Holy Land

The term "Holy Land"; ; , or .}} is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionally synonymous with what is known as the Land of Israel (Zion) or the Promised Land in a biblical/religious context or as Canaan or Palestine in a secular/geographic context—referring to a region that is mostly between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Today, it chiefly overlaps with the combined territory of the State of Israel and the State of Palestine. Most notable among the religions that tie substantial spiritual value to the Holy Land are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

A considerable part of the Holy Land's importance derives from Jerusalem, which is regarded as extremely sacred in and of itself. It is the holiest city in Judaism and Christianity and the third-holiest city in Islam (behind Mecca and Medina in the Arabian Peninsula). The Temple in Jerusalem, referring to Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple, was the central place of worship for Israelites and Jews and serves as the namesake of the Temple Mount. According to the Bible, Jerusalem was made the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah under the House of David, thereafter being inherited by the Kingdom of Judah alone. Jesus of Nazareth, first brought to Jerusalem to be presented at the Second Temple shortly after his birth, was also highly active throughout the city during his life as a preacher. In Islamic belief, Isra' and Mi'raj refer to a night journey by Muhammad to the Holy Land, with the supernatural "Buraq" transporting him from Mecca's Masjid al-Haram to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, where he ascended to heaven and met God and past Islamic prophets and messengers; Jerusalem also served as the qibla (direction of Muslim prayers) prior to Mecca's Kaaba.

Historically, the Holy Land is notable for being the site of numerous religious wars. In the Middle Ages, the Christian pilgrimage, which involves visiting sites associated with Jesus or his disciples, contributed to the beginning of the Crusades, which were aimed at restoring Christian sovereignty in the region after it was lost to the early Muslim conquests. In the 19th century, the Holy Land again became the subject of international diplomatic wrangling as part of the "Eastern Question" with regard to the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the Crimean War in the 1850s. Around the same period, the emergence of Zionism, a nationalist ideology that tapped into Jewish aspirations to recover the Land of Israel, spurred a sizable portion of the Jewish diaspora to begin working towards the development of the region as the Jewish homeland. Eventually, following numerous waves of Jewish immigration, the Zionist movement issued the Israeli Declaration of Independence in May 1948, triggering the First Arab–Israeli War. Since then, the Holy Land's religious and political atmosphere has been dominated by the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Pilgrimage and other religious activity in the Holy Land has long been central to the Judeo-Christian tradition and other Abrahamic religions. Restrictions on entry to the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem have been recurrent since the Ottoman era, with Jordan and Israel currently splitting responsibility of the site's administration. A number of sites are contested between certain groups, but subject to the "Status Quo" in Jerusalem and Bethlehem that effectively bars even the most miniscule changes in their status without universal consensus from the relevant religious parties. Pilgrims from all parts of the Abrahamic world visit the Holy Land to touch and see physical manifestations of their faith, to confirm their beliefs in the holy context with collective excitation, and to establish a personal connection with the sites in order to strengthen their sense of spirituality. Provided by Wikipedia