The Navel of the World

The Navel of the World legacy and concept starts way before Theoderich set out on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1172 A.D.  In truth, the Navel concept dates back to prehistoric times and is a concept that humans carry with them inherently.  One author who believes that humans innately carry around the concept of the Navel is Mircea Eliade.  In his book The Sacred and the Profane, Eliade states, “A universe comes to birth from its center; it spreads out from a central point that is, as it were, its navel.”[ix]   As such, humans are prone to mimic the creation of the universe by placing emphasis on certain places, natural or man made, and these points are located in the center of cities and villages.  Furthermore, the universe branched out in four cardinal points, and many prehistoric villages branched out in four directions with a sacred spot in the center. 

Eliade’s concept is fascinating because it suggests that the overwhelming desire for humans to be one with the cosmos, the sacred, or their God drives them to mimic the creation of the universe.   If humans are constantly in search for the divine center, then this inner search is the reason why so many cities and places besides Jerusalem claim to be the center of the world.  However, Jerusalem is the only city in which all three of the modern world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, at one point or another, considered Jerusalem their focal point or the point at which they were able to touch God.  As such, edifices were built to demonstrate their devotion.    

Jerusalem inherited, in part, its Navel of the World legacy from the ancient Greek city of Delphi. To the Greeks, Delphi was the Omphalos or the Navel for it represented the great mother’s body or more specifically her womb. In fact, the entomology of Delphi breaks down into delphys, the Greek word for womb.[x]  Delphi acted as the oracle of Apollo in 600 B.C.; however, as stated, the Greeks considered it the Omphalos. A belief that was supported by the mythical god Zeus, who as legend states released two eagles from opposite ends of the earth, Delphi was the place where the two eagles met, as such, Zeus deemed it the Omphalos.[xi]  Therefore, Delphi became the most famous oracle in the ancient world and the holiest place in Greece. In fact, throngs of eminent and not so eminent people visited Delphi looking for divine intervention in their futures.

Fortunately, one such eminent person to visit the Delphic oracle was Alexander the Great.  As it turned out, Alexander’s destiny was to conquer and unite a large portion of the known world under a Macedonian/Greek empire, of which Palestine became a part in the year 330 B.C.   Alexander died in 323 B.C. at the age of thirty-three. His three strongest generals divided the empire amongst themselves, and thus much of the known world fell under the Hellenistic age or the age of the Greeks.  This marvelous age spread Greek culture and language throughout the empire.  In some cases, western civilization reflects Greek culture, while in other cases; the Hellenistic influence has been forgotten. 

The passing of the Omphalos to the Jews or Hebrews in Palestine is an example of a Hellenistic influence that is not so apparent in the modern world; however, the concept did pass.  Not to discredit the theory that the concept of the Omphalos is inherent to humans, Paul Ciholas states in “The Omphalos and the Cross” that “All religions have one phenomenon in common. Their authority emanated from well defined geographical and historical focal points from which their meaning and influence radiated to the world around them.”[xii]   In truth, the Jews had already built their focal point within Jerusalem on Mount Zion and named it Solomon’s Temple in 966 B.C. and then saw it destroyed in 586 B.C.,  while being exiled to Babylon . The temple was rebuilt in 536 B.C., naming it the Second Temple or Herod’s Temple, long before Alexander conquered Palestine.

In addition, many Jewish Scriptures dating from a time before Alexander make vague reference to Jerusalem as the center of the world.  One such reference comes from the Book of Ezekiel dating back to the sixth century B.C., which in chapter thirty-eight verse twelve states, the chosen people “dwell in the midst of the land.”  Other variations of this verse exist and state that the chosen people “dwell in the Middle of the Earth.”[xiii]   Other scriptures, like Psalms, dating from a time before Alexander also make vague references to the concept of the center of the earth.  However, it was not until the Hellenistic influence did the concept of the Navel explode into Jewish legends and scriptures.

The Book of Jubilees, which is a retelling of the Book of Genesis, written in the second century B.C., is the first glimpse of Jerusalem being represented as the Navel of the Earth.[xiv]  Jubilees' Mappa Mundi, as shown in Appendix as figure one, was a cartographic map with Jerusalem in the middle with the continents of Europe, Asia and Libya respectively represented by Noah’s three sons, Japheth, Shem and Ham.

The Jubilees’ map bears a striking resemblance to earlier Greek maps that put Delphi in the center with the three continents surrounding it.  It can only be assumed that the author of the Book of Jubilees borrowed the idea from the Greeks and replaced Delphi with Jerusalem as well as inserting a reference to Noah, thereby making the map distinctly Jewish. 

Consequently, the Book of Jubilees acted as a catalyst for a Jerusalem and Delphi comparison, and as such, legends of Jerusalem as the Navel abounded in this time. One such legend from the Talmud dating from the second century A.D. tells of King David and his quest to dig the foundation of the temple.  In King David’s dream, God instructs him to build a temple in Jerusalem that matches the one in heaven.  As he was digging, he struck the foundation stone of the earth, upon which god built the rest of the world.[xv]  This legend confirms not only that Hebrews promulgated Jerusalem as the Center of the World by the second century A.D., but also that the temple was to be a mirror of the temple in heaven, thus acting as a doorway that bridged earth and heaven.    At this point, it is imperative to understand that many scriptures, do not pinpoint the Temple as the Navel, but rather the city of Jerusalem. However many Jews of the time believed the two places were the same.  

In addition to the legend of David from the Talmud, many Hebrew scholars and rabbis after the time of Alexander have used the verse from the Book of Ezekiel to create legends of their own.  Zev Vilnay in the Legends of Jerusalem documented many of these legends.  One such legend dates from the first century A.D. and compares Jerusalem to the human eye, or more specifically the iris as the world, Jerusalem as the pupil, and the image within as the temple of the Lord.  Theoderich refers to this particular legend in his journal.[xvi]  Yet another legend from Vilnay’s book is all encompassing to this paper.  It states, “The Almighty created the world in the same manner as a child is formed in its mother’s womb.  Just as a child begins to grow from its Navel and then develops into full form, so the world began from its central point and then developed in all directions”, thus the Navel of the World is Jerusalem and its core is the great altar in the Second Temple.[xvii]

By promoting Jerusalem as the Navel of the World, the Omphalos, and the Eye of the World, it seems as if the Jews, who were already being persecuted for their beliefs in a monotheistic god, were looking for some kind of unity and cohesion.  This aspect cannot be understated, for having been exiled to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, the Jews, as a people and a nation, were looking for a way to return to the glory days of King David and King Solomon.  They did this by rebuilding the Temple; however, this act did not return Jerusalem’s prestige.  Therefore, they turned to the Omphalos concept from Greece to add something universal or cosmic to their religion.   By comparing Jerusalem to the Delphic Oracle, the Jews attempted to raise the stature of Jerusalem, and thereby Judaism in the world’s pecking order.  

Whether Hebrews would have eventually promulgated Jerusalem after the Hellenistic influence as the Omphalos or the Navel to the extent that they did is unknown. Perhaps only God knows the answer.   Even though the Jews’ attempt to raise Jerusalem’s stature is important in many different ways,  it is only important to this paper because it created a legacy that set Jerusalem as a religious focal point for both Christians and Muslims to follow.  To the Jews, Jerusalem has long been a spiritual and religious focal point.  They have always held Jerusalem to be the place where the space/time continuum meet, thus allowing them to be closer to Elohim or God.  To understate the Jews’ hand in passing the concept of Jerusalem, as the Navel would undermine the credit that is due to Judaism, for it is from Judaism that Christianity and Islam sprang forth. It is from Judaism that Christianity and Islam gain their knowledge of God and the history of their respective religions.  It is from Judaism that Christians like Theoderich and Muslims owe thanks, for Judaism gave both religions the concept of honoring Jerusalem as a sacred focal point that transcends time. 

Thankfully, as stated, the passing of the Navel concept from the Jews to the Christians and Muslims is much more apparent than from the Greeks to the Jews. When Vespasian and Titus destroyed Herod’s Temple in 70 A.D., the Romans moved in and tried to rid themselves of those annoying monotheistic religious followers of Judaism and Christianity.  However, the concept of the Navel stood strong in Jewish and thus Christian lore, thereby allowing it to pass on to other generations and to a new religion.

  As a few centuries came and went, the Romans were still persecuting Jews and Christians. It was not until the fourth century A.D. under the reign of Constantine the Great and his mother, Empress Helena, that Jerusalem once again became openly proclaimed as the Navel of the World.  This recognition became possible because Empress Helena was a Christian, and she and her son the emperor favored Christianity and elevated the religion to a protected status.  Later Christianity became the official religion of the state.   Empress Helena journeyed to Jerusalem to find the True Cross of Christ, and with help from the bishop of Jerusalem, she was able to raze the Roman temple to Venus that stood upon the reputed sepulchre of Jesus Christ.[xviii]  Helena then gave an order to build a basilica in her son’s name on top of the tomb, while encompassing Golgotha or Calvary as well.  In 614 A.D., a fire destroyed the basilica, but the tradition continued and another church was built in the same spot to mark the place of Christ’s death and sepulchre. 

During the Byzantium era, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre became the Christians’ Navel of the World or the focal point where life began.  Thus, the church became a place that was near to God, an idea borrowed from Jewish scriptures by incorporating the Jewish legends as well as the legend of Christ into their first official Holy Bible. This passing of the torch, so to speak, not only pertained to the Christians taking the concept of the Navel from the Jews, but  also pertained to Christians taking the title of the chosen people of God.  In addition, it is from the aforementioned verse from Ezekiel and others like it, that make no reference to where the Middle of the Earth was located and who God’s chosen people were that allowed Christians to place the Navel wherever they deemed right and to shoulder the title of God’s chosen ones. 

As such, with the torch in their hands, the Christians took off running and started to build their own religious traditions within Jerusalem.  This can be seen as early as 349 A.D., when Saint Cyril, Bishop of the Jerusalem See stated, “he anointed Jerusalem as Christ opened his arms on the Cross to embrace the whole World, because Golgotha stood at the centre of the World.”[xix]     In the year 690 A.D., the Bishop of Arculf, making his pilgrimage to the Holy Land then under the control of the Umayyad Dynasty, states, “But God, our King, before the ages has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth, that is, in Jerusalem, which, being in the middle, is also called the Navel of the Earth.”[xx]   From these accounts, it is obvious that early Christians, under the Byzantine Empire, promulgated Golgotha and the church that stood upon it as the Navel of the World. 

It is uncertain why Christians under Byzantium rule did not consider the Temple Mount as the Middle of the Earth, although one can speculate as to the reasons for such behavior.  While the Byzantines controlled Jerusalem and the Holy Land, they wanted to do nothing but promote their Christian faith based on their savior, Christ, whom the Jews turned over to be crucified.  This explains why the Byzantines went merrily on their way to claim the title of Navel from the Jewish Scriptures and Jewish legends, while ignoring the task of rebuilding the Temple, the most important focal point of the Jewish religion.

 Yet, it was not spite alone that made the Byzantines leave the temple mount bare, for in truth the Christian Byzantines were also looking out for their own best interests. If the Byzantines rebuilt the Temple upon Temple Mount, the Temple Mount would become the foundation stone, and it would compete with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the Navel.  This concept did not bode well for the Byzantines, because Christianity was the only ‘correct’ religion.  The Christians were the chosen people because they believed that Christ was the Messiah, allowing them to be saved, while Jews and all non-believers were doomed to hell.  Therefore, the Byzantines were the chosen people of God, their faith deserving its own distinct spiritual focal point: a focal point that had nothing to do with the misguided Jews; a focal point that centered on the savior of their religion, Christ; a focal point that allowed Christians to be one with their God and Savior.

However, choosing the place for the Christian Navel or focal point must have been quite difficult, because where exactly should the Christians place their Navel.  Was the site of Christ’s death and tomb the natural selection?  Why not  chose Bethlehem the place of Christ’s birth or Nazareth the place where Christ grew up?  What of Galilee?  The answers to these questions are as simple as they are complex.  While the Byzantines wanted to promote their own religion and break clean from Judaism, they could not.  They had inherited too much from Judaism to make a clean break; Christ, after all, was a Jew.  In addition to inheriting the Navel concept from the Jews, Christians also inherited the feeling that Jerusalem was a sacred place that acted as a bridge from heaven to earth.  Hence, the Byzantines chose to follow in the Jews’ footsteps and place the entire city of Jerusalem as the focal point of their religion.  Consequently, not only was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre considered the Navel, but also Jerusalem was thought of in this light as well.  This duplicity explains why the Bishop of Arculf and Theoderich claimed that Jerusalem was the Middle of the Earth, while also believing the same way about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Therefore, Jerusalem became the point where Christians and Jews could be one with God or the Navel of the Earth.  

 As time went by, Byzantium lost control of Palestine to the Umayyads in the mid-seventh century.  The Umayyads were followers of the new religion of Islam founded by Muhammad in 620 A.D.  Like Christians, Muslims believed in Jewish scriptures as well as Christian scriptures; however, Muslims believed that although Moses and Jesus were prophets, Muhammad was God’s final prophet.   Muslims inherited all of the Jews’ legends as well as Christians’ legends, while creating their own. After Muhammad’s death, the Umayyads became the world’s first Islamic Dynasty.  As such, they began to expand their empire to the known world, thereby creating the dar al Islam or the House of Islam. It was during the Umayyad reign that Jerusalem became an important city in the Dar al Islam.   

With Palestine and, therefore, Jerusalem firmly under their control, the Umayyads’ Caliph Abd al-Malik decided to build a shrine, called Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhrah), on the unused Temple Mount in 691 AD.  The shrine, which conveniently was built upon the foundation stone or Jewish Navel, was not only to honor the spot where Jewish scriptures say that Abraham offered his son Isaac to God as a Sacrifice, but also to honor the spot where Muhammad ascended to heaven.  The legend of Mohammad’s ascendancy is told in a Quaranic verse, which states, “Celebrated be the praises of Him who took his servant on a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque (the Ka’aba) to the Remote Mosque (the temple at Jerusalem), the precinct of which we have blessed to show him our signs!”[xxi]   In less formal folklore, the legend states that in 622 A.D., Muhammad was magically transported from Mecca to Jerusalem one night as he slept.  While approaching Jerusalem, Muhammad met with Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets and prayed with them on the Temple Mount.  From here, Muhammad climbed a ladder of light to heaven to find himself in front of God or Allah.  Allah then instructed Muhammad on how to pray and sent back down to earth and Mecca.[xxii] 

This legend speaks volumes about Muslims’ attitude towards Jerusalem.  Not only did Muslims believe that the Temple Mount was a sacred point in which Muhammad met with God, but also Muslims accepted Jerusalem, essentially, as the Navel of the World or the divine center.  To illustrate the place where heaven and earth met, they placed a monument that had no comparison in the time. As the Muslim geographer Muqaddasi from the tenth century states, “ At dawn, when the light of the sun first strikes the Dome and the drum catches the rays, then is this edifice a marvelous sight to behold…..a sight in all of Islam I have not seen equaled.” [xxiii]  Therefore, like the Christians and Jews before them, Muslims chose to focus their sights on Jerusalem, as the place where Heaven meets Earth. Moreover, the Muslims intentionally built the Dome of the Rock upon the foundation stone to express Islam’s heritage with its Jewish origins, as well as to mark Judaism’s disinheritance from its universal center.[xxiv]

Although today The Dome of the Rock is considered to be Islam’s third holiest shrine and Mecca is considered the Navel of the World, it cannot be refuted that Muslims looked to Jerusalem, more specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock, as a point where they could be one with God, thus the Navel of the World.   However, in the seventh century and perhaps beyond, only Jerusalem was held to be the Navel of the World by three of the world’s modern religions. 

As time marched on, Palestine fell in and out of different Islamic Caliphates’ control.  Finally, the Christians became disenchanted with the way their shrines were being treated inside the Holy Land, particularly their Navel, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1095, Pope Urban II declared that Christians should take up arms and reclaim the Holy Land from the infidels or Muslims; thus, the Crusades were born.  With the war cries of ‘Holy Sepulchre’ and ‘God wills it’, Jerusalem was retaken in 1099, commencing the reign of the Latin Kingdom.[xxv]   For the next eighty-eight years, Jerusalem was a part of the Latin Kingdom and its feudal world; consequently, once again Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre were promulgated as the Navel of the World.   Christian pilgrims jumped, once again, at a chance to make a pilgrimage to this revered site.   Saewulf was one such pilgrim who rushed into the newly freed Jerusalem.  Although he found the Church in ruins, thanks to the Muslim Caliphs, he states, “At the head of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the wall outside, not far from the place called Calvary, is the place called the Compas, which our Lord Jesus Christ himself signified and measured with his own hands as the middle of the world.”[xxvi]  A picture of a crusader map of Jerusalem is shown in Appendix A as figure two.

As has been discussed, by the time Theoderich traveled to the Holy Land around 1172 A.D. between the first and second crusade, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Jerusalem had already been touted as the Navel of the World for quite some time.  However, this proliferation of the Navel did not stop in Theoderich’s time; on the contrary, it was just about to peak in the twelfth and thirteenth century in a familiar form of cartographic maps.  These maps were strikingly similar to the Greeks’ maps and the Book of Jubilees’ map that placed their cultures’ respective navels in the center of three continents.  The most popular map of the thirteenth century was the Hereford map (shown in Appendix A as figure three), which was a complex map, depicting Jerusalem in the center of the world.  Many less complicated maps followed the Hereford map and became known as T-O and T-Y maps, because the maps represented a flat world in a circle (O) and the landmasses crossed in a T or Y shapes.  Examples of the maps are shown in Appendix A as figures four and five. 

These maps illustrated that the concept of Jerusalem as the Navel of the World continued past a time when the world was known not to be flat and much larger than originally thought.  Likewise, cartographers knew Jerusalem could not possibly be the Center, Middle or Navel of the Earth, because it was geographically impossible.  Cartographers continued to create maps depicting Jerusalem as the Navel into the sixteenth century.  Alas, the concept of the Navel of the World faded into the background and made room for the religion of science.  Yet, these maps acted as Jerusalem’s last hoorah as the promulgated Navel of the Earth. 

 The legacy that the concept leaves is undeniable. Jerusalem began in early Jewish scriptures as the Middle of the Earth; while later, it was promoted by the same people as a focal point that mirrored heaven.  This concept was then handed off to Christians, who added their own spin on the Navel, while keeping Jerusalem as the main focal point of their religion. Then the Muslims, who never admitted in words that Jerusalem was their Navel,  did so in their actions by building an unparalleled edifice on the Jewish holy ground of the Temple Mount.     Hence, Jerusalem was a city upon which Jews, Christians, and Muslims concentrated their prayers and veneration; a place that each religion believed contained sacred ground, where worshippers could become one with the Universe or their God; and a place that is unique in time and space, because no other place in the world has had such tremendous religious focus from three world religions. As such, I concur with Theoderich, the German monk, who opened my eyes and heart to the truth that, indeed, Jerusalem is the religious and symbolic Navel of the Earth.