleucides and Romans ; and there can be no doubt but that a town of some note must have occupied the site of the village 'Abud. But which ? The name 'Abud alTords no key for tracing it to an antique original. In the times of the Crusaders — and perhaps before them already — 'Abud and the surrounding country must have been one of the chief allotments of the Church, as there are no less than six deirs round about it, in two of which divine service seems to be still continued, occasionally at least ; and 'Abud itself, being in- habited at equal parts by Christians (Greeks) and Moslems, has an old church, el 'Abudiyeh, which is the name of a ruined deir also, quite near the village. As Van de Velde has dis- covered here the traces of the Roman road leading from Jerusalem by Tifneh (Gophna) to Antipatris, this circumstance is rather favourable to my supposition that there may have been a place of note hereabout Well, there is Tibneh, whose identity with Timnath Cheres and Timnath Serach cannot be questioned, as the other Timnah, too, on the borders of Judah and Dan, has been changed by the mouth or tongue of the Arab into Tibneh ; and our Tibneh here certainly lies in one of the mountainous regions of Ephraim. But Tibneh had a burying- ground of its own, and that of 'Abiid would have been too distant — 3 miles.

' That Timnath Cheres or Serach and the Thamna of Josephus are all one, I have no doubt ; yet I think that the Thamna {QaiJ.)ia.) of Josephus was a second edition of Joshua's Timnah — i.e., that old Timnah had been deserted for some reason or other (perhaps on account of the Roman road), and rebuilt on the site of 'Abud. In the course of time, this Thamna or Timnah, more exposed to the invasions of all the successively conflicting powers, may have lost both the original and the transmuted names through long desolation ; whilst the latter pertinaciously clung to the primitive Timnah, or the village which sprung from it, and is at present a heap of ruins only. 'Abud, which thus would represent the second Timnah, or the Thamna of Josephus, did not recall the old name to life again.

T i b n e h (L q).— A Tell 200 yards east and west by about 100 yards north and south, with a deep rugged valley (Wady Reiya) on the north and flat low ground to the south, where is the Roman road ; 100 yards south is a flat hill, in which is the cemetery of the town. On the north-west is 'A i n T i b n e h, a spring of good water emerging in a rocky channel.

On the south-west is Sheikh e t T e i m, a noble oak tree some 30 or 40 feet in height, and perhaps the largest tree to be found in Palestine; by it is a modern well, and a little further east a dry well. West of the tree are traces of ruins. The tree is fully covered with foliage, the leaf being extremely small. (See Photograph No. 107.)

There are remains of walls on the west side of the Tell, apparently remains of an Arab village, and quite modern. Beside the road, further east, there is, however, the foundation of a wall of drafted stones ; one measured 2 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 3 inches, and had a draft 3 inches wide, 2 inches deep, the boss roughly dressed.

Nine tombs were here observed, of which five were closed up with rubbish. The first tomb furthest west (sometimes called Joshua's Tomb) has a porch in front of it 11 feet high, 24 feet long, 10 feet 10 inches broad. In front of this were two pilasters and two piers of rock about 2 feet square. Both the piers were standing in 1866, but one had disappeared in 1873. The rock e.xtends 26 feet 6 inches in front of the fa9ade, in continuation of the line of the side-walls of the porch. The piers and pilasters are rudely cut, and not square ; they have capitals with a very simple moulding. The rock above is covered with bushes. (See Photograph No. 108.)

The facade inside the tomb is remarkable for the number of niches for lamps, arranged in rows but not symmetricalK'. There are over 200 of these niches, and they are all blackened with smoke.

The inner chamber is entered by a small square doorway about 2 feet 2 inches broad.

The chamber within is 13 feet 9 inches to the back, and 13 feet 6 inches broad. A bench or mastabah 3 feet 4 inches wide runs round

the side and back walls. The central part is much filled with rubbish. The height from the bench to the roof is 6 feet. There are 15 kokim, 5 on each wall, about 6 feet 9 inches long, and about 2 feet broad. They are not parallel, but pointed outwards like a fan. They are rudely cut, but have arched roofs, and are recessed to hold a square slab in front. The koka is 2 feet 9 inches high, the slab recess 3 feet.

The middle koka at the back is con- verted into a passage 3 feet 4 inches broad, 7 feet long, 2 feet 9 inches high, leading to an inner and thus probably more recent chamber, which is trapezoidal, 8 feet i inch to the back. 7 feet 7 inches broad at the back, 9 feet 3 inches at the front, 5 feet 5 inches high. On the left a niche for

a lamp ; at the back a koka 7 feet 5 inches long and 2 feet 5 inches broad. Its floor is some 3 feet above that of the chamber. There is an attempt at ornamentation in a kind of small pendcntive of rock left in each corner of the chamber.

No. 3 is a tomb, with a portico measuring 25 feet by 10 feet. It has two piers and two pilasters, and, between these, entrances with semi- circular arches cut in the rock, about 6 feet span. Over these is a rude ornamentation much worn, which appears to have represented festoons, wreaths, and rosettes, much more rudely executed than those of M o k a t d 'A bud, but in the same style. There was originally a cornice above, now broken away. The tomb is choked^only the top of the door visible. No. 4 is only a koka cut in the rock.

No. 7 has a porch 7 feet by 12 feet 2 inches, and a chamber within with 15 kokim, 5 on each wall. The doorway is damaged.

There are remains of the ancient pavement of the Roman road close to this site.

Visited 6th June, 1873.

Gudrin found on the hill the ruins of a small square tower, built of medium-sized stones, and containing two ancient cisterns. On the top of the hill he saw the remains of a burj of Arab appearance. ' The hill on three sides looks over deep ravines : on the south it gradually slopes towards a valley covered over with habitations. Here is a birket, 30 paces long by 1 5 broad, with several cisterns cut in the rock.'

Guerin describes the tomb in much the same words as Lieutenant Conder. He adds, however, an interesting fact. It is that the fellahin only opened the inner chamber shortly before his own visit in 1863, and they found in it a sort of candelabrum, with three branches in yellow metal, and very heavy, which they sold to an officer of Bashibazouks for fifty piastres. The natives called the place Khubbet el Endieh. He then goes on to give his reasons for believing this to be the veritable tomb of Joshua. They may thus be summed up :

(i.) It is a magnificent tomb, evidently designed for some Prince in Israel.

(2.) The presence of the niches, not only in the chambers, but also in the vestibule open to the daylight, proves that it was a tomb held in the highest reverence.

(3.) Joshua asked for, and obtained, for his lot, the city of Timnath Terah, in Mount Ephraim. Here lie was buried 'on the north side of the hill Gaash.' The Septuagint (Joshua xxiv. 30) renders Gaash by Galaad. It also adds that the knives with which Joshua had circumcised the people were placed in his tomb with him. And the Serah or Heres became in the Septuagint Saracl: or Sachar.

(4.) The modern Tibneh faces the northern slope of a hill, on which stand the tombs described. May not this be Mount Gaash >

(5.) The tomb of Joshua was known in the time of Eusebius and of Jerome. Paula visited the tomb, and says that the tomb of Phinchas was at ' Gabaa,' which corresponds to the modern Jibia.

(6.) Eusebius goes on to say that the town of Qatn/aaaia belonged to the tribe of Dan, which could never be said of Kefr Haris, the rival site.

(7.) The tomb is of the greatest antiquity : the pilasters have no other ornamentation than a simple moulding.

(8.) The tomb has been planned and measured by De Saulcy, and on his drawings a careful study has been made by M. Aurfes, published in the Jievue Archeologique. He asserts in this paper that the measure used was the Egyptian royal cubit of seven palms — brought by the Hebrews from Egypt.

(9.) As to the 'knives' placed in Joshua's tomb. In the year 1870 the .\bb^ Richard found at Gilgal a large number of flint knives. hX the request of M. Guerin he visited the tomb at Tibneh, and found in the kok'tm a large quantity of flint knives e.xactly similar.

.K\\ these facts together seem to M. Gue'rin to make out a very strong case for Tibneh. Let us add to his remarks the words of Lieutenant Conder ('Quarterly Statement,' 1878, p. 22), in which he sums up briefly the rival claims, inclining, however, to Kcfr Hdris. It must be acknowledged that if this monument be actually the tomb of Joshua, it is the very oldest building in Syria, and the greatest ' find ' of modern days.

' There are t\vo places in Palestine which might claim the honour of being the place of sepulture of Joshua. The one is pointed out by Christian tradition, the other by Jewish and Samaritan.

'The name of the city where Joshua was buried was Timnath Heres, and it was situate in Mount Ephraim ; but the e.xact site of it is not defined in the Bible, except by the statement that it was on the north side of .Mount Gaash, a place as yet not known.

' Christian tradition points to the town of Thamnathah, now the ruin of Tibneh, on the Roman road from .\ntipatris to Jerusalem. Jerome speaks of this place as on the border between the possessions of Dan and Judah (though that border was not very well understood in his days), and on the way from Lydda to Jerusalem ; here Joshua's tomb was shown in his time.

' The ruin of Tibneh has a remarkable rock cemetery, containing nine tombs, south of the site of the town, which was once the capital of the surrounding district. One of these tombs is large, with a portico supported on rude piers of rock with very simple capitals. One of the piers was destroyed between 1866, when Major Wilson visited Tibneh, and 1873, ^^'hen the Survey party were there. There are niches for over 200 lamps, once burning in front of the tomb entrance, ^\■ithin there is a chamber with fourteen graves, or kok'im ; and a passage, which at first looks like another grave, leads into an inner chamber with only one koka.

' There is no direct evidence as to the date of this tomb, but in most cases where the more important rock tombs with such porticos can be approximately dated, they do not seem older than about the first century of our era. Thus, though the tomb may well be that de- scribed by Jerome, there is considerable doubt as to its being really that of Joshua.

' There are two other curious facts as to Tibneh. The great oak-tree, some 40 feet high, near the tomb, is called Sheikh et Teim (" the Chief Sen-ant of God "). There is also a village about 3 miles to the east, called Kefr Ishu'a, or "Joshua's Village."

A Tell 200 yards east and west by about 100 yards north and south, with a deep rugged valley (Wady Reiya) on the north and flat low ground to the south, where is the Roman road ; 100 yards south is a flat hill, in which is the cemetery of the town. On the north-west is 'A i n T i b n e h, a spring of good water emerging in a rocky channel.

On the south-west is Sheikh e t T e i m, a noble oak tree some 30 or 40 feet in height, and perhaps the largest tree to be found in Palestine; by it is a modern well, and a little further east a dry well. West of the tree are traces of ruins. The tree is fully covered with foliage, the leaf being extremely small. (See Photograph No. 107.)

There are remains of walls on the west side of the Tell, apparently remains of an Arab village, and quite modern. Beside the road, further east, there is, however, the foundation of a wall of drafted stones ; one measured 2 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 3 inches, and had a draft 3 inches wide, 2 inches deep, the boss roughly dressed.

Kefr Haris is an ordinary village on a hill among olive-groves. It has on the east of it two sacred places resembling the other Mukams of the country, inclusive of Joseph's tomb. One of these has the curious name Neby Kifl (" Prophet of the Division by I.ot "), who is called now "Companion of the Proijhet." The other is now named Neby Kulda or Kunda, possibly a corruption of Caleb. May we not under tlie title Kill recognise Joshua, who divided the inheritance among the children of Israel ? It seems by far the most probable that the place to which Jew and Samaritan both point would be the true site, for it is most striking to find Jews visiting and venerating a place in the country of Samaria, yet in Samaria the tombs of Joseph, Eleazar, Phinehas, Ithamar, and Abishuah are still shown, and if we follow the indigenous rather than the foreign tradition, it is here that we should place the tomb of Joshua also.'

http://www.archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft/surveyofwesternp02conduoft_djvu.txt

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LkZEAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA312&dq=%22benjamin%22++tomb+jew&hl=en&ei=0rWpTKO3HILoObWR4cQM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCDgU#v=onepage&q&f=false

Guerin, in 1863, was convinced that he had discovered the tomb of Joshua in the most western of the rock tombs over against the town. Many niches for lamps in the (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2oTVPegTBLQC&pg=PA68&dq=%22Tomb+of+Joshua%22&hl=en&ei=rsWpTN-JHIOgOpW8vccM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEoQ6AEwBzgU#v=onepage&q=%22Tomb%20of%20Joshua%22&f=false)

Hurva articles
'''March 28, 2008. Hurva Synagogue restoration nears completion, Jerusalem Post, by Etgar Lefkovits'''

It was a focal point of Jewish spiritual and cultural life in Jerusalem. It hosted the installation of the Ashkenazi chief rabbis of Palestine, and the historic addresses by Theodor Herzl at the turn of the century and by Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook over the fate of European Jewry before the outbreak of World War II.

And now, six decades after it was destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948, during the War of Independence, a page of Old City history is being revisited: the Hurva Synagogue is being rebuilt.

Shortly after the city's reunification in the Six Day War, the first in a series of plans was drawn up to create a new synagogue at the site. Deliberations dragged on for decades over a variety of building proposals, and a commemorative arch was constructed at the site in 1978, spanning the space where the Hurva once stood.

The 16-meter high stone arch - which became a prominent Jewish Quarter landmark as well as a great place to stop for photographs and a feature of many Jewish Quarter postcards - was a recreation of one of the four arches that originally supported the synagogue's monumental dome.

As a page in history is now being rewritten, the famed arch is being used in the reconstruction of the historic synagogue.

The Hurva once served as Jerusalem's main synagogue, and became the largest, grandest and most important synagogue in the Land of Israel.

Its Hebrew name, Hurva (ruin), marks its origins amid the ruins of an unfinished synagogue that had been destroyed at the site in 1721 by Arab creditors angered over an unpaid debt by the impoverished Jewish community.

The Hurva synagogue was built nearly a century and a half later by disciples of the prominent Jewish sage known as the Vilna Gaon.

Following its construction in 1864, the Hurva was the tallest building in the congested Jewish Quarter, its dome and that of the quarter's other main synagogue - Tifereth Yisrael - becoming a vivid and integral part of the city skyline in the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries.

For the next 84 years, the structure became a center of Jewish spiritual and cultural activity, first under Ottoman and then under British rule.

Until the 1930s, most of the important events of the pre-state Jewish community in Israel took place in the Hurva, which maintained its place as Jerusalem's central synagogue.

It was also used for public assemblies and general celebrations, such as special prayers upon the coronation of King George V in 1910, and a public fast and day of prayer organized by hundreds of rabbis for the doomed Jews of Europe.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky organized a rally at the Hurva to enlist volunteers in the Jewish Brigade. It is also the place where the ceremony to hand over the flag of the Jewish Brigade was held on the day the British conquered Jerusalem in 1917.

Both the Hurva and Tifereth Yisrael were among 29 Old City synagogues demolished by the Jordanian Army during the 1947-1949 Arab-Israeli war.

The Jordanians blew up the Hurva two days after the Jewish Quarter fell into their hands.

"For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews' return here impossible," the Jordanian commander who led the operation reportedly told his superiors.

Sixty years later and after decades of planning and debate, the mammoth NIS 28 million building is expected to be completed by next year's High Holy Days, said Nissim Arzy, the director-general of state-run Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter, which is overseeing the project.

The plan to rebuild the synagogue, which received governmental approval in 2000, originally envisioned the state funding about 85 percent of the cost, or NIS 24m., with private donors footing the rest of the bill, Arzy said.

In the end, the government only paid NIS 11m., with the remainder of the funds donated by the Ukrainian Jewish leader Vadim Rabinovitch, a prominent businessman and philanthropist, who recently donated the golden menorah that now overlooks the Western Wall Plaza.

The reconstruction of the synagogue began at the end of 2005 after the state-run company received the required city building permits, and following the requisite pre-construction archeological "salvage excavation" at the site.

The dig uncovered finds dating back to the First Temple Period, as well as an underground ammunitions depot dating to the days and weeks before the synagogue's destruction in the War of Independence.

A closed tender was held among Israel's 10 biggest construction companies, and the company that submitted the most inexpensive offer was awarded the contract, Arzy said.

More than two years after construction got under way, the outside of the synagogue - including its famed dome - has been completed, almost exactly as it originally stood.

A ceremony marking the completion of the dome will be held at the site on April 15.

The reconstruction plan presented by the architect, Nahum Meltzer, stipulates rebuilding the Hurva Synagogue in its original format, almost stone for stone.

Previous proposals that were rejected included building a new synagogue with numerous modern architectural elements and whose dimensions were well beyond those of the original synagogue, as was a proposal to maintain the site in ruins as a memorial.

Workers will soon begin work on the interior, with everything from the prayer platform, or bima, to the Torah ark, windows, doors and chairs set to resemble the originals as much as possible.

"Obviously we understand that the chairs of today are more comfortable than how they were back then," Arzy said, saying that 21st century comforts would be taken into consideration.

"We want to make it an almost exact copy of what it was until 1948," he said.

When completed, the Orthodox synagogue will seat 200 people in the men's section, and 50-60 in the second-floor women's section.

Arzy said the goal was to make the Hurva synagogue not simply a place of worship but a center for world Jewry as it once was.

"We would like to see the Hurva back in all its former glory as both a synagogue and a center for World Jewry," he said

'''April 15, 2008. Ruined synagogue to get new arch, Haaretz, by Johnathan Lis.'''

Developers are set to place the keystone in the dome of Jerusalem's Hurva synagogue today, 60 years after the last synagogue at the site was blown up by Jordanian troops.

The keystone will be placed in the crown of a 12-stone arch, and a celebration will mark the event. Each stone bears the name of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. "The Hurva Synagogue is reassuming its central status among world Jewry," said Nissim Arazi, director general of the Company for the Reconstruction & Development of the Jewish Quarter.

At least two other synagogues have stood at the site of the Hurva, whose name means "ruin" in Hebrew.

This is supposedly where the first synagogue was built after the destruction of the Second Temple. In 1700, Rabbi Judah Hehasid built a synagogue on the ruins of that first synagogue. Hehasid died a few days after he borrowed money from Arab lenders for the project. Twenty years later, the debt still had not been paid back, so the lenders burned down the synagogue and expelled the rabbi's Ashkenazi Jewish congregants from the city.

The site remained desolate for more than a century, until 1864, when an impressive new synagogue was built with donations from the British-Jewish Montefiore family. The new synagogue, with its iconic domed top, became one of Jerusalem's landmarks and saw many prominent visitors including Zionist movement founder Theodor Herzl, and the leader of the right-wing Revisionist branch of Zionism, Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

During Israel's 1948 War of Independence, the Jewish Quarter was captured by Jordanian troops, who blew up the synagogue and expelled the Old City's Jewish residents. After Israel gained control of the area after the 1967 Six-Day War, the site was intentionally left in ruins as a symbol of the Quarter's destruction.

In 2001, however, the government decided to reconstruct the synagogue, based on Israel Antiquities Authority research. During construction, remnants from the First and Second Temple periods were discovered beneath its foundations.

Construction is expected to be completed by 2009.

In 1995, Shimon Peres was reported to have said that the “Golan plateau is Syrian land and we have settled on the Syrian land… We do not want to exercise power over another people, and that includes the Golan plateau which is not part of the Land of Israel."

Ancient depictions of the Temple in Jerusalem and its artefacts
Fichier:Dura Synagogue ciborium.jpg  Bar Kochba Revolt coinage Archeological finds depicting the menorah have been discovered from the mid-first century BCE onwards. This includes coins minted during the rign of the last hasmonean king, Mattathias Antigonus, (40-37 BCE), who depicted sacred Temple vessels, including the menorah and shewbread table, on the coins he minted.

Depictions of Menorah from the Herodian period include one discovered on a plastered wall of a peior house in Jerusalems Jewish Quarter; an engraving found on a small stone sundial from the Temple Mount excavation

http://books.google.co.uk/books?ei=SQWpTODICoiCOpb8iaYM&ct=result&id=FHZPAAAAMAAJ&dq=Umayyad+coins+menorah&q=menorah

http://biblicalantique.com/coins/islamic-bronze-coin-with-5-branched-menorah-46/

<!-- Islamization of Jerusalem under Jordanian occupation refers to the process by which Jordan proceeded to alter the character of Jerusalem by emphasizing the Muslim and Arab connection to the city. It involved minor efforts, such as affixing an Arabic road sign on the Western Wall referring to it as "al-Buraq", to more significant measures, such as imposing strict regulations upon the city’s Christian community.

As Jordan forbade Jews from living in the sector under their control, Jordan focused its islamization process by passing discriminatory laws to stifle the growth of the Christian community. One such law, passed in 1965, restricted the development of Christian institutions by revoking their right to acquire land in or near Jerusalem. These laws resulted in the decrease of the Christian population of Jerusalem by 14,000.

The ruling Hashemite dynasty of Jordan endeavoured to emphasise the significance of Jerusalem in Islam. While King Hussein did not wish to shift the seat of the government to the city, he referred to Jerusalem as Jordan's "spiritual capital" and engaged on a process of concreting Hashemite influence over the Temple mount complex.

Jordan ignored a UN plan to internationalise the whole city and proceeded to strengthen its hold on the eastern sector of the city. It built a municipality building in the Old City, granted Jordanian citizenship to its residents and tried to assimilate them into Jordanian society. During this time, Jordan also engaged in a building enterprise in and around the city, constructing the Seven Arches Hotel on the Mount of Olives and a royal palace to the north.

Jordan claimed East Jerusalem as Arab
King Abdullah I of Jordan arrogated to himself the title of "Protector of Jerusalem," (hami Bayt al-Maqdis), a title formerly in use by the Ottoman sultan. He made frequent visits to the city and often attended prayers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. In the early 1950s, the King started to call the city Jordan's "spiritual capital".

Jordan persisted in its demand for full Jordanian sovereignty. Officials called Jerusalem an "inseparable and indispensible" part of Jordan. Crown Prince Hassan argued that "Jordan’s claim to Jerusalem is backed by the Muslim world. Jerusalem is not merely our own property, but also the property of hundreds of millions of Muslims all over the world." The Prime Minister called Jerusalem a "Jordanian Arab city" and Jordanian officials used the term "Arab sector" or the "Jordanian sector" when referring to East Jerusalem.

Treatment of Christians
The Jordanian Public Education law passed on April 15, 1955 altered the nature of Christian schools in Jerusalem not only by requiring that all instruction be exclusively in Arabic (replacing French and English as languages of instruction) and that the Jordanian national curriculum and textbooks be used, but by requiring the schools to close on Fridays and on "all Muslim holidays." Thomas Wikeley, Consul General for the United Kingdom in Jerusalem protested that the Jordanian government was "not allowed to ride roughshod over long established rights in Jerusalem," and reiterated Britain's demand for the internationalization of the city.

"There was a ban on the acquisition of land by Christian churches in any part of East Jerusalem.” “The Jordanians… imposed two restrictive laws. One forced Christian schools to give equal time to the Bible and the Koran; the other restricted Christian orders or foreigners form buying land or building churches.”

“During nineteen years of Jordanian rule…(Arab) Christians tended to emigrate to North and South America.”

Jordan "undertook to Islamize the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem by laws forbidding Christians to buy land and houses and by establishing strict controls over their social and educational institutions." The measures taken included building mosques adjacent to churches, permanently precluding any possibility of expanding the churches.

Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek charged Jordan with "Islamizing and Arabizing the part of Jerusalem they occupied, a policy which gravely affected the national freedom and privileges of the Christian communities."

Residency rights
During the Jordanian occupation, entry to the city was barred to Israelis. Jews were forbidden to enter the city even briefly for purposes of prayer, and denied the right to pray on the Temple Mount and at the Western Wall. “throughout their occupation of East Jerusalem form 1948 to 1967, the Jordanians reneged on their commitments to permit Jews to have access to and to pray at the Western Wall.”

A law specified that no Jew could be a citizen of Jordan. Jews were expelled and their homes and property confiscated and given to Muslims.

Treatment of non-Muslim holy places
After the Old City came under Jordanian control in 1948, Jordan made a sustained effort to assert its authority over the Islamic Holy Places by maintaining the Islamic structures on the Temple Mount. Millions of dollars were allocated for this purpose as early as 1954. Such attention was not given to non-Muslim holy places. While the Christian holy places were treated with respect, the Jordanians neglected to upkeep them. Although no major obstacles were placed to interfere with their operation and maintenance by the Church, the Jordanian government placed restrictive measures on existing Christian institutions by refusing to allow them to expand.

In contrast, holy sites belonging to the evacuated Jewish community were consistently damaged and sometimes destroyed. During the 1960s, town planners working with the Jordanian authorities planned to turn the Jewish Quarter into a public park and moved out some 500 Arab refugees who had taken up residence there. 58 synagogues were reportedly desecrated or destroyed in the Old City. Tens of thousands of Jewish graves in the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives were systematically destroyed and the Jewish right to be buried there abrogated. A hotel was also constructed at the summit.

Renaming Jewish locations
During Jordanian rule, the Jewish Quarter became known as Harat al-Sharaf ("The Noble Quarter") and was occupied by Arab refugees from the 1948 war. While the area at the foot of the Western Wall had long been associated by Muslims with Muhammad’s flying steed al-Buraq, the sites identification as a Jewish holy place was firmly acknowledged during British rule. When Jordan captured the area, it affixed an Arabic road sign to the wall naming the alley al-Buraq, with the English reading below: "Al Buraq (Wailing Wall) Rd".

Criticism of Islamization efforts
According to Teddy Kollek, Jordan 'forfeited' its claim to Jerusalem by adopying "a policy of Arabizing and Islamizing" the part of Jerusalem they occupied. He said the policy "gravely affected the national freedom and privileges of the Christian communities."