Jerusalem 1917

[michaeldr]

Holy Week has commenced and Passover is just a couple of days away, so perhaps there are those amongst the Pals whose thoughts will be turning to Jerusalem at this time.

At 08.45 hrs on 2nd November 1917, the aviators Holzhausen and Steinkraus of the German Squadron 303, flew over the Old City and took the following photograph from a height of 1,800 m. The picture is credited to the Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Munich, Abt.IV: Kriegsarchiv. North is aprox. at 3 o’clock. At the foot one can see the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock on the right and the al-Aqsa Mosque on the left. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is just above the centre of the picture and recognisable as the larger, dark, dome partly obscured by a smaller, lighter, dome.

Just over fifty years earlier, a team of Royal Engineers under Captain Charles W. Wilson RE., carried out an ‘Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem’ which was published in 1865. The preface was written by Colonel Sir Henry James RE., FRS., &c., Director of the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, and he had the following to say regarding the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

“The Sepulchre in which the body of our Lord was laid was originally a nearly square chamber, of about 6 feet in length and breadth and about 9 feet high. It lies nearly east and west; and on the north side there is a low bench, on which the body was laid. The entrance to this chamber was by a very low passage, leading into the south side from the east. The Sepulchre was cut in the natural rock, but when the Emperor Constantine, at the instigation of his mother the Empress Helena, determined to do honour to this sacred spot, he is said to have caused the rock all round the Sepulchre to be cut away to form a spacious enclosure round it, leaving the Sepulchre itself in the midst; and an examination of the ground fully sustains this description.

He then caused the detached rock to be cased with marble, and a church to be erected on the east side of it, which was finished A.D. 335. The church was seen by Eusabious and Jerome within a few years after it was built; and they describe it as being on the north side of Mount Zion, whilst the Pilgrim of Bordeaux, who saw it soon after it was finished, describes it as being on the left of the street leading from the Zion gate to the Damascus or Neapolis gate, as it was also called, in consequence of its leading to both places.

The church has been rebuilt at various times; but from the concurrent testimony of several writers from time to time there can be no doubt that a knowledge of the original site was preserved to the time of the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099 and up to the present day.

The Sepulchre is surrounded by a handsome building, with a dome open at the top, at present much needing repairs which the Empress of the French is exerting herself to raise money to effect.”

Which ever festival you and your family will celebrate,

Very best wishes

Michael D.R.