Holy grail: Did you mean...?

Simon Reeve begins in Istanbul, Turkey, a busy medieval staging post for pilgrims to the Holy Land. Before falling to the Ottoman Empire, it was the centre of Roman Christianity under Emperor Constantine. His mother Helena, arguably the first...

Part of Votive Panel of Jan Očko of Vlašim depicting Charles IV. Tempera on limewood, before 1371. National Museum, Prague.

The Ark of the Covenant refers to the box-like container that held the tablets of the Law received by Moses on Mount Sinai. Tradition claimed that it contained two stone tablets, carved by God, listing the first ten commandments given to...

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer of Romantic music most famous for his epic operas like The Ring, Tannhäuser, and Tristan and Isolde. Wagner was concerned throughout his career with the theme of redemption through love and...

Jerusalem, a holy city for the adherents of all three great monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) was conquered by the armies of the First Crusade in 1099 CE. The Muslims failed to halt their advance, as they were themselves...

Enlil in the E-Kur (c. 2000 BCE) is a Sumerian hymn praising the sky god Enlil, his temple/ziggurat at Nippur, and his consort Ninlil, depicting all three in glowing terms and Enlil as a creator-god. The piece is highly regarded as an important...

The Altarpiece of the Holy Blood in the church of Saint Jacob, Rothenburg, Germany. Made of glazed limewood by Tilman Riemenschneider (c. 1460-1531), it was completed by 1505. It shows the Last Supper in the central panel while the left...

Image of the Maya Devi Temple and Holy Pond in Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha. The area of the temple covers the exact spot where Siddhartha Gautama was born, which is indicated by the marker stone. The Holy Pond is where, according...

The site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is identified as the place both of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. Despite the mutilations of the centuries, the Holy Sepulchre remains a fascinating complex of...

Made of silk fabric, gold and silver thread, gold and silk twine, as well as colored silks, this holy shroud or "epitaphios" comes from the Sachkhere, which is located in western Georgia, and dates from the 14th century CE. A donor-renovator's...