What is Sacred about earth.?
KYRGYZSTAN: SACRED MOUNTAIN DECLARED COUNTRY’S FIRST UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE
David Trilling 7/10/09
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Sulaiman Too gets global recognition. (David Trilling for EurasiaNet)
Long a center of pilgrimage in the Ferghana Valley, in recent times Osh’s Sulaiman Too mountain has been subject to both Soviet revisionist history and picnickers keen to leave their mark.
Now, the spot — where pre-Islamic rituals are blended with formal Muslim worship — has been declared Kyrgyzstan’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 295-hectare complex, including the mountain, surrounding cemeteries and old residential districts, was chosen at a meeting on June 26 in Seville, Spain, for its historical and cultural significance to the Ferghana Valley.
First appearing in the region in the 17th Century, the name refers to the prophet Sulaiman of the Old Testament. Some say Sulaiman — better known in the West as King Solomon, builder of Jerusalem’s first temple — is buried on the mountain. ’Too’ means mountain in Kyrgyz.
Sulaiman Too “dominates the Ferghana Valley and forms the backdrop to the city of Osh, at the crossroads of important routes on the Central Asian Silk Roads,” reads a UNESCO statement.
Home to 101 “sites with petroglyphs representing humans and animals as well as geometrical forms . . . The site numbers 17 places of worship, which are still in use, and many that are not.”
“Cult sites” on Sulaiman Too “are believed to provide cures for barrenness, headaches, and back pain and give the blessing of longevity. Veneration for the mountain blends pre-Islamic and Islamic beliefs. The site is believed to represent the most complete example of a sacred mountain anywhere in Central Asia, worshipped over several millennia,” the statement continues.
Visitors are active participants in old superstitions, whether for conviction or fun. At one spot on the smooth stone edifice, guests reach inside a cave the width and length of a human arm in order to heal all sorts of aliments; at another, women are encouraged to slide down a magic stone worn smooth by centuries of female visitors seeking to conceive.
Stairs lead to the higher of the two peaks where a small mosque is said to have been built by the Emperor Babur — founder of the Moghul Dynasty — in the 16th Century. It was mostly destroyed in Soviet times and reconstructed during the Perestroika era.
Below, a Soviet-era museum carved out of the rock houses local artifacts.
UNESCO has twice before considered adding Sulaiman Too to its list of sites with universal cultural and natural value. The list now includes 890 properties throughout the world.
At a press conference announcing the listing on July 1, Culture Minister Sultan Raev said he hoped Osh’s increased fame would draw tourists and suggested a direct flight from Istanbul to Osh could soon commence.
Editor’s Note: David Trilling is the Central Asia Coordinator for EurasiaNet.
Posted July 10, 2009 © Eurasianet
http://www.eurasianet.org
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In the Judeo-Christian region of the Middle East there are four primary sacred mountains: Mt Ararat in eastern Turkey, the traditional landing place of Noah’s ark; Mt. Sinai in the Sinai peninsula, the peak where Moses received the Ten Commandments; Mt. Moriah or Mt. Zion in Israel, where lies the city of Jerusalem and the temple of Solomon; and Mt. Tabor in Israel, the site of the transfiguration of Jesus. Mt. Sinai, also called Mt. Horeb and Jebel Musa (the ‘Mountain of Moses’) is the center of a greatly venerated pilgrimage destination that
includes the Monastery of St. Catherine and the Burning Bush, Elijah’s Plateau, and Plain of ar-Raaha.
Moses, the traditional founder of Judaism, was born in Egypt, the son of a Hebrew slave. The Hebrews had been in bondage in Egypt for four hundred years from approximately 1650-1250 BC. Near the end of this period an Egyptian priest in the service of the Pharaoh made a prophecy that a child would be born to the Hebrews that would one day free them from their slavery. The Pharaoh, on hearing this prophecy, ordered that every male child born to the Hebrews should be killed by drowning. In hopes of preventing his death, Moses’ parents placed him in a small basket, which they set adrift on the Nile. He was found by the daughter of the Pharaoh and subsequently raised as an adopted son of the royal family. During his upbringing he was extensively educated in the esoteric and magical traditions of the Egyptian mystery schools. At the age of forty Moses discovered that his original people, the Hebrews, were in bondage to the Egyptians. Enraged at this cruel treatment, he killed an Egyptian overseer and fled into exile into the Sinai wilderness.
Approximately forty years later, while grazing his flocks on the side of Mt. Horeb, Moses came upon a burning bush that was, miraculously, unconsumed by its own flames. A voice speaking out of the fire (Exodus 3:1-13) commanded him to lead his people out of bondage in Egypt and return with them to the mountain. Upon his return Moses twice climbed the mountain to commune with god. Regarding the second ascent, Exodus 24: 16-18 states: And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and the seventh day God called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount; and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. During this time on the mountain Moses received two tablets upon which God had inscribed the Ten Commandments, as well as precise dimensions for the Arc of the Covenant, a portable box-like shrine that would contain the tablets. Soon thereafter, the Arc of the Covenant was constructed and Moses and his people departed from Mt. Sinai.
The Arc of the Covenant and its supposedly divine contents are one of the great mysteries of antiquity. According to archaic textual sources the Arc was a wooden chest measuring three feet nine inches long by two feet three inches high and wide. It was lined inside and out with pure gold and was surmounted by two winged figures of cherubim that faced each other across its heavy gold lid. Some scholars believe that the Arc may have contained, in addition to the Tablets of the Law, pieces of meteorites and highly radioactive rocks. In the ensuing two hundred and fifty years, between the time it was taken from Mt. Sinai to when it was finally installed in the temple in Jerusalem, the Arc was kept for two centuries at Shiloh, was captured by the Philistines for seven months, and then, returned to the Israelites, was kept in the village of Kiriath-Jearim. During this entire time it was associated with numerous extraordinary phenomena, many of which involved the killing or burning of often large numbers of people. Passages in the Old Testament give the impression that these happenings were divine actions of Yahweh, the god of the Hebrews. Contemporary scholars, however, believe that there may be another explanation. Writing in The Sign and the Seal (concerning his search for the lost Arc of the Covenant), Graham Hancock suggests that the Arc, and more precisely its mysterious contents, may have been a product of ancient Egyptian magic, science and technology. Moses, being highly trained by the Egyptian priesthood, was certainly knowledgeable in these matters and thus the astonishing powers of the Arc and its ‘Tablets of the Law’ may have derived from archaic Egyptian magic rather than the mythical god Yahweh.
Currently there is no archaeological evidence that the 7507 foot (2288 meter) granite peak of Jebel Musa on the Sinai Peninsula is the actual Mt. Sinai of the Old Testament and various scholars, such as Emmanuel Anati, writing in his comprehensive study, The Mountain of God, have proposed several alternative locations. The association of Jebel Musa with the Biblical Mt. Sinai seems to have first developed in the 3rd century AD when hermits living in caves on the mountain began to identify their mountain with the ancient holy peak.
On the peak of Jebel Musa stands a small chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity. This chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th church, is believed to enclose the rock from which God made the Tablets of the Law. In the western wall of this chapel is a cleft in the rock where Moses is said to have hidden himself as God’s glory passed by (Exodus 33:22). Seven hundred and fifty steps below the summit and its chapel is the plateau known as Elijah’s Basin, where Elijah spent 40 days and nights communing with God in a cave. Nearby is a rock on which Aaron, the brother of Moses, and 70 elders stood while Moses received the law (Exodus 24:14). Northwest of Elijah’s plateau hardy pilgrims visit Jebel Safsaafa, where Byzantine hermits such as St. Gregory lived and prayed. Beneath the 2168 meter summit of Ras Safsaafa stands the Plain of ar-Raaha, where camped the Israelites at the time Moses ascended the mountain and where Moses erected the first tabernacle.
The assumed identification of Jebel Musa with the Biblical Mt. Sinai was a powerful attraction to hermits and pilgrims of the early Christian era. Certainly the most famous of these pilgrims was Helena, a 4th century Byzantine empress who confirmed her belief in the authenticity of Jebel Musa by constructing the first church in the area. Traditionally called the Chapel of the Burning Bush, it was constructed at the exact site where grew a rare specimen of Rubus sanctus, the still-living shrub which the monks believe is the original Burning Bush. A monastic community soon developed around this chapel and, to protect both the monks and the chapel from the attacks of roving Bedouin marauders, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I built a fortress-like basilica around the chapel in 542 AD. The basilica was called the Church of Transfiguration, in memory of the transfiguration of Jesus in the presence of Moses and Elijah on sacred Mt. Tabor.
The Monastery of the Transfiguration is also called St. Catherine’s Monastery after the early Christian martyr, St. Catherine. Born as Dorothea of Alexandria in 294 AD, she was later tortured and beheaded by the Roman emperor Maximus for incessantly criticizing him for his worship of pagan idols (which was merely an age-old veneration of earth-spirit deities). Legend says Catherine’s body miraculously vanished and was transported by a band of angels to the top of Jebel Katerina, the highest peak in the Sinai Peninsula. Three centuries later, monks found her supposedly uncorrupt body and brought it down to the Monastery of the Transfiguration, where some of her relics and certainly her name remain to this day.
After the Empress Helena, the next famous pilgrim to the Jebel Musa and the monastery was the Prophet Mohammed. Being well treated by the Orthodox Christian monks, Mohammed gave his personal pledge of protection, which then became incumbent on all Muslims thereby ensuring the monasteries continued existence. through the 14th centuries many thousands of pilgrims came annually and that the journey from Cairo took eight days by foot and camel. Following the Reformation, the popularity of Christian pilgrimage drastically declined and until the mid 1900’s no more than 80-100 pilgrims made the arduous journey each year. In the 1950’s the Egyptian government paved roads leading to oil fields and mines along the western Sinai coast and also developed a dirt track to the foot of Jebel Musa and the monastery, which allowed increasing numbers of secular tourists to travel in taxis from Cairo. The Israeli occupation of the Sinai in 1967, the return of the region to Egypt in 1980, and the completion of a paved road further increased the number of visitors to Jebel Musa. Bus service to and from Cairo became available on a daily basis in 1986 and today it is not uncommon for a hundred or more pilgrims and tourists to visit the ancient sacred site in a single day. Currently Greek Orthodox monks tend the monastery and its extraordinary collection of Byzantine art.
Alternate possible locations of Mt. Sinai
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief Synthesis
Sulaiman-Too Mountain dominates the surrounding landscape of the Fergana Valley and forms the backdrop to the city of Osh. In mediaeval times Osh was one of the largest cities of the fertile Fergana valley at the crossroads of important routes on the Central Asian Silk Roads system, and Sulaiman-Too was a beacon for travellers. For at least a millennium and a half Sulaiman-Too has been revered as a sacred mountain. Its five peaks and slopes contain a large assembly of ancient cult places and caves with petroglyphs, all interconnected with a network of ancient paths, as well as later mosques. The mountain is an exceptional spiritual landscape reflecting both Islamic and pre-Islamic beliefs and particularly the cult of the horse. Sulaiman-Too corresponds closely to iconic images in the Universe of Avesta and Vedic traditions: a single mountain with a peak dominating four others, standing in the virtual centre of a vast river valley, and surrounded by and related to other mountains in the landscape system.
Criterion (iii): The rich concentration of material evidence for cult practices preserved on Sulaiman-Too mountain from pre- and post-Islamic times, together with its ‘ideal’ form present the most complete picture of a sacred mountain anywhere in Central Asia.
Criterion (vi): Sulaiman-Too presents exceptionally vivid evidence for strong traditions of mountain worship which have spanned several millennia and been absorbed successfully by Islam. It has had a profound effect over a wide part of Central Asia.
Integrity and Authenticity
The authenticity of the mountain, its cult places, uses and functions are without doubt, even given the numerous interventions over the past 50 years. However, since the sacred associations of the mountain are linked to its dramatic form rising from the surrounding plain, it is highly vulnerable to continuing new development on it and around its base. In order to protect its majesty, spirituality, visual coherence and setting and thus the full authenticity of the property, great vigilance will be needed in enforcing protection of its setting. The integrity of the mountain relies on protection of the cult places and their connecting paths as well as their visual linkages and views to and from the mountain.
Management and protection requirements
The management of the mountain and its setting is coordinated by a Site Management Council who oversees the implementation of the Management Plan and Action Plan. Its effective protection relies on approval of an agreed zoning arrangement within the Osh Master Plan. To protect the property and its buffer zone against modern developments during the period before the completion and final approval of the Legal Protection Zoning Document and the Osh Urban Master Plan, a map showing the agreed boundaries of the nominated area, of the buffer zone and its sub-zones have been distributed as a reference to the responsible agencies of the Osh oblast, Osh city, Karasu district and Kyzylkyshtak rural area.
Polyglout:
Polyglot may refer to:
Polyglot (person), someone who aptly and with a high level of fluency uses many languages. The word derives from the Ancient Greek πολύγλωττος (poluglōttos, “’many-tongued, polyglot’”), from πολύς (polus, “many”) + γλῶττα (glōtta, “’tongue, language’”)
Polyglot (book), a book that contains the same text in more than one language
A polyglot Bible, an edition of the Bible with the texts in different columns in different languages, especially those in which early versions of the text exist; several versions have been produced.
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