Chapel of the Ascension

, 1938 First location of the Ascension Almost 300 years after Jesus was said to have died, early Christians began gathering secretly in a small cave on the Mount of Olives. The issuance of the Edict of Milan by the Roman Emperors Constantine and Licinius in 313 made it possible for Christians to worship without government persecution. 4th-century church (or churches) The first church was erected there a few years later, sometime between AD 384–390, by Poimenia, a wealthy Roman aristocratic woman from the imperial family, who financed the building of the Byzantine-style church "around Christ's last footprints." The first complex constructed on the site of the present chapel was known as Imbomon (Greek for "on the hill"). It was a rotunda, open to the sky, surrounded by circular porticoes and arches. (see Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 and Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem). There is a later popular legend, which falsely attributes the first Ascension Church at this site to Empress Helena, 7th-century church The church was rebuilt in the late 7th century. The Frankish bishop and pilgrim Arculf, in relating his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in about the year 680, described this church as "a round building open to the sky, with three porticoes entered from the south. Eight lamps shone brightly at night through windows facing Jerusalem. Inside was a central edicule containing the footprints of Christ, plainly and clearly impressed in the dust, inside a railing." Ayyubid repurposing; new adjacent mosque After the fall of Jerusalem in 1187, the ruined church and monastery were abandoned by the Christians, who resettled in Acre. During this time, Saladin established the Mount of Olives as a waqf entrusted to two sheikhs, al-Salih Wali al-Din and Abu Hasan al-Hakari. This waqf was registered in a document dated 20 October 1188. The chapel was converted to a mosque, and a mihrab installed in it. Because the vast majority of pilgrims to the site were Christian, as a gesture of compromise and goodwill, Saladin ordered the construction of a second mosque nearby for Muslim worship while Christians continued to visit the main chapel. 13th century till present time Despite this act of accommodation by Saladin, tensions between Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem rose throughout the next 300 years. The shrine and surrounding structures saw periods of non-use and disrepair. By the 15th century, the destroyed eastern section was separated by a dividing wall and was no longer used for religious purposes. Gallery File:Conrad Schick Church of the Ascension, Sheet I – Plan of the Ascension Church, the Mosque & Part of Village ‘Et-Tûr’ on Mount Olivet.jpg|Plan of the Ascension Church, the Mosque & Part of Village ‘Et-Tûr’ on Mount Olivet File:Conrad Schick Church of the Ascension, Sheet II – Plan of Underground Buildings.jpg|Plan of Underground Buildings File:Conrad Schick Church of the Ascension, Sheet III – Plan of the Ascension Church on Mount Olivet (Byzantine Church as built by Modestus A.D. 640–50).jpg|Plan of the Ascension Church on Mount Olivet (Byzantine Church as built by Modestus A.D. 640–50) File:Conrad Schick Church of the Ascension, Sheet V – Plan of Ascension Church & Convent of the Crusaders A.D. 1130 (Ground Floor) with Adjoining Pelagia Chapel & Tombs.jpg|Plan of Ascension Church & Convent of the Crusaders A.D. 1130 (Ground Floor) with Adjoining Pelagia Chapel & Tomb ==Description of the chapel==

Edicule (chapel) The main structure of the chapel is from the Crusader era; the stone dome and the octagonal drum it stands on are Muslim additions, as are the exterior walls; only the arches and marble columns supporting them are part of the original Christian structure. The entrance faces west, and the south wall of the mosque/chapel consists of a mihrab indicating the direction of Mecca for Muslim worshippers. "Ascension Rock" The edicule surrounds a stone slab called the "Ascension Rock". It is said to contain the right footprint of Christ, while the section bearing the left footprint was taken to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Middle Ages. The faithful believe that the impression was made as Jesus ascended into Heaven and is venerated as the last point on earth touched by the incarnate Christ. ==Gallery==

File:Chapelle ascension.JPG|Minaret and outer wall File:Chapel of the Ascension 1 (735).jpg|Chapel (right) and octagonal wall of ruined Crusader church File:5029-20080122-jerusalem-mt-olives-ascension-rock.jpg|The Rock of the Ascension File:Church of the Ascension, Jerusalem3001.JPG|Close-up of the Rock of the Ascension File:Chapel of the Ascension 1 (740).jpg|Chapel, the dome from inside ==Rabi'a Mosque and the Byzantine burial crypt==

The mosque that stands southwest to the former Church of the Ascension, known as the zawiya of Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya, consists of two structures: the upper one, or the mosque proper, and an underground chamber. The Byzantine crypt The underground chamber is reached by a staircase, and includes a 2 m deep, 1.2 m wide, and 1.8 m high cell on its east side. Christian tradition places her cell and tomb at the site of the zawiya, adjacent and to the southwest of the former Church of the Ascension. However, most Western Christian pilgrims of the 14th century venerated the tomb as that of Saint Mary the Egyptian, although the Pelagia tradition also lives on. places the death year of Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya around 781/82 and has her buried in this burial crypt. Other historians, such as al-Harawi (d. 1215) and Yaqut (1179–1229) locate Rabi'a's grave in her hometown of Basra, and attribute the Mount of Olives tomb to another Rabi'a, wife of a Sufi, Ahmad Ibn Abu el Huari, from the late Crusader and early Ayyubid period. Yet another Muslim tradition attributes the grave to Rahiba bint Hasn, a woman of whom nothing is known. The medieval mosque (upper structure) Seligman and Abu Raya date the upper building to the medieval period, and hold an Ayyubid date to be the most likely. However, Denys Pringle suggests a Crusader date, based on features such as the western entrance which could indicate an east–west orientation of the structure, and the fact that the mihrab is set into an older window niche. ==Environs==

Across the street from the chapel is the Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Ascension with a small church built between 1987 and 1992. South of the Ascension Chapel and slightly downhill is the monastery containing the remains of the Constantinian Eleona Church and the 19th-century Church of the Pater Noster. The Russian Orthodox Convent of the Ascension, built in 1870, is located about 200 meters northeast of the chapel. It now houses about 40 nuns. Across the street stands the Muslim Makassed Hospital. Further away to the northeast is the German Protestant Ascension Church, part of the Augusta Victoria compound. ==References==