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Now let us describe what objects, monuments, and places in Palestine were observed by travelers of those times. Most of these objects, monuments, and localities had religious significance, but some of them simply satisfied curiosity. Jerusalem, of course, had more than anything - something that was viewed with special zeal and honored by pilgrims to the Holy Trinity. Earth. Jerome testifies that in Jerusalem "there were so many places of prayer that it was not enough to go around them for a whole day" (Tvor. II, 12). Here, first of all, the pilgrim venerated the Life-Giving Cross of Christ, "kissed the tree of the cross" (Jeron. II, 14). Particles of the Cross of the Lord, according to St. Cyril of Jerusalem (IV century), were carried by pilgrims throughout the Christian land. Another precious monument to the Passion of Christ in Jerusalem was the tomb where He was buried and from which His resurrection took place. Travelers entered this "cave, kissed the stone rolled away by the angel from the door of the tomb, fell down to the place where the Body of the Lord lay, fell down as thirsty people fall down to long-desired waters" (Jeron. III, 25). St. St. Cyril testifies that the tomb of Christ has not quite retained its original appearance, that when buildings were erected here, "the vestibule was broken off for greater splendor" (Works, p. 230). According to the same Cyril, the Tomb of Christ was located in a cave, and in his time "signs and traces of this" were shown (p. 227). One of the most venerable places in Jerusalem was Mount Golgotha, the place of the Savior's death on the cross. On Golgotha were shown the very stones that had disintegrated during the Lord's sufferings on the Cross (St. Cyril 223). In the same Jerusalem, the travelers saw "a column supporting the church portico, stained with the blood of the Lord, to which, according to tradition, He was tied for scourging", they also examined the Upper Room, "where the Holy Spirit is stained. descended upon a hundred and twenty believing souls" (Hieron. III, 26). Although in desolation, the house of the high priest Caiaphas and the praetorium of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate were preserved even before the IV century (St. Cyril 222-223). These items were also viewed by travelers. A great many curious things were observed in Jerusalem by the above-mentioned Bordeaux pilgrim from Gaul (France), who visited St. John. In the year 333, and who left us his Itinerarium, he surveyed many things which are not mentioned by other writers of the fourth century. For example, he saw in Jerusalem interconnected reservoirs with five porticoes (narthexes), which were called Bethesda. Here, according to the Gospel story, the sick who had been possessed by illness for many years received healing. The water in Bethesda was muddy with a reddish tint. He also saw a crypt (cave) where, as he was told, Solomon tortured demons (it is difficult to say what is indicated here). He was shown the remains of a high tower, on which the devil who tempted Him had erected the Lord (Matt. 4:6). He also considered the cornerstone, a large one, of which it is said that it was neglected by those who built. Under the above-mentioned tower were many rooms that made up the palace (palatium) of Solomon. In one of these rooms they pointed out the place where Solomon sat and wrote the Book of Wisdom. In one of the buildings that had formerly formed the temple of Solomon, he saw on a marble platform the footprints of the shoes of the murderers of Zechariah, which had been preserved from the time when this pilgrim was in Jerusalem. When climbing Mount Zion, he was shown the font of Siloam, which had four porticoes, and another reservoir, from which the water ran for six days and nights, and on the seventh day, the Sabbath, the water allegedly did not flow at all during the day. Like other travelers, he visited the house of Caiaphas, Pilate's Praetorium, the tomb of Christ, saw the column near which the Savior was scourged (Itinerarium. Col. 790-791).

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* The Works of St. Cyril. Moscow, 1855. P. 196. One volume, which we will refer to later.  ** Printed by Migne. Patr. curs. Lat. ser. T. VIII.  Mf. 23, 35.

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Even more than in Jerusalem there were places, objects, monuments that were viewed by travelers outside of Jerusalem, in various parts of Palestine. It was not easy to see all this, because of the many attractions. Bl. Jerome, describing the journey of Paula, already known to us, remarks: "I would rather lack life than words, if I were a little willing to reconsider all the places that the venerable Paul traversed (in Palestine) with incredible determination" (III, 33). After Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the place of the Nativity of Christ, attracted the attention of travelers. Here they visited the "inn of Mary" (i.e. the place where the birth of the Saviour took place), "entered the cave of the Saviour, this sacred abode of the Virgin, beheld the stable, in which the will of the one who acquired and the donkey of his master's manger" (Isaiah 1:3). It was in this small earthen hollow, the travelers learned, that the Builder of heaven was born, here He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, here the shepherds saw Him, here the star pointed Him, here the Magi bowed down to Him" (Jeron. II, 12-13; III, 26). In addition, the travelers "visited Sarah's hut, examined the footprints of the oak of Abraham, under which Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoiced; went to Hebron, where the Jews laid the grave of Adam." Near Sebastia, or Samaria, the travelers were shown the twelve tombs of the patriarchs; there, according to tradition, are also buried the prophets: Elisha, Obadiah, and John the Baptist, "no more than those born of women" (Jeron. III, 29.32). The travelers considered it their duty to visit the Mount of Olives, from which the Lord ascended and which was located near Jerusalem, the tomb of Lazarus in Bethany, to visit the Jordan, to pray at the tomb of David, to see the spring in which the Apostle Philip baptized the eunuch, to go into the caves in which the prophets stayed during the persecution against them by the impious kings of the Jewish people, to climb Mount Tabor and see "there the dwelling place of the Savior", to survey such cities as Nazareth, Cana, Capernaum, as well as the Sea of Gennesaret (Hieron. II, 15). To these important accounts of what the ancient travelers worshipped or surveyed in St. John's Church. The land outside of Jerusalem, let us add what the Bordeaux pilgrim saw there. He tells us something rather curious in this respect. Thus, he visited a place called Sychar, from which a Samaritan woman came out to the well dug by Jacob, who met Christ and had a well-known conversation with Him. Here this traveler was shown trees - plane trees, which were planted by Jacob. On the way from Jerusalem to the east to the Mount of Olives, the valley of Jehoshaphat opens, where the vineyards were located; here they also showed the stone where Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord. Not far from here was a palm tree, the branches of which were plucked by children and spread along the road that Jesus was going to Jerusalem. And not far from this place, at the distance of a thrown stone, there were two monuments of amazing beauty; in one - it was a monolith, a single stone - was the tomb of the prophet Isaiah, and in the other - Ezekiah, king of Judah. On the way from Jerusalem to Jericho, a sycamore tree was preserved, which Zacchaeus climbed to see the Lord. The traveler saw the spring of the prophet Elisha. About this spring he heard the following legend: before the time of Elisha, a woman who drank water from this spring became barren; but when Elisha came to him, stopped over him, poured salt into him, and said, "This saith the Lord, I have made these waters whole; after this, if any woman drinks water from here, she will bear children." Near the spring there was a clay vessel of the same prophet Elisha. Here, above this spring, the house of the harlot Rahab, known in the history of the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land, was shown. The pilgrim of whom we are speaking also surveyed the Dead Sea; the water in it, according to him, is very bitter, so that there can be no fish in it at all, no boats sail on it, and if anyone decides to sail on this sea, the water itself pushes him out*.

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* Itinerarium. Col. 790-791.

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Not the least place in the survey and veneration of the holy places of Palestine by ancient travelers was occupied by those majestic buildings that were erected in some places of St. Emperor Constantine the Great and his mother Helena. These buildings were magnificent, served as monuments to the pious zeal of the first Christian emperor and were, as it were, signs of the victory of Christianity over paganism, which took place at the beginning of the fourth century. These buildings must have said much instructive to the mind and heart of the pilgrims who came to Palestine. Among all the buildings in St. The first place on earth was occupied by the building over the cave of the Holy Sepulchre and the church near it. Eusebius, a contemporary and eyewitness, tells about these buildings as follows. Once upon a time, the pagans, wishing to hide from the eyes of Christians their great shrine - the cave of the Sepulchre of Christ, covered this place with garbage, and as if in mockery of the worshippers of the Crucified One, they built here a sanctuary to the "voluptuous demon of love" (Venus). This was the case until the time of Constantine. This emperor ordered the pagan sanctuary to be destroyed and cleansed of rubbish and debris. This undertaking led to the discovery of the cave of the Holy Sepulchre under the foundations of the pagan temple, which became the most important shrine in Jerusalem. The king ordered the cave to be magnificently decorated and to build near it such "a temple that would be more magnificent than all the temples that exist anywhere." The king's will has been fulfilled. "The cave, as the head of everything," according to Eusebius, "was adorned by the Christ-loving generosity of the emperor with excellent columns and numerous ornaments. From the cave there was an exit to a vast open-air square. This square is lined with shining stone and surrounded on three sides by long, continuous porticoes." As for the temple (basilica), built by order of Constantine on the eastern side of the cave, it was a miracle of beauty. Eusebius pours out his delight at the sight of this temple in the following exquisite words: "The king built a temple in commemoration of the victory of the Saviour over death, perhaps the very temple which the prophetic word calls the new and young Jerusalem, and for the glory of which, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, so much is said in the Scriptures." Then Eusebius describes this temple as follows: "The basilica is an extraordinary building, of immeasurable height, of extraordinary breadth and length. Its inner side is dressed in multicolored marbles, and the exterior of the walls, shining with polished and one with the other solid stones, seems to be an extremely beautiful affair and in no way inferior to marble. The domed ceiling is decorated with deep carvings, which, spreading like a great sea over the entire basilica in mutually connected arcs and everywhere shining with gold, illuminates the entire temple with rays of light." "The main object of everything is a semicircle located on the very edge of the basilica (on the eastern side). According to the number of the twelve apostles, it is crowned with twelve columns, the tops of which are decorated with large vases cast of silver - a beautiful offering to God from the king himself." In the temple there were many utensils made of gold with precious stones (Life of Const. III, 26-40). The beauty and splendor of the temple in Jerusalem, built by Constantine, did not remain without due impression on the pilgrims; They appreciated the pleasant impression that was made by the contemplation of this monument to the pious zeal of the first Christian emperor. They found, like Eusebius, the temple in Jerusalem "amazing in beauty" (mirae pulchritudinis). In addition to this temple, Constantine built a temple at the oak of Mamre, marked by an event that is known to everyone (Eusebius, Life of Const. III, 53). Travelers found this temple as beautiful as the temple in Jerusalem, and did not forget to mention it among the sights of St. John. Land**. Saint Helena, for her part, built two churches in Palestine: over the cave of the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives, on the site of the Ascension of the Lord, churches "most beautiful," according to the testimony of Eusebius (Life of Const. III, 43). Without a doubt, both at the beginning of the fourth century and subsequently, these temples, along with other sights of Palestine, attracted the attention of travelers.

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* Itinerarium. Col. 791.  ** Ibid. Col. 792.

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