Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)

The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by its Jewish defenders in 66.

The siege ended with the sacking of the city and the destruction of its famous Second Temple. The destruction of both the first and second temples is still mourned annually as the Jewish fast Tisha B'Av. The Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the Temple, still stands in Rome.

Siege

Despite early successes in repelling the Roman sieges, the Zealots fought amongst themselves, and they lacked proper leadership, resulting in poor discipline, training, and preparation for the battles that were to follow. At one point they destroyed the food stocks in the city, a drastic measure thought to have been undertaken perhaps in order to enlist a merciful God's intervention on behalf of the besieged Jews.

Temple

A temple (from the Latin word templum) is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities such as prayer and sacrifice. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out on the ground by the augur. Templa also became associated with the dwelling places of a god or gods. Despite the specific set of meanings associated with the religion of the ancient Rome, the word has now become quite widely used to describe a house of worship for any number of religions and is even used for time periods prior to the Romans.

Hindu temples

Hindu temples are called by many different names, varying on region and language, including mandir, mandira, ambalam, gudi, kavu, koil, kovil, déul, raul, devasthana and devalaya.

Hindu temples are large and magnificent with a rich history. There is evidence of use of sacred ground as far back as the Bronze Age and later the Indus Valley Civilization. However, it was not until Today, Hindu temples have been built in various countries around the world, including India, Nepal, Mauritius, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Great Britain, the United States, Australia, South Africa and Canada.

The Temple (Lovecraft short story)

"The Temple" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft in 1920, and first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales #24 in September 1925.

Synopsis

The story is narrated as a "found manuscript" penned by Karl Heinrich, Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein, a lieutenant-commander in the Imperial German Navy during the days of World War I. It documents his untimely end at the bottom of the ocean.

Altberg begins by declaring that he has decided to document the events leading up to his final hour in order to "set certain facts" before the public, aware that he will not survive to do so himself.

The manuscript states events from June 1917 to August 1917 in the North Atlantic, after sinking SS Victory, a British freighter, and thereafter sinking its surviving crew's lifeboats, the cruel and arrogant Altberg commands his U-29 u-boat to submerge, surfacing later to find the dead body of a crew member of the sunken ship, who died clinging to the exterior railing of the sub. A search of the body reveals a strange piece of carved ivory. Because of its apparent great age and value, one of Altberg's officers keeps the object, and shortly thereafter, strange phenomena begin to occur - such as the dead man apparently swimming away rather than sinking.

The Temple (Old Orchard Beach, Maine)

The Temple is a historic octagon-shaped Baptist church building on Temple Avenue in the Ocean Park area of Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Built in 1881, it is the centerpiece of the summer camp meeting established in 1880 by Free Will Baptists led by Bates College President Oren Cheney. It is the only known octagonal religious structure currently in use in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and included in the Ocean Park Historic Buildings district in 1982.

Description and history

The Temple is set on the north side of Temple Avenue, in an area known as Temple Square. Flanking it are two other buildings associated with the camp meeting: Porter Hall an B.C. Jordan Memorial Hall. It is a two story wood frame structure, capped by an octagonal hip roof whose elements meet at a central cupola. It is finished in wooden clapboards and rests on a foundation of brick piers. The main facade, facing south, is three bays wide, with a central projecting entry section topped by a doubled gable roof. This section has a double door on the first level and a double sash window above, while the flanking bays have single sash windows. The east and west-facing walls have similar organization, but only a single gable roof. The north wall has a low storage area projecting from it. The interior of the building is a large open hall, with the speaker's platform on the north wall, and seating, much of it original, arrayed facing it.