Where is the Heart of the World?
I downloaded another chapter from the second book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East", on my site https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael The extract tells about the location of Jerusalem on the European medieval mind maps. Jerusalem on the Madaba Map Courtesy: http://www.ancientpages.com/2017/06/16/stunning-madaba-map-oldest-known-mosaic-built-of-two-million-stone-cubes/ Throughout the late Middle Ages, Jerusalem functioned as the center of the inhabited world on contemporary 'world maps'. The article discloses various aspects of this spiritual vision which only intensifies after the crusaders' exile from the Holy Land. Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade. Saewulf and San Severino were the pilgrims who visited the Holy Land in the 12th and 15th centuries. They both shared the vision of Jerusalem as the navel of the world. Sir John Mandeville is a fictitious author of a 14th-century t...