Jerusalem: The Biography

* Every event in this story was to develop its own geography in Jerusalem, though many of these sites are probably historically wrong. The Upper Room (Cenacle) on Mount Zion is the traditional site of the Last Supper; the real site was maybe closer to the cheaper houses around the Siloam Pool since Mark mentions ‘a man carrying a jar of water’ there. The Last Supper tradition developed later in the fifth century and even more strongly under the Crusaders. A stronger tradition suggests this site was where the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles at Pentecost, after Jesus’ death: this is certainly one of the most ancient Christian shrines. Its holiness was so infectious that Jews and Muslims later revered it too. The traditional but plausible site of Annas’ mansion is under the Church of Holy Archangels in the Armenian Quarter. A stone weight inscribed ‘belonging to the house of Caiaphas’ in Aramaic has been uncovered in Jerusalem and in 1990 builders found a sealed burial case in which one ossuary was inscribed ‘Joseph son of Caiaphas’ – so these are possibly the high priest’s bones. The Gethsemane Garden with its ancient olive grove is believed to be the correct site