ok .. erm .. lets start off with Jerusalem... for those ppl that have never heard of Jerusalem... chances are that you are either :
a) Not a christian, a jew, or a muslim
b) someone that lives in well ... situated in a cave... on a mountain top ...
c) someone that doesn't read the newspaper or watch the news
d) all of the above ... e.g vincent koh ...

Jerusalem (Hebrew: Yerushalayim, Arabic: al-Quds) is a key religious city for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This photo shows us the Temple Mount area. The Dome of the Rock is to the left. The smaller dome in the middle is the Al Aqsa Mosque.
Today the status of Jerusalem is disputed by Palestinians and Israelis. A 1949 cease fire line (known as the Green Line) runs right through the city. After the Six Day War in 1967, Israel had gained control of the entire city and claimed it for their capital, although this claim has not been recognized internationally - most countries only recognize Tel Aviv as the Israeli capital. Palestinians claim Jerusalem as the capital of their own state (or future state).
ps. i copied n pasted the above two paragraphs ... too lazy to write it in my own words ...
heres a map of Jerusalem showing how the city is divided into quarters ... and sites that are of great christian significance ... why is Jerusalem important to the christians ? just look at the map ... oh yah ... the tomb of Virgin Mary is there too...
the pic on the right is the
Citadel, or David's Tower, the probable site of Jesus' condemnation... can check out the location on the map ... It is now the Museum of the History of Jerusalem.


and theres the Gordon's Calvary or Golgotha the site of the crucifixion of Jesus.

ok ... so why is Jerusalem a holy ground for the muslims ? .. apparently ...Muhammed ascended from Jerusalm .. the dome of rock specifically... to heaven to be in the presence of Allah...he was welcomed by all the great prophets of the past before ascending through the seven heavens. On his way up he sought the advice of Moses, Aaron, Enoch, Jesus, John the Baptist and Abraham before entering the presence of God...
when the Prophet Muhammad first began to preach in Mecca in about 612, according to the earliest biographies, he had his converts prostrate themselves in prayer in the direction of Jerusalem. They were symbolically reaching out toward the Jewish and Christian God, whom they were committed to worshipping, and turning their back on the paganism of Arabia...
amazing huh ... to see how these two religion are so closely related .. heres a picture of the dome of the rock ...

the main characters in the show kingdom of heaven really does exist yah ... but the one that caught my attention has to be Saladin ...

when he captured the city of Jerusalem ...unlike the Christian capture of Jerusalem almost a hundred years earlier, there is no mass slaughter - merely debates about whether Christian shrines should be destroyed to take away Christian pilgrims' reason for returning to Jerusalem. In the end, Saladin insists that no shrines are to be touched and the holy sites of Christians should be respected ....check out this link if u wanna read more ... and heres another interesting link that talks about islam teachings vs christian teachings ... i dunno how true is that ...
yupe ... thats about it ... really tired now ...