Location, location, location!

Sacred or holy ground has been at the centre of our belief systems since ancient times. A typical belief of the ancient world, expressed in the Book of Ecclesiastes, was that the physical world represented only a passing image of a deeper reality, found in sacred truth.

Historian Mircea Eliade, in his seminal book The Myth of the Eternal Return, discusses our earliest concepts of holy ground. He tells us that the oldest of beliefs position holy ground at locations like the centre of the world, or a mountain where heaven and earth meet. Eliade writes:

 The fundamental symbolism of the center may be formulated as follows:

The sacred mountain—where heaven and earth meet—is situated at the center of the world. Every temple or palace and, by extension, every sacred city or royal residence is a sacred mountain, thus becoming a center. Being an axis mundi (world pillar), the sacred city or temple is regarded as the meeting point of heaven, earth and hell.

The sacred mountain—where heaven and earth meet—is situated at the center of the world.

Every temple or palace and, by extension, every sacred city or royal residence is a sacred mountain, thus becoming a center.

Being an axis mundi (world pillar), the sacred city or temple is regarded as the meeting point of heaven, earth and hell.

“Paradise, where Adam was created from clay, is, of course, situated at the center of the cosmos,” he adds. “Paradise was the ‘navel’ of the Earth and, according to a........

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