Visiting Sacred Sites Religion on another level

The most famous tirtha is Varanasi, also called Benares or Kashi. Tirthas are places of pilgrimage visited by millions of people every year. It is one of seven ancient holy towns. It is regarded as the spiritual capital of India.

Varanasi is not only a sacred site, but has religious architecture. For example, The "Golden Temple" is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Shiva is the god of destruction. He is one of the holy trinity of Hinduism. I also saw lots of Hindu pilgrims who bathed in the Ganges River's doing some kind of ritual. Later I did some research and I found out that they were performing funeral rites. Varanasi was a great experience and I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for an educational trip!

The Golden Temple is made of gold donated by the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Lumbini is the place where the Buddha, known as the Tathagata was born. It is the place which should be visited and seen by a person of devotion and which should cause awareness and apprehension of the nature of impermanence. Tathagata means one who has found the truth.

Lumbini is a sacred site and architecture, because it has both a temple and beautiful gardens in Nepal. It is filled with tourists and Buddhists for either visiting or praying. It is beautiful and the temple is big and white. There is a pond in front of the temple that is so beautiful when it is shined on by the sun. You should visit the Lumbini even if you are not Buddhist!

This is the Lumbini temple with a pond in front.

A synagogue is the house of prayer. It is the place where Jews come together for community prayer services. It is a Jewish architecture that has been build to be like the "church of Jews."

Jewish synagogues were a lot bigger than I thought they would be. They look like big churches, but with the star of David on it. I liked it a lot, because it had such a warm atmosphere. Everyone there was very welcoming and allowed me to pray with them to learn about their culture.

This is a side view of the Jewish synagogue.

A sacred site that many Jews try to go to is Jerusalem. It is the capital of Israel, and the site of the original temple.

Jerusalem was filled with Jewish people. I talked to a Jewish family and they told me that many Jewish people try to go to Israel throughout the year, because it is a very holy place to them. There were people praying and others were praising and it was a very interesting atmosphere to be in. I liked it, but I do not recommend for touring, because it is such a holy place to the Jews.

This is an overview of the entire city of Jerusalem.

Christian churches are very important architecture to the Christians. It is where they pray and worship God. However, it is different from Judaism, because Christians believe in Jesus Christ. They believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins.

Once I entered the Christian church it was like I was stepping into a whole knew world. The people just instantly welcomed and gave me a place to sit to watch the message the priest was giving. The message was very interesting and the church was huge. It was taller than many building I had been in and every seat in the place was filled. It was a great experience.

This is the inside of a Christian church.

A holy place of Christianity is a place named Nazareth. Nazareth is Jesus's hometown and the site of many holy places. Nazareth is the capital and largest city in Israel.

Nazareth was a huge city. Many people were Christian there and went to churches. The city was filled with churches. I would turn a corner and there would be 3 churches on one street. All of the churches were so pretty and almost every seat in every church was filled with people.

This is an overview of the entire city of Nazareth.

Masjid al-Haram, "The Sacred Mosque", is a large mosque in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia and the second largest in Islam. This is both a holy site and architecture. Muslims pray every day here and consider it the holiest place on Earth.

This place was enormous. I looked up how big it was and it covers 3,841,000 square feet. The place was filled with people praying everywhere. In fact, this place can hold up to 820,000 people so almost everyone can worship. There was a beautiful clock tower in the middle.

This is an inside view of Masjid al-Haram.

Credits:

Created with images by taylorandayumi - "Lumbini" • Emmanuel Dyan - "Synagogue of Constanta - Romania" • Buecherwurm_65 - "jerusalem old town city wall" • Skitterphoto - "church altar mass" • shahin olakara - "Kaaba, Masjid Al Haram, Mecca"

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