This edition’s Mystery Photo has a classical look about it, in a setting that seems spacious and pleasant. Can you figure out where this photo was taken, and what goes on inside those walls? Send your idea to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
Ruthy Lachman Paul of Norcross identified last edition’s Mystery Photo, sent in by Frank Sharp of Lawrenceville, as the Basilica in Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
George Graf of Palmyra, Va., sent in some additional information: “The church was destroyed in the 614 siege of Jerusalem by Sasanian king Khosrau II. Its foundations were recovered in 1899 when architect and buildings manager of the Diocese of Cologne, Heinrich Renard investigated the site. During his visit to Jerusalem in 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II bought this piece of land on Mount Zion from Sultan Abdul Hamid II and presented it to the ‘German Union of the Holy Land.’ According to local tradition, it was on this spot, near the site of the Last Supper, that the Blessed Virgin Mary died. Construction took only 10 years beginning in 1900 and the basilica was dedicated on 10 April 1910.
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