0:00:07 > 0:00:11Jerusalem is the shrine of three faiths,
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Judaism, Christianity
0:00:15 > 0:00:16and Islam.
0:00:17 > 0:00:23It's a place of exquisite beauty, but also of ugly vulgarity.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28For some, this is the centre of the world
0:00:28 > 0:00:32and the home of God himself, but for others,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36Jerusalem is the best argument against religion there's ever been.
0:00:37 > 0:00:43Jerusalem's holiness has made it the most fought over city in history.
0:00:43 > 0:00:49Over the centuries, Jews, Christians and Muslims have competed viciously
0:00:49 > 0:00:52to commandeer and appropriate the history and the holiness
0:00:52 > 0:00:55of this place and as the competition has intensified,
0:00:55 > 0:00:57so has the holiness.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06All three religions have shared origins in the Old Testament
0:01:06 > 0:01:10and all have laid claim to Jerusalem.
0:01:10 > 0:01:16For many, the history of the city is more a matter of faith, than fact.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20But I believe you can piece together Jerusalem's fractured history...
0:01:20 > 0:01:24and that's the story I'm going to tell.
0:01:26 > 0:01:32It's a story of empires won and lost, of power and identity.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36Above all, it's a story of man's search for holiness.
0:01:38 > 0:01:43So, how did this craggy, remote obscure little stronghold
0:01:43 > 0:01:49become the Holy City, the prime place on Earth for God to meet man?
0:02:12 > 0:02:14I'm a historian,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18but I've also got a personal connection with Jerusalem.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22I've been coming here with my family since I was a boy.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27I've always been captivated by the city's spiritual aura,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30but also by the mystery of its origins.
0:02:32 > 0:02:39In the Bronze Age, around 3200BC, people lived in these hills.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43They existed in small square houses, they herded sheep
0:02:43 > 0:02:48and they buried their dead in the caves that have been found around Jerusalem.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Over the next thousand years, this land, known as Canaan,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01became part of a province ruled by the Pharaohs in Egypt.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05On the fertile plains of the Mediterranean coast,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08there were already several thriving cities.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15But inland, the hill country, was a backwater.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24Before Jerusalem expanded in modern times, east and west,
0:03:24 > 0:03:29the ancient city was founded on two mountains - Mount Moriah and Mount Zion.
0:03:29 > 0:03:34But it all really started down there on that dry little ridge...
0:03:34 > 0:03:35the Ophel.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48The Ophel Hill was where the Canaanite settlers first began to build.
0:03:48 > 0:03:56Their settlement was named Urusalem which some believe means "founded by Salem" -
0:03:56 > 0:03:58the pagan god of the evening star.
0:04:01 > 0:04:06This small, arid little hillside may seem a strange place to build a city.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11It's far from the trade routes, distant from the Mediterranean,
0:04:11 > 0:04:15but it did have two distinct advantages.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19First, its steep ravines make it almost impregnable.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21And, crucially...
0:04:23 > 0:04:24..it had a spring.
0:04:27 > 0:04:33It was this combination that attracted the first settlers to build on the Ophel Hill.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41The earliest known Canaanite structures
0:04:41 > 0:04:44are the foundations of two stone towers.
0:04:44 > 0:04:49They were only discovered in the 1990s by archaeologist Ronnie Reich.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54Ronnie, why did they need this fortification here?
0:04:54 > 0:04:55It's to protect the water,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59the spring and the approach to the spring.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03And, since is the only spring in a very large radius here around,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06this was their lifeline - the spring itself.
0:05:06 > 0:05:13Do you think that the spring, in that period, with its high towers around it,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17also had the holy qualities that it later assumed?
0:05:17 > 0:05:21It is the only spring in the vicinity which points to
0:05:21 > 0:05:27the east, to the sun. If you come in the morning, the sun's rays hit the water.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31Today, it's full with tourists, but you can see it,
0:05:31 > 0:05:35and I can believe there was a sanctity attributed
0:05:35 > 0:05:38to the spring in early days already.
0:05:38 > 0:05:44So what we have here, amazingly, is the first link to holiness in the city.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46So, this is incredibly significant.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49Yes, I was happy to find it.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59So, long before the Christians, long before Islam,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02long even before the Israelites captured Jerusalem...
0:06:02 > 0:06:05this was already a holy place.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15But, for me, the history of Jerusalem really comes alive in 1350BC,
0:06:15 > 0:06:23when, for the first time, in the Amarna letters we hear the voice of a real, human Jerusalemite.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Inscribed in delicate cuneiform characters,
0:06:27 > 0:06:32these letters were sent by the Canaanite king of Jerusalem, Abdi-Heba,
0:06:32 > 0:06:39to the Pharaoh in Egypt pleading for archers to help defend the city from attack.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Alas, no more is heard of Abdi-Heba.
0:06:42 > 0:06:47We don't know if the Pharaoh came to his help or if he got his archers.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50And no more is heard of Jerusalem either for several centuries.
0:06:52 > 0:06:58All we know is that this small, provincial town not only survived the attack,
0:06:58 > 0:06:59but carried on growing,
0:06:59 > 0:07:04with several new buildings clinging to the slopes of the Ophel hill.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09If you're looking for a reason why this unremarkable Bronze Age settlement
0:07:09 > 0:07:13became the universal city, it's because of the story told
0:07:13 > 0:07:17by a book of unique and global prestige...
0:07:18 > 0:07:20..the Bible.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32The Bible has been studied and revered
0:07:32 > 0:07:35by millions of believers over thousands of years.
0:07:35 > 0:07:41It's made Jerusalem the most famous city in the world.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43I probably need a kippa.
0:07:43 > 0:07:44Ah, thank you.
0:07:46 > 0:07:52Many of the stories told in the Bible originated in the oral traditions of the Hebrew people.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56They were often only put down in writing hundreds of years
0:07:56 > 0:07:59after they were supposed to have happened.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03To some believers, the Bible is the fruit of divine revelation,
0:08:03 > 0:08:08fundamentally infallible in every detail, but for the historian,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12it's a troublesome, complex and subtle source.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15Some of it is undeniably factually correct,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18some of it is mythological,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20some of it is poetry of soaring beauty
0:08:20 > 0:08:25and much of it is absolutely mysterious to all of us.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33The Bible isn't only a mystical and sacred text.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37It also forms a chronicle of Jerusalem's history
0:08:37 > 0:08:39and a hymn to its holiness.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44It's not always reliable, but it can be useful
0:08:44 > 0:08:47when you can check it against other sources.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52The first reference to Jerusalem is in the book of Genesis
0:08:52 > 0:08:56which recounts how the patriarch Abraham visited what was then
0:08:56 > 0:09:01a Canaanite city, ruled by a Canaanite priest.
0:09:03 > 0:09:08It says "And King Melchizedek of Salem welcomed him with bread and wine.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12"And he was a priest of God most high."
0:09:16 > 0:09:20The Bible goes on to tell us that, centuries later,
0:09:20 > 0:09:25Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt to take over the promised land... Canaan.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36The book of Joshua tells how they occupied Canaan
0:09:36 > 0:09:39in a series of battles and massacres.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46There isn't much archaeological evidence of a violent conquest -
0:09:46 > 0:09:49there are hardly any ruined cities, or mass grave.
0:09:49 > 0:09:56But there is evidence of pastoral settlers building new villages in this countryside.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00The Israelites brought with them a new religion.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03They believed in just one god, Yahweh.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06And the first of the ten commandments was to reject
0:10:06 > 0:10:08the pagan gods of old.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13The Israelites may have been united by their faith,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16but politically they were divided.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21There were 12 distinct tribes lined up in two warring factions -
0:10:21 > 0:10:27the northern tribes known as Israel and the southern tribes of Judah.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31Uniting these warring tribes would take a visionary
0:10:31 > 0:10:33and charismatic warrior king...
0:10:37 > 0:10:39..David.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44The Bible presents him as a flawed sinner,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47adulterer and man of blood,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50but also as a sacred hero and poet.
0:10:53 > 0:10:59Just as the American founding fathers chose Washington DC as their capital
0:10:59 > 0:11:01to bridge the gap between north and south,
0:11:01 > 0:11:07so David chose Jerusalem as his neutral new capital.
0:11:13 > 0:11:20This strategic decision transformed a remote hilltop fortress into a capital city.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26There is archaeological proof that David himself existed
0:11:26 > 0:11:32and the Bible describes his Jerusalem as the magnificent capital of a large kingdom.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35But after years of archaeological research,
0:11:35 > 0:11:39there's very little evidence of a city built by David.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43And what evidence there is, is hard to interpret.
0:11:44 > 0:11:49This heap of stones is the most contested archaeological site
0:11:49 > 0:11:52in the most excavated place on Earth.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57Some archaeologists believe that these stones
0:11:57 > 0:12:00are the walls of the palace of King David himself.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06Other archaeologists believe that this may not be King David's actual palace,
0:12:06 > 0:12:08but it dates from King David's reign.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12And yet another group of archaeologists disagree with them
0:12:12 > 0:12:17and believe that this doesn't even date from the 10th century and King David's reign at all.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22The most influential of this more sceptical group
0:12:22 > 0:12:26of archaeologists is Israel Finkelstein.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29He believes these buildings were already here when David arrived.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35When he came here to Jerusalem
0:12:35 > 0:12:39from the fringes of... the highlands of the Judah...
0:12:39 > 0:12:41he found an existing settlement, not a big one,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44a small one which spread over an area,
0:12:44 > 0:12:46possibly between five and ten acres,
0:12:46 > 0:12:52with a modest population also around maybe five, six, seven hundred people,
0:12:52 > 0:12:56not more than that. It was a typical Bronze Age city.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00There is no evidence for palaces and things like that.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Had there been a big city with monuments, with walls,
0:13:03 > 0:13:04with fortifications,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07I think archaeologists would have been able to find that.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10Why is David so controversial?
0:13:10 > 0:13:15The controversy, in my opinion, is driven, taken over,
0:13:15 > 0:13:20by modern debate, over Jerusalem, over the future of Jerusalem,
0:13:20 > 0:13:24over the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
0:13:24 > 0:13:31I think that this is senseless and I do not see this as important.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34I don't think that the past can decide the future.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38With all due respect to the past as an archaeologist, I'm telling you,
0:13:38 > 0:13:42I don't think the past can really decide the future.
0:13:45 > 0:13:52Both sides justify their claims to Jerusalem with contradictory interpretations of the past.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57For Jews everywhere, it was David who made this their holy city
0:13:57 > 0:14:01when he summoned the ark of the covenant -
0:14:01 > 0:14:04the chest containing the ten commandments.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09The Bible says he planned a temple to house them
0:14:09 > 0:14:14just above the Ophel Hill, on the summit of Mount Moriah.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16Whether myth or reality,
0:14:16 > 0:14:21this account would help make this site the Israelites' holiest place.
0:14:22 > 0:14:28It's likely this commanding location was already a shrine for the cults of the Canaanites,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31so that when David decided to build his temple up here,
0:14:31 > 0:14:36he was appropriating a holiness that already existed.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46Building the temple was deemed too sacred a task
0:14:46 > 0:14:51for the flawed character of David, so after his death,
0:14:51 > 0:14:53God chose his son to build it.
0:15:01 > 0:15:06The Bible presents Solomon as a study in superlatives.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08He was the ideal of the oriental emperor.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12Everything he had was bigger and better than any other king.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15He was richer, wiser and more powerful.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19He had 12,000 cavalry, he had 16,000 chariots
0:15:19 > 0:15:23and as if that wasn't enough, he had 700 women in his harem.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28But, overshadowing all these accomplishments,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32was the temple he's believed to have built on Mount Moriah.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Solomon's temple probably stood right there.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46It's now the Islamic Haram al-Sharif, the sanctuary,
0:15:46 > 0:15:48and the Dome of the Rock stands on the site,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51so it's impossible to excavate.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57Although no remains of the first temple have been uncovered,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01its position is known, and even after 3,000 years,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05for Jews, it remains the place where God resides.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13The famous western wall was part of a later Jewish temple built on
0:16:13 > 0:16:17the same site. Its rabbi is Shmuel Rabinowitz.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Today, the closest place to Solomon's holy of holies
0:17:13 > 0:17:19where Jews can pray is as remote from the glories of his temple as you can imagine,
0:17:19 > 0:17:21hidden in a cramped, humid tunnel.
0:17:27 > 0:17:3490 metres eastwards and upwards from here was the holiest place in Judaism
0:17:34 > 0:17:36and it still is the holiest place in Judaism -
0:17:36 > 0:17:39the foundation stone of King Solomon's temple.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45For Solomon, this was the holy of holies...
0:17:45 > 0:17:48this was where God actually resided, the house of God.
0:17:48 > 0:17:54For Jews ever since, this has been the place where God can meet man.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59For all the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
0:17:59 > 0:18:01this is the essence, this is the source
0:18:01 > 0:18:04of Jerusalem's holiness, right here.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16I'm not a very religious Jew, but, to me,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20this is one of the holiest places on Earth.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29Solomon's temple was the first Jewish temple.
0:18:29 > 0:18:34Pilgrims came from all over his kingdom to pray to their God, Yahweh,
0:18:34 > 0:18:38and their donations soon made the temple very rich.
0:18:39 > 0:18:44Worship in Solomon's temple was a religion based on sacrifice
0:18:44 > 0:18:48outside the holy of holies at the altar up there,
0:18:48 > 0:18:51and conducted by a priestly caste.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55David and Solomon are steeped in mythology,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59but the evidence shows that, within decades, a Jewish temple
0:18:59 > 0:19:03did stand here in the capital of a Jewish kingdom.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09When Solomon died, after a reign of forty years, the kingdom split up.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13The ten northern tribes, unhappy at the exorbitant taxation,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15broke away to form the kingdom of Israel,
0:19:15 > 0:19:20and Jerusalem remained the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32With the Jews divided, Jerusalem became vulnerable.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42In the 8th century BC, the voracious empire of Assyria
0:19:42 > 0:19:46was expanding from its base in modern day Iraq.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49When the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52the Jews of Jerusalem knew they were next.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56As the Assyrians approached Jerusalem,
0:19:56 > 0:20:01the King of Judah received a warning from his prophet Isaiah.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07He said only a messiah would be able to protect the city.
0:20:09 > 0:20:14Isaiah prophesied that an anointed king would appear and bring peace
0:20:14 > 0:20:15and this is what he wrote.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18"Out of Zion shall come forth the law,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21"and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24"and he shall be a judge among the nations."
0:20:26 > 0:20:30He imagined a mystical New Jerusalem,
0:20:30 > 0:20:37that would exist in a perfect state of peace and harmony, an idealised heaven on Earth.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42And in this astonishing vision, he would ultimately help inspire
0:20:42 > 0:20:48a new world religion and transform Jerusalem into the universal city.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58He was the first, but not the last to see two Jerusalems...
0:20:58 > 0:21:01one heavenly, one earthly.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03700 years later,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07his prophecy would become central to the teaching of Jesus.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14But in the meantime, King Hezekiah had a more immediate concern.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31Hezekiah dared to rebel against Assyria and now its king,
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Sennacherib, was advancing with a huge army.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39They deported thousands of captives, blinded hundreds of victims,
0:21:39 > 0:21:43and burned and flayed their enemies alive.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46Like Jerusalem's earliest inhabitants,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Hezekiah had two priorities - first, defences.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Knowing the Assyrian appetite for brutal conquest,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57Hezekiah built his walls 20' wide.
0:22:01 > 0:22:06And second...protecting the city's vital and sacred spring.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14The spring on the Ophel Hill was still the city's only source of water.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19But now it lay outside the new city walls.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24To ensure safe access to it in case of a siege, he decided
0:22:24 > 0:22:28to hack a tunnel through 1,700 feet of solid rock.
0:22:30 > 0:22:36And here it is and it's taken us 35 minutes to walk along it
0:22:36 > 0:22:39and, I can tell you, you never lose the wonder of this place.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48And, as you walk through here, you can actually feel
0:22:48 > 0:22:53the chisel marks of the excavators 2,700 years ago.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59The tunnel was dug by two teams starting at opposite ends.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04It was only rediscovered in the 19th century
0:23:04 > 0:23:07when a pair of curious schoolboys went exploring.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12One of the little boys got frightened and ran back to school,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16but the other one felt his way along the tunnel
0:23:16 > 0:23:20until he could feel that the blades of the excavators
0:23:20 > 0:23:25had changed direction. And, at that place, he found an inscription.
0:23:25 > 0:23:31And it reads, "Each quarryman hewed towards his fellow quarryman,
0:23:31 > 0:23:38"axe by axe. And then, when the tunnel was dug, the water flowed."
0:23:39 > 0:23:44And, amazingly, almost 3,000 years later,
0:23:44 > 0:23:48here is the tunnel and here the water is still flowing.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00No sooner had Hezekiah completed his fortifications,
0:24:00 > 0:24:05then Sennacherib of Assyria descended on Jerusalem like a wolf on the fold.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11He surrounded the city with his armies. All seemed lost.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Then, at the last minute he abandoned the assault...
0:24:26 > 0:24:28leaving the city unharmed.
0:24:28 > 0:24:34To the Jews of Jerusalem his decision was a divine miracle.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37The truth is we don't know why he spared them.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42But there is a clue in Sennacherib's own account.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46He says he had Jerusalem "like a bird in a cage" and that
0:24:46 > 0:24:51he returned home after receiving gold, probably from the temple.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Was it divine providence or just a mighty big bribe?
0:25:06 > 0:25:09The emergence of the Jews' faith in one God, Yahweh,
0:25:09 > 0:25:14had been plagued by the persistence of older pagan beliefs.
0:25:16 > 0:25:22When Hezekiah died, his son Manasseh turned his back on Yahweh.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25He brought pagan idols into Solomon's temple.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31And just outside the city walls, he introduced a much darker ritual...
0:25:31 > 0:25:32child sacrifice.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Here, in the Valley of Hinnom, Manasseh placed the roaster,
0:25:42 > 0:25:46an altar at which innocent children were burned
0:25:46 > 0:25:51and killed to appease the many gods of the Canaanites.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56Israelites were appalled by this and gradually Hinnom or its Hebrew name, Gehenna,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59came to be synonymous with the practices of Hell itself.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08This Biblical story has also helped form our very concept of religious evil,
0:26:08 > 0:26:11and our map of heaven and hell.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17Just as the Temple Mount, in all its beauty and sanctity,
0:26:17 > 0:26:23was heaven on Earth, so Hinnom, right here, was Jerusalem's own hell.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36When Manasseh died, the Jewish religion was revived.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40Idols were cast out of the temple,
0:26:40 > 0:26:44and the child murderers put to death.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46The new king, Josiah,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50hoped to restore the glories of David and Solomon,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54but when he was killed, Jerusalem's hopes were crushed
0:26:54 > 0:26:56and its religion faced annihilation.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11A new empire emerged from the ruins of Assyria - Babylon.
0:27:12 > 0:27:19It too used spectacular cruelty and mass deportations to enforce its dominion.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25The Babylonian empire now controlled the whole Middle East.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28The kingdom of Judah was a semi-independent state
0:27:28 > 0:27:31with Jerusalem as its capital.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36When the Judeans rebelled against the Babylonians,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched south
0:27:39 > 0:27:41and laid siege to the city.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50His men surrounded the walls. Inside, food started to run out.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52People starved.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55As the Jewish month of Ab began,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58it was clear they could hold out no longer.
0:28:00 > 0:28:07On 9th of Ab 586BC, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon burst into the city.
0:28:14 > 0:28:19Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, he burnt it to the ground.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21He emptied its teeming streets.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25He demolished the temple and then he rounded up the Jewish elite
0:28:25 > 0:28:30and deported around 40,000 of them all the way to Babylon.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37Nebuchadnezzar's action created a theme that runs through the Jewish relationship with Jerusalem -
0:28:37 > 0:28:41the idea of exile and the dream of return.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00The book of Lamentations mourns the tragedy.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25This tragedy became the template for the end of the world,
0:29:25 > 0:29:29depicted in the Bible, for the Jews and also for the Christians.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36Ever since, Jerusalem has been seen as the location of the final apocalypse.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45The destruction of the temple must have seemed
0:29:45 > 0:29:50like the death not just of a city, but of an entire people.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53Surely the Jews would vanish from history,
0:29:53 > 0:29:56like all the other peoples whose gods had failed them?
0:29:56 > 0:30:00And yet that didn't happen. Somehow this experience transformed
0:30:00 > 0:30:06the Jews themselves and it helped redouble the sanctity of Jerusalem too.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14Exiled in Babylon, the Jews developed new religious practices
0:30:14 > 0:30:16to preserve their identity.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19They wore distinctive clothes, circumcised their sons,
0:30:19 > 0:30:22observed the Sabbath and avoided certain foods.
0:30:27 > 0:30:32It only lasted for 50 years, but the exile was a defining moment
0:30:32 > 0:30:35in creating the Judaism we recognise today.
0:30:38 > 0:30:44In 539BC Babylon was conquered by King Cyrus of Persia.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Cyrus let the Jews go back to Jerusalem
0:30:48 > 0:30:51and even paid for them to rebuild their temple.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58For the next 200 years,
0:30:58 > 0:31:02the Jewish High Priests ruled Jerusalem as a theocracy
0:31:02 > 0:31:07until the brilliant Macedonian king, Alexander the Great,
0:31:07 > 0:31:11swept across the Near East bringing a new empire and a cultural revolution.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30Alexander's empire didn't last long.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34But his Greek culture became THE international culture,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37just as the American is today.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42In Jerusalem, even young priests started to exercise naked in the gym.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46They even started to try to reverse their circumcisions.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49They wanted to do everything the Greek way.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55But this totally contradicted the ideals of Jewish purity.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02After a century of benign Greek rule,
0:32:02 > 0:32:06Jerusalem came under the control of king Antiochus Epiphanes -
0:32:06 > 0:32:12god-manifest - who was as beautiful and crazy as he was ambitious.
0:32:14 > 0:32:19When the Jews rebelled against him, Antiochus stormed Jerusalem.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25He wasn't satisfied by just sacking the city,
0:32:25 > 0:32:27he decided to wipe out the Jewish religion altogether.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34He placed statues of Zeus and of himself in the temple and had them worshipped.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39But, worse still, he sacrificed swine on the altar.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42He forced the Jews to eat pork.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47Mothers who circumcised their babies were thrown off the city walls with their infants.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52Anyone caught reading Jewish holy books was burnt alive.
0:32:52 > 0:32:57These deaths created the first cult of religious martyrdom.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00When he demanded that the Jews worship him,
0:33:00 > 0:33:05and not Yahweh, his sacrilege provoked a religious revolt.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11In a small village outside Jerusalem, Antiochus's officers
0:33:11 > 0:33:14tried to force an elderly Jewish priest named Mattathias
0:33:14 > 0:33:17to sacrifice to Antiochus.
0:33:17 > 0:33:23Mattathias refused, killed the Greek general, raised the flag of rebellion and fled to the hills.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33He was joined by a group known as the Hasidim - the pious -
0:33:33 > 0:33:36who were so religious, they would not fight on the Sabbath.
0:33:36 > 0:33:41Needless to say, when battles were fought on Saturdays, they were slaughtered.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49Here, on the outskirts of Modin, are the rock cut tombs where the fallen were buried.
0:33:51 > 0:33:57But the fortunes of the rebels were to change when they found a new leader.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01Mattathias's son, Judah, known as "the Hammer" -
0:34:01 > 0:34:04or the Maccabee in Aramaic -
0:34:04 > 0:34:08launched a successful guerrilla war against Antiochus and his Greeks.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11His dynasty became known as the Maccabees.
0:34:14 > 0:34:20To the Greeks, they may have seemed to be a fanatical bunch of Jewish Mujahideen.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24To the Jews, they showed how a small band of brothers
0:34:24 > 0:34:28could heroically resist the armies of a superpower and win.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34They recaptured Jerusalem
0:34:34 > 0:34:38and, in the process, triumphed in the first recorded Holy War.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49One by one, the Greeks were losing control of their kingdoms
0:34:49 > 0:34:54to a powerful new neighbour from the western Mediterranean.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04The Maccabees kingdom was weakened by infighting.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08Now, it was the Romans who decided who ruled Jerusalem.
0:35:12 > 0:35:17In 40BC, the two rulers of the Roman world, Mark Antony and Octavian
0:35:17 > 0:35:22appointed a brilliant young strongman, Herod, as King of Judea.
0:35:27 > 0:35:34Half Jewish, half Arab, Herod was the ambitious son of a pagan convert to Judaism.
0:35:36 > 0:35:41He was Jerusalem's own version of a cross between Henry VIII and Stalin.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52As soon as he conquered Jerusalem,
0:35:52 > 0:35:57Herod killed half the members of the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin.
0:35:58 > 0:36:04He married ten times, and murdered his favourite wife by public garrotting.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07Oh, and he killed three of his own children.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16But this monster had impeccable taste.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19He had a vision to build a temple and a Jerusalem
0:36:19 > 0:36:22as glorious as that of Solomon.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24And this is what it would have looked like.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38Despite his pagan roots,
0:36:38 > 0:36:40Herod built the most majestic Jewish temple.
0:36:45 > 0:36:46It was a vast enterprise.
0:36:46 > 0:36:51It took 80 years, 1,000 priests had to be trained as builders,
0:36:51 > 0:36:55since only priests could enter the inner courts.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59Whole quarries of golden blocks of limestone had to be brought here to build it.
0:37:01 > 0:37:07And whole forests of cedars had to be sailed down from Lebanon
0:37:07 > 0:37:09to embellish this remarkable building.
0:37:15 > 0:37:21To this day, there are remnants of Herod's Jerusalem visible all over the city,
0:37:21 > 0:37:26most famously, the huge stones of the supporting western wall of the temple.
0:37:30 > 0:37:35But some of the best preserved parts of Herod's Jerusalem are actually
0:37:35 > 0:37:37down here in these tunnels.
0:37:43 > 0:37:48During the 1980s, the first archaeologist to document these tunnels, was Dan Bahat.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52What a room. What is this?
0:37:52 > 0:37:57We are now in the Herodian Hall which was built by Herod the Great.
0:37:57 > 0:38:03It is the best preserved structure in Herodian Jerusalem.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Herod tried to glorify his city.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08He did it by rebuilding the temple,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10he built streets,
0:38:10 > 0:38:14which we see lavishly paved with enormous stones,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18really, everything to make Jerusalem look beautiful.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23In some ways he created modern Jerusalem, modern Holy Jerusalem?
0:38:23 > 0:38:27Yes, one must remember that Herod the Great was not a great believer
0:38:27 > 0:38:31for whom the temple as such was an important thing.
0:38:31 > 0:38:36He did it because he believed in case he beautified the Temple Mount,
0:38:36 > 0:38:41the nation would accept it with favour and start to like him.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44The fact is that they did not, the fact is they did not.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52Herod was hated by his own sons.
0:38:52 > 0:38:58They planned to grab his kingdom and he murdered any who challenged him.
0:39:02 > 0:39:07Herod the Great, in old age, suffered a most terrible death.
0:39:07 > 0:39:12The lower part of his body, his belly and scrotum, swelled up, suppurating fluid.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16Into this fluid, flies laid eggs, which, to the horror of everyone,
0:39:16 > 0:39:19including Herod himself, gave birth to worms.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23His scrotum and his intestines swelled up.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25He died in terrible, terrible agony.
0:39:25 > 0:39:33Somehow this gruesome end matched Herod's record of barbaric sadism.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39His death provoked chaos.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41Three messianic Jewish kings rebelled
0:39:41 > 0:39:43and were crushed by the Romans.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47Herod's kingdom was divided between three of his sons.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52The one who inherited Jerusalem was so oafishly inept
0:39:52 > 0:39:55that the Romans took control of Judea
0:39:55 > 0:39:58which they ruled in alliance with the high priests.
0:40:05 > 0:40:10In this febrile atmosphere, a child was growing up in Galilee.
0:40:11 > 0:40:16His father, though a carpenter, was descended from king David,
0:40:16 > 0:40:19a lineage both royal and sacred.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26He was steeped in knowledge of the Jewish scriptures
0:40:26 > 0:40:29and everything he did was a conscious fulfilment
0:40:29 > 0:40:32of the Jewish prophecies.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35In particular, he saw himself fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah
0:40:35 > 0:40:41that an anointed king would bring forth the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43His name was Jesus.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47When he started preaching, up country in Galilee, his message
0:40:47 > 0:40:50was direct and dramatic.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57The essence of his ministry was the imminence of the Apocalypse
0:40:57 > 0:41:00and he soon attracted a devoted following.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05Jesus was a practising Jew, so Jerusalem
0:41:05 > 0:41:09and the temple were central to his beliefs.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11He never actually claimed to be the Messiah,
0:41:11 > 0:41:13but his apocalyptic message
0:41:13 > 0:41:17and his mocking of the pro-Roman temple establishment
0:41:17 > 0:41:22were a clear challenge to their authority and to Roman rule.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31In about 33AD, he arrived in Jerusalem for the Passover festival.
0:41:31 > 0:41:33The city was at its most tense.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37It was crowded with hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims
0:41:37 > 0:41:41and the authorities, both the Romans and the high priests alike,
0:41:41 > 0:41:45feared another outbreak of messianic rebellion.
0:41:52 > 0:41:57On the day before Passover, Jesus came to the temple, crowded with pilgrims.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Now Jesus entered the temple's royal portico,
0:42:04 > 0:42:08where pilgrims could change money to buy animals for sacrifice -
0:42:08 > 0:42:13oxen for the rich, doves for the poor and sheep for the squeezed middle.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16And, there, he attacked the temple establishment,
0:42:16 > 0:42:18overturning the tables of the money changers
0:42:18 > 0:42:24and telling them they had turned God's house into a den of thieves.
0:42:27 > 0:42:33By confronting the temple priests in such a public way,
0:42:33 > 0:42:37Jesus was asking for trouble.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41That night, Jesus was arrested
0:42:41 > 0:42:45and brought before the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51The Romans had executed all previous rebel prophets
0:42:51 > 0:42:57and now Pilate sentenced Jesus to the same end - death by crucifixion.
0:43:05 > 0:43:06After Jesus's crucifixion,
0:43:06 > 0:43:10his followers gave him a traditional Jewish burial.
0:43:10 > 0:43:12They laid him in this rock-cut tomb
0:43:12 > 0:43:15and then they sealed the entrance with a large stone.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28Three days later, the gospels tell that Jesus rose from the dead
0:43:28 > 0:43:32and appeared to his amazed followers.
0:43:32 > 0:43:37They became known as Nazarenes after the place Jesus came from.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42The Nazarenes continued to worship as Jews in the Jewish temple.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46In fact, they didn't regard themselves as a different religion at all.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57It would be another 30 years before the Nazarenes
0:43:57 > 0:44:00established a separate identity.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04In 66AD, Roman corruption, incompetence
0:44:04 > 0:44:08and brutality provoked a massive Jewish rebellion.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14The Jewish warlords were determined to overthrow Roman rule.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17When the Roman Emperor Nero heard about the rebellion,
0:44:17 > 0:44:19he was at the Olympic Games in Greece.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22He immediately despatched his trusted general Vespasian
0:44:22 > 0:44:27and his son Titus to wipe out the rebellious Jews.
0:44:27 > 0:44:33Titus advanced on Jerusalem with a massive army of 60,000 men.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41As the legionaries surrounded the city, many of the Jews
0:44:41 > 0:44:46trapped inside tried to escape by sneaking past the Roman lines.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54The escaping refugees would swallow their coins to protect their wealth,
0:44:54 > 0:44:59but the legionaries discovered this and started to eviscerate every escaping Jew,
0:44:59 > 0:45:04sifting greedily through their intestines in the search for treasure.
0:45:04 > 0:45:09Even Titus, hardly a squeamish man, was shocked by this.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12He banned it, but the practice continued.
0:45:12 > 0:45:17Titus ordered that every refugee escaping from Jerusalem should be crucified.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23At its height, 500 Jews were being crucified a day.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27The hillsides around Jerusalem were a forest of crucifixes,
0:45:27 > 0:45:34and the legionaries made it worse by deliberately crucifying Jews in grotesque and comical poses.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37Truly, this was a scene from hell.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44Those trapped inside the city
0:45:44 > 0:45:49did everything they could to keep the Romans out.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52Yuval Harari has studied their methods.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56Jerusalem at the time had three different sets of walls
0:45:56 > 0:46:02and, also, the defenders, when they saw that one of the walls was about to crumble,
0:46:02 > 0:46:07sometimes they built makeshift walls behind it,
0:46:07 > 0:46:12so the Romans are faced by multiple walls and fortifications.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16So what systems did the Romans use to break into the city?
0:46:16 > 0:46:20They tried to go under, they dig tunnels under the walls.
0:46:20 > 0:46:25Then you have attempts to go through the wall with huge rams,
0:46:25 > 0:46:29which is basically a big tree, with a big iron head,
0:46:29 > 0:46:34which they swing and hit against the wall.
0:46:34 > 0:46:42Finally, the Romans have artillery, which fires huge balls of rock.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45They fire it over the walls, into the city.
0:46:45 > 0:46:51It's not a way to take a city, but it's a way to terrorise the civilian population inside.
0:46:51 > 0:46:56Either way, you were pretty sure to die somehow.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58By the time the Romans are around the city,
0:46:58 > 0:47:04the chances of survival of the civilian population is very bad.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15Four months into the siege, Jewish resistance was weakening.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20On 9th of the Jewish month of Ab,
0:47:20 > 0:47:23the very day almost 500 years earlier
0:47:23 > 0:47:26when Nebuchadnezzar had stormed Jerusalem,
0:47:26 > 0:47:29Titus prepared to attack the Temple.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40That night, his men broke through the last and strongest of the city's defensive walls.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49The ensuing battle was witnessed by a renegade Jewish general
0:47:49 > 0:47:53who'd defected and was travelling in Titus' entourage.
0:47:56 > 0:48:02Josephus describes the horror of the battle for the Temple Mount.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05"Around the altar, the heap of corpses grew higher and higher,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09"while down the holy of holies steps, poured a river of blood
0:48:09 > 0:48:13"and the bodies of those killed at the top slithered to the bottom."
0:48:18 > 0:48:21And then the soldiers let rip in the city.
0:48:26 > 0:48:27The soldiers were like men possessed - running,
0:48:27 > 0:48:34galloping through the streets, killing men, women and children
0:48:34 > 0:48:37and burning every house they could see.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47Josephus tells how, at dusk, the slaughter finally ceased.
0:48:47 > 0:48:52But now, the flames and the fire gained mastery over the holy city.
0:49:01 > 0:49:06Through the roar of the flames could be heard the sound of these cracking stones,
0:49:06 > 0:49:11the screaming of men, women and children, the screaming of burning people.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16It was the sound of the greatest city of the East dying.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22So ended the siege of Jerusalem.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37The next day,
0:49:37 > 0:49:40Titus ordered his men to destroy what was left of the temple.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47Some of the stones still lie where they fell.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52Unlike after the Babylonian destruction,
0:49:52 > 0:49:54the temple was never to be rebuilt.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01The treasures that he looted were paraded through Rome
0:50:01 > 0:50:06where Titus's triumph was celebrated by the building of a monumental arch.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12As many as 600,000 Jews were killed
0:50:12 > 0:50:16and those who were left were banned from Jerusalem.
0:50:17 > 0:50:2360 years later, the emperor Hadrian decided to annihilate Judaism altogether.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27When the Jews rebelled, he crushed them with genocidal brutality.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33This was a turning point for the Jewish people and the Jewish faith.
0:50:33 > 0:50:40They had to get used to life and faith without Temple Mount and without Jerusalem.
0:50:40 > 0:50:45From now on, Jerusalem remained the holy city for the Jewish people.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47But it also became the lost motherland,
0:50:47 > 0:50:50an ideal, a sacred talisman.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15Hadrian renamed the province of Judea as Palaestina,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18after the Jews' enemy, the Philistines.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22He rebuilt Jerusalem as a typical Roman pagan city,
0:51:22 > 0:51:26with a new main street and two forums.
0:51:30 > 0:51:35There are fragments of Hadrian's Jerusalem hidden all over the city,
0:51:35 > 0:51:37some of them are in the most unlikely places.
0:51:37 > 0:51:42Hi. Can we go and look at the wall and the arch at the back? Thank you.
0:51:52 > 0:51:58This archway and this pillar were once part of Hadrian's forum...
0:51:59 > 0:52:02It is rather exciting to find them here
0:52:02 > 0:52:07in the back of a Palestinian patisserie, in the back storeroom,
0:52:07 > 0:52:09lost and forgotten here.
0:52:09 > 0:52:15And, look, all their tools and bits of building material and old chairs turned over.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18This is very Jerusalem. I love it here.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24Jerusalem was pagan for over a century
0:52:24 > 0:52:30with a shrine to Aphrodite on the site of Christ's crucifixion
0:52:30 > 0:52:34and a statue of Hadrian himself on the Temple Mount.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40After the destruction of the temple, the Nazarenes had separated
0:52:40 > 0:52:46from the Jewish mother religion to become a distinct new religion...
0:52:46 > 0:52:47Christianity.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54They kept alive the traditions of their holiest site,
0:52:54 > 0:52:56where Jesus had died and been buried.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03Even in the centuries when this was a pagan temple,
0:53:03 > 0:53:11Christians still used to sneak into these caves and secretly keep this place alive as a Christian shrine.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13And take a look at what they wrote here...
0:53:13 > 0:53:17"Domine Ivimus" - "We come to the Lord".
0:53:20 > 0:53:23Christians were sometimes tolerated,
0:53:23 > 0:53:27but at other times viciously persecuted.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32They were forced to keep their rites secret while the city was under pagan rule.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36Without the Jews, and with the Christians lying low,
0:53:36 > 0:53:39Jerusalem ceased to be a religious centre altogether.
0:53:39 > 0:53:46Without religion, it was just another small, provincial town of the Roman East.
0:53:48 > 0:53:55The population fell to 10,000, less than half its former size.
0:53:55 > 0:53:56The walls crumbled.
0:54:01 > 0:54:08Until the fate of the city was transformed by the caprice of one extraordinary man.
0:54:15 > 0:54:20Constantine was a rough, tough soldier who slashed his way to power,
0:54:20 > 0:54:24but Jerusalem was to benefit from his brutality.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31In 312AD, the Roman Emperor converted to Christianity
0:54:31 > 0:54:36and set about rebuilding Jerusalem as the religious centre of his Christian Empire.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Here, at the place where Jesus was crucified,
0:54:43 > 0:54:46Constantine knocked down Hadrian's pagan temple
0:54:46 > 0:54:49and built a Christian church.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53He sent his beloved mother, Helena,
0:54:53 > 0:54:57who'd also converted to Christianity, to rebuild Jerusalem.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02When she came, the Empress Helena heard from local Christians
0:55:02 > 0:55:08that parts of the true cross - the actual wood on which Jesus had been crucified - was buried up here.
0:55:15 > 0:55:19When she started to dig, she found not one but three crosses.
0:55:19 > 0:55:24She did not know which one was the true one, so she presented each one to a dying woman.
0:55:24 > 0:55:32When the woman recovered, she knew which one was the true cross on which Jesus had been crucified.
0:55:34 > 0:55:40Relics of Jesus's life became increasingly important in Christianity,
0:55:40 > 0:55:45none more so than the life-giving wood of the true cross.
0:55:45 > 0:55:50It had to have a special guard because pilgrims tried to bite chunks off when they kissed it.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53Jerusalem was a totally Christian city.
0:55:53 > 0:55:58Pilgrims could follow every step of Jesus's life through its shrines.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01But the Christians also inherited the holiness
0:56:01 > 0:56:04and the ancient Jewish stories of Jerusalem itself.
0:56:06 > 0:56:12One of the fascinating things about this place, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
0:56:12 > 0:56:15is that, over time, the Christians simply took some of the stories
0:56:15 > 0:56:17of the Jewish Temple Mount
0:56:17 > 0:56:21and moved them to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
0:56:21 > 0:56:27Now, they came to believe that Adam was buried here and his skull is beneath the church.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32They came to believe that Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac here,
0:56:32 > 0:56:33not on the Temple Mount.
0:56:33 > 0:56:38And they came to believe that this was the true centre of the world.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44Just as the early Israelites appropriated the Canaanites'
0:56:44 > 0:56:48sacred places, the Christians too borrowed the holiness
0:56:48 > 0:56:52attached to the Jewish temple, but they turned the Temple Mount itself
0:56:52 > 0:56:58into a rubbish dump to celebrate their victory over Judaism.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01Where once Jewish pilgrims came from all over the East
0:57:01 > 0:57:06to celebrate Passover in the temples of Solomon and Herod,
0:57:06 > 0:57:10now Christian pilgrims came at Easter to worship at the Holy Sepulchre.
0:57:20 > 0:57:25The Jews themselves were still banished from Jerusalem.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27Persecuted by the Christian emperors,
0:57:27 > 0:57:29they were allowed onto the Temple Mount once a year,
0:57:29 > 0:57:34to be mocked by the Christians who saw their lamentations
0:57:34 > 0:57:38as proof of Jesus's prophecies that the temple would fall.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45By the 6th century, Rome had fallen
0:57:45 > 0:57:48and Jerusalem was now ruled from Byzantium,
0:57:48 > 0:57:51the capital of the Eastern Roman empire.
0:57:51 > 0:57:56But the holiness of the city was about to make it the coveted prize
0:57:56 > 0:57:58of a new religion and a new empire.
0:58:01 > 0:58:07As the Byzantine hold on the Middle East was waning, weakened by war and corruption,
0:58:07 > 0:58:09out of the deserts of Arabia, was about to burst forth
0:58:09 > 0:58:14a new revelation that would change the course of human history
0:58:14 > 0:58:16and transform the face of Jerusalem.
0:58:20 > 0:58:22The new revelation was Islam.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24And Jerusalem was in its sights.
0:58:45 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:49 > 0:58:53E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk