49 mi²

Religious conflicts, peace accords, movies, books, classes, and more all focused on just under 49 square miles of land (Google Maps). All of this for a small city in a vast desert. Why is this space different? Other spaces gain notoriety from resources or aesthetic, but not these 49 square miles. To measure Jerusalem in the way that any other space is understood is incomprehensible to billions of believers around the world. It is not the goods you exploit from the land or the curve of the hills that make Jerusalem so important. Instead, the sacred nature of this land separates it from all else. Eliade states, "when the sacred manifests itself in any hierophany, there is not only a break in the homogeneity of space; there is also revelation of an absolute reality" (Eliade 21). Believers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike would view their connection to God or Allah as the most crucial aspect of their faith. So then why would something so material as land be so important to these believers? Jerusalem is sacred because of the ways in which it manifests this relationship to God. Whether viewed as the Promise Land or a stop on the Night Journey, Jerusalem's importance comes from its manifestation of this relationship between a believer and their God.  Jerusalem is not only a reminder of this but also a reminder of promises from God. In both the poems City of Olive Branches and Jerusalem My Happy Home the author uses language that points towards the future along with heavenly imagery. These poems remind us of how sacred and promising Jerusalem itself is. By understanding the theological significance of Jerusalem we can contextualize Eliade's suggestion that a hierophany such as Jerusalem creates a frisure in the mundane, homogeneity of the space surrounding it. The delineation between sacred and non-sacred spaces that is provided by Eliade allows us to more properly rationalize the importance of Jerusalem to so many people. Viewing Jerusalem as just a city or just a space fails to recognize the heart of the matter. Just as the church is set apart from the street for a believer (Eliade 25) so is Jerusalem from the deserts that surround her.