title: Flag of Italy

text: The first version of the standard, adopted in 1965 and used until 1990 was very similar to the current version only without the red, white and green. The emblem was also much larger. This version of the standard was replaced in 1990 by then President Francesco Cossiga. Cossiga's new version of the standard contained the same royal blue background but now with a squared Italian national flag in the centre and no emblem. This version was short lived however as only two years later it was replaced by the 1965 standard, only with a smaller emblem. This version lasted until 2000 from when it was replaced by the current version.


title: Flag of Italy

text: After the Republic was proclaimed, the national flag was provisionally adopted as the head of state in place of the royal standard. On the initiative of the Ministry of Defence, a project was prepared in 1965 to adopt a distinct flag. Opportunity suggested the most natural solution was the Italian tricolour defaced with the coat of arms; however, under conditions of poor visibility, this could easily be mistaken for the standard of the President of Mexico, which is also that country's national flag. The standard is kept in the custody of the Commander of the Reggimento Corazzieri of the Arma dei Carabinieri, along with the war flag (assigned to Regiment in 1878).


title: Flag of Italy

text: The Italian Constitution does not make provision for a vice-president. However, separate insignia for the President of the Senate, in exercise of duties as acting head of state under Article 86, was created in 1986. This has a white square on the blue field, charged with the arms of the Republic in silver. Distinguishing insignia for former Presidents of the Republic was created in 2001; a tricolour in the style of the Presidential standard, it is emblazoned with the Cypher of Honour of the President of the Republic.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The standard of President of the Council of Ministers of Italy, introduced for the first time in 1927 by Benito Mussolini, in its first form a littorio beam appeared in the middle of the drape. The sign was abolished in 1943, while the current one was defined in 2008 by Silvio Berlusconi. It consists of a blue drapery bordered by two gold-colored borders in the center of which stands the emblem of the Republic. The banner should be exposed to every official engagement of the president and on the vehicles that carry it, however it is almost never used. The main colours are blue and gold, which have always been considered colours linked to the command.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The law, implementing Article 12 of the Constitution and following of Italy's membership of the European Union, lays down the general provisions governing the use and display of the flag of the Italian Republic and the flag of European Union (in its territory). In particular, in public buildings the flag of the Italian Republic, the flag of the European Union and the portrait of the President of the Italian Republic must be displayed in the offices of the most important Italian institutional offices.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The flag of Italy must also be displayed outside all schools of all levels, outside university complexes, outside the buildings that host the voting operations, outside the prefectures, police headquarters, palaces of justice and outside the central post offices. The flag of Italy must also be displayed on all public offices on the Tricolour Day (7 January), the Anniversary of the Lateran Treaty (11 February), the Anniversary of the Liberation (25 April), the Labour Day (1 May), the Europe Day (9 May), the Feast of the Italian Republic (2 June), the commemoration of the Four days of Naples (28 September), the feast of the patron saint of Italy (Francis of Assisi, 4 October), United Nations Day (24 October; here the tricolour must fly together with the flag of the United Nations) and National Unity and Armed Forces Day (4 November).


title: Flag of Italy

text: When displayed alongside other flags, the flag of Italy takes the position of honour; it is raised first and lowered last. Other national flags should be arranged in alphabetical order. Where two (or more than three) flags appear together, the national flag should be placed to the right (left of the observer); in a display of three flags in line, the national flag occupies the central position. The European flag is also flown from government buildings on a daily basis. In the presence of a foreign visitor belonging to a member state, this takes precedence over the Italian flag. As a sign of mourning, flags flown externally shall be lowered to half-mast; two black ribbons may be attached to those otherwise displayed.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The tricolour flags displayed must always be in excellent condition, fully extended and must never touch water or land. In no case can figures and writings be written or printed on the cloth. Furthermore, the Italian flag can never be used as a simple drapery or as a fabric in common use (e.g. to cover tables or as curtains).


title: Flag of Italy

text: In the event of public mourning the banner can be raised at half-mast and two strips of black velvet can be affixed to the cloth; the latter are instead mandatory when the tricolour participates in funeral ceremonies. In public ceremonies, the tricolour must always parade first.


title: Flag of Italy

text: There is a precise way to fold the tricolour correctly, by taking into account the three vertical bands of which the banner is composed.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The flag must be folded according to the boundaries of the colour bands: first the red band and then the green band must be folded over the white one in order to leave only the latter two colours visible; only subsequently should it be folded further in order to completely cover the red and white with green—the only colour that must be visible at the time of the closure of the cloth.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Article 292 of the Italian Penal Code ("Insult or damage to the flag or other emblem of the State") protects the Italian flag by providing for the crime of insulting it, or other banners bearing the national colours, thus providing:


title: Flag of Italy

text: The flag-raising of the tricolour takes place at the first light of dawn, with the flag which is made to slide quickly and resolutely up to the end of the flagpole. In the military sphere, it is announced by trumpet blasts and is performed on the notes of the national anthem.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The flagship, which takes place in the evening, is instead slower and more solemn so as not to make it seem a rapid lowering. The tricolour can be exposed also during the night only if the place where it is flying is conveniently illuminated.


title: Flag of Italy

text: In the presence of other flags, as well as receiving the most important honour position, it must be hoisted first and lowered last.


title: Flag of Italy

text: As the similarity suggests, the Italian tricolour derives from the flag of France, which was born during the French Revolution from the union of white — the colour of the monarchy — with red and blue — the colours of Paris, and which became the symbol of social and political renewal perpetrated by the original Jacobinism.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Green, the first Italian tricolour cockades, symbolised natural rights, namely social equality and freedom. After various events it came to 7 January 1797, the date of the adoption of the tricolour flag by the Cispadane Republic, the first Italian sovereign state to make use of it. During the Napoleonic period, the three colours acquired a more idealistic meaning for the population: the green represents hope, the white represents faith and the red represents love.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Other less probable conjectures that explain the adoption of the green hypothesise a tribute that Napoleon wanted to give to Corsica, where he was born, or to a possible reference to the verdant Italian landscape. For the adoption of greenery there is also the so-called "Masonic hypothesis": even for Freemasonry, green was the colour of nature, a symbol of human rights, which are naturally inherent in the human being, as much as of the florid Italian landscape. This interpretation, however, is opposed by those who maintain that Freemasonry, as a secret society, did not have such an influence at the time that inspired Italian national colours.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Another hypothesis that attempts to explain the meaning of the three Italian national colours would, without historical bases, be that the green is linked to the colour of the meadows and the Mediterranean maquis, the white to that of the snows of the Alps and the red to the blood spilt in the Wars of Italian Independence and Unification.


title: Flag of Italy

text: A more religious and philosophical interpretation is that green represents hope, white represents faith, and red represents charity (love), in reference to the three theological virtues.


title: Flag of Italy

text: To commemorate the birth of the Italian flag, the Tricolour Day was established on 31 December 1996, which is known in Italian as the "Festa del Tricolore". It is celebrated every year on 7 January, with the official celebrations being organised in Reggio nell'Emilia, the city where the first official adoption of the tricolour was declared as a national flag by an Italian sovereign state, the Cispadane Republic, which took place on 7 January 1797.


title: Flag of Italy

text: In Reggio nell'Emilia, the Festa del Tricolore is celebrated in Piazza Prampolini, in front of the town hall, in the presence of one of the highest offices of the Italian Republic (the President of the Italian Republic or the president of one of the chambers), who attends the flag-raising on the notes of "Il Canto degli Italiani" and which renders military honours a reproduction of the flag of the Cispadane Republic.


title: Flag of Italy

text: In Rome, at the Quirinal Palace, the ceremonial foresees instead the change of the Guard of honour in solemn form with the deployment and the parade of the Corazzieri Regiment in gala uniform and the Fanfare of the Carabinieri Cavalry Regiment. This solemn rite is carried out only on three other occasions, during the anniversary of the unification of Italy (17 March), the Festa della Repubblica (2 June) and the National Unity and Armed Forces Day (4 November).


title: Flag of Italy

text: There are many museums that host at least one historic Italian flag. Located throughout the Italian peninsula, they are mainly located in northern Italy.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The most important exhibition space that hosts Italian tricolour flags is found in the architectural complex of the Altare della Patria in Rome. Inside the "Central Museum of the Risorgimento at the Vittoriano", there are about 700 historical flags belonging to the Italian Army, Italian Navy and Italian Air Force departments, as well as the tricolour flag with which it was wrapped in 1921 coffin of the Unknown Soldier on his journey to the Altar of the Patria. The oldest tricolour preserved in the Central Museum of the Risorgimento dates back to 1860: it is one of the original tricolours that flew on the "Lombardo" steamship which, together with "Piedmont" steamship, participated in the expedition of the Thousand. The Vittoriano also houses the Flag Memorial ("Sacrario delle Bandiere"), the museum that collects and preserves disused Italian war flags.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Other exhibition spaces that also host historical tricolour flags in Rome include, the Historical Museum of the Carabinieri, the Historical Museum of the Bersaglieri, the Historical Museum of the Infantry, the Historical Museum of the Sardinian Grenadiers, the Historical Museum of the Military engineering, the Historical Museum of the Guardia di Finanza and the Historical Museum of Military Motorization.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The Tricolour Flag Museum in Reggio nell'Emilia, the city that saw the birth of the Italian flag in 1797, was founded in 2004. It is located within the town hall of the Emilian city, adjacent to the "Sala del Tricolore" where documents and memorabilia attributable to the period between the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte in Reggio (1796) and 1897, the year of the first centenary of the Italian flag are kept.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Other exhibition spaces that also host historical tricolour flags in Emilia-Romagna are the Museum of the Risorgimento and of the Resistance in Ferrara, the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento in Modena, the Museum of the Resistance in Montefiorino, the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento in Bologna, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Imola and the Museum of the Risorgimento in Piacenza.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento in Turin, the only one of Risorgimento that officially has the title of "national", house a rich collection of tricolours, including some dating back to the revolutions of 1848. Among the relics of the Royal Armory of Turin there is a flag of 1855, a relic in the Crimean War, in which the Russian Empire lost to an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain and Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. In Piedmont, there are also other museums that host Italian flags in their collections: the National Historical Museum of Artillery in Turin, the Historical Museum of the Cavalry in Pinerolo and the Badogliano Historical Museum in Grazzano Badoglio.


title: Flag of Italy

text: In Liguria, there is the Museum of the Risorgimento and Mazzinian Institute in Genoa which preserves, among other things, an original flag of the Young Italy, while in La Spezia there is the Naval Technical Museum of the Navy, founded in the 15th century by Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The Museum of the Risorgimento in Milan houses several tricolours from the Napoleonic era, including a flag of the Lombard Legion dating back to 1797 and delivered to the cohort of hunters on horseback only after the aforementioned ceremony in Piazza del Duomo, Milan, on 6 November 1796. Inside the Milanese museum there is also the tricolour flag dating back to the Five Days of Milan that flew from the Milan Cathedral on 20 March 1848.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Near Mantua, in Solferino, is the Museum of the Risorgimento of Solferino and San Martino, which celebrates the 1859 military battle of the same name and which houses many relics of the event, including several tricolour flags.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Other exhibition spaces that also host historical tricolour flags in Lombardy include the International Museum of the Red Cross in Castiglione delle Stiviere, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Bergamo, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Brescia, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Como, the Vittoriale degli Italiani in Gardone Riviera, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Mantua, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Pavia and the Museum of the Risorgimento in Voghera.


title: Flag of Italy

text: In Venice, the Museum of the Risorgimento and the Venetian 19th century preserves the tricolour flag of 1848 which greeted the expulsion of the Austrians from the city; Venice also hosts the Naval History Museum, which has an importance comparable to the homonymous exhibition space in La Spezia. The description of the Triveneto museums is completed by the Italian War History Museum in Rovereto, dedicated to World War I, which houses many relics, including several tricolour flags; the Historical Museum of Trento, which preserves items dedicated to the Alpini troops, the Museum of the Risorgimento and of the contemporary age in Padua, the Museum of the Risorgimento and of the Resistance in Vicenza. In Trieste, there is the Museum of the Risorgimento and the shrine of Oberdan.


title: Flag of Italy

text: In Sardinia, in addition to the Museum of the Risorgimento of the State Archives in Cagliari, there is the Museum of the Risorgimento Duca d'Aosta in Sanluri, set up at the castle of Eleonora D'Arborea, which preserves, among the numerous patriotic and the historical flags, the tricolour that on 3 November 1918 flew first in the Trieste just reconquered by Italy after the victory in World War I.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Other exhibition spaces that also host historical tricolour flags in other regions of Italy include the Domus Mazziniana in Pisa, the Marche museum of the Risorgimento and the Resistance in Macerata, the Museum of the Risorgimento in Palermo, which also preserves one of the original tricolour flags belonging to the "Lombardo" steamship which participated in the Expedition of the Thousand, and the museum of the State Archives in Naples which houses, among other things, twelve of the twenty-one tricolour flags requisitioned by the Bourbon general Carlo Filangieri from the Sicilian patriots of Caltagirone, Catania, Leonforte and Syracuse during the Sicilian revolution of 1848.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The Italian national flag belongs to the family of flags derived from the French tricolour, with all the meanings attached, as mentioned, to the ideals of the French Revolution.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Due to the common arrangement of the colours, at first sight, it seems that the only difference between the Italian and the Mexican flag is only the coat of arms of Mexico present in the latter; in reality the Italian tricolour uses lighter shades of green and red, and has different proportions than the Mexican flag—those of the Italian flag are equal to 2:3, while the proportions of the Mexican flag are 4:7. The similarity between the two flags posed a serious problem in maritime transport, given that originally the Mexican mercantile flag was devoid of arms and therefore was consequently identical to the Italian Republican tricolour of 1946; to obviate the inconvenience, at the request of the International Maritime Organization, both Italy and Mexico adopted naval flags with different crests.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Also due to the Italian layout, the Italian flag is also quite similar to the flag of Ireland, with the exception of orange instead of red (although the shades used for the two colours are very similar) and proportions (2:3 against 1:2).


title: Flag of Italy

text: The Hungarian flag has the same colours as the Italian one, but on the Magyar banner the red, white and green tricolour is arranged horizontally. Another banner chromatically similar to the Italian one is the flag of Bulgaria; similarly to the Hungarian flag, the Bulgarian banner has the white, green and red tricolour (starting from the top) in horizontal stripes, and therefore also in this case there is no confusion with the Italian tricolour.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Similar to the Hungarian banner is the flag of Iran, but green and red are reversed. In the flag of Madagascar green and red are in horizontal bands while white is in vertical band. The flag of Oman is similar to the Bulgarian banner, while the flag of Tajikistan is similar to the Hungarian banner.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Finally, they present other combinations of the three colours, the flags of Madagascar, Suriname, and Burundi. The flag of Suriname has a very specific composition of horizontal tricolor bands: the central red band (loaded with a gold star) and flanked by white and green bands. The flag of Burundi instead has a white Saint Andrew's Cross that divides the cloth into four triangular sections, the upper and lower ones red and the lateral ones green.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Famous paintings dating back to the unification of Italy whose subject revolves around the tricolour are "Pasquale Sottocorno assaulting the Military Engineering Palace during the Five Days of Milan" (1860) by Pietro Bouvier, "Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia on the balcony of the Greppi Palace" (1848) by Carlo Bossoli, "Little patriots" (1862) by Gioacchino Toma, "Garibaldi lands in Marsala" (late 19th century), "The departure of the volunteers" (1877–1878), "The departure of the Garibaldine" (1860), "The departure of the conscripts in 1866" (1878) "The return of the wounded soldier" (1854), all by Gerolamo Induno, "The first Italian flag brought to Florence" (1859) by Francesco Saverio Altamura, "The wounded soldier" (1865–1870) by Angelo Trezzini, "Episode of the Five Days in Piazza Sant'Alessandro" by Carlo Stragliati (late 19th century), "Fighting at Litta Palace" (half 19th century) by Baldassare Verazzi, "The brothers are in the field! Remembrance of Venice" (1869) by Mosè Bianchi, "The breach of Porta Pia" (1880) by Carlo Ademollo, "On 26 April 1859" (1861) by Odoardo Borrani, and "Garibaldi's Burial" (1862–64) by Filippo Liardo.


title: Flag of Italy

text: The tricolour often recurs in the paintings of Italian painters adhering to futurism. In particular, Giacomo Balla has often used the symbol of the Italian flag in some patriotic works such as "Flag Waving", "Interventionist Demonstration" and "Demonstration 20th September".


title: Flag of Italy

text: The first songs on the tricolour started to be composed shortly after its official adoption on 7 January 1797. The most famous popular musical composition written in this period and dedicated to the Italian flag is "To the tricolour", which reads:


title: Flag of Italy

text: However, most of the songs dedicated to the Italian flag were written during the unification of Italy. The most famous is "The flag of the three colours", sung in all Italian primary schools for decades:


title: Flag of Italy

text: During the battle of Aspromonte (29 August 1862), the notes of "The tricolour flag", by an unknown author, rang out; the flag is also mentioned in "Garibaldi's hymn", a 1859 song by Luigi Mercantini, which accompanied the Expedition of the Thousand. Other pieces from the unification of Italy celebrating the tricolour are Giuseppe Bertoldi's "Liberation of Milan", "O Ardent young people" by an anonymous author and Luigi Mercantini's "War Hymn of 1848-49".


title: Flag of Italy

text: The Italian flag is then mentioned in the musical composition "The bell of San Giusto" and in the piece "Faccetta Nera", written by Renato Micheli and set to music by Mario Ruccione in April 1935 on the occasion of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1936).


title: Flag of Italy

text: The 1961 song "The Flag" by Domenico Modugno was also dedicated to the flag. In 1965, singer Ivan Della Mea recalled the tricolour as a symbol of national unity in the song "9th May". The song refers to the event organized on 9 May 1965 in memory of the 20eth anniversary of the Liberation of Italy (1943–1945).


title: Flag of Italy

text: In March 2007, singer-songwriter Graziano Romani published the album "Three colours", inspired by the Italian flag and the occasion in which the tricolour was adopted in his hometown, Reggio Emilia.


title: Flag of Italy

text: Many romantic poets treated the tricolour flag in their literary works, drawing juxtapositions and symbolisms:


title: Eddie Marsan

text: Edward Maurice Charles Marsan (born 9 June 1968) is an English actor. He won the London Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film "Happy-Go-Lucky" (2008).


title: Eddie Marsan

text: He has featured in films such as "Gangster No. 1" (2000), "Ultimate Force" (2002), "V for Vendetta" (2006), "" (2006), "Sixty Six" (2006), "Hancock" (2008), "Sherlock Holmes" (2009), "War Horse" (2011), "" (2011), "The Best of Men" (2012), "The World's End" (2013), "Still Life" (2013), and "The Exception" (2016). His major TV credits include his role as Terry in Showtime's "Ray Donovan" (2013–2020) and as Mr Norrell in the BBC drama "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" (2015).


title: Eddie Marsan

text: Marsan was born on 9 June 1968 in the Stepney district of London, to a working-class family; his father was a lorry driver and his mother was a school dinner lady and teacher's assistant. He was brought up in Bethnal Green and attended Raine's Foundation School. He left school at 16 and initially served an apprenticeship as a printer, before beginning his career in theatre. He trained at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, graduating in 1991, and went on to study under Sam Kogan and the Kogan Academy of Dramatic Arts, of which Marsan is now a patron.


title: Eddie Marsan

text: Marsan's first television appearance was in 1992, as a "yob", in the London Weekend Television series "The Piglet Files". One of his more significant early television appearances was in the popular mid-1990s BBC sitcom "Game On" as an escaped convict who was an old flame of Mandy's. Marsan went on to have roles in "Casualty", "The Bill", "Grass", "Kavanagh QC", "Grange Hill", "Silent Witness", "Ultimate Force", "Southcliffe", and more. He also voiced the Manticore in the "Merlin" episode "Love in the Time of Dragons".


title: Eddie Marsan

text: In 2012, he played Ludwig Guttmann in the television film "The Best of Men". He portrays Terry Donovan, brother to the lead character in Showtime's drama series "Ray Donovan". In May 2015, Marsan appeared as the practical magician Gilbert Norrell in the BBC period drama "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell".


title: Eddie Marsan

text: Marsan has appeared in numerous and varied film roles, as the main villain in the 2008 superhero film "Hancock" alongside Will Smith and as Inspector Lestrade in Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes". His other films include "Sixty Six", "Gangs of New York", "21 Grams", "The Illusionist", "V for Vendetta", "Gangster No. 1", "Miami Vice", "", "I Want Candy", "Vera Drake", "Happy-Go-Lucky", "Filth", "Tyrannosaur" and "Heartless".


title: Eddie Marsan

text: In 2021 Marsan appeared as anti-Fascist activist Soly Malinovsky in the television adaptation of the novel "Ridley Road".


title: Eddie Marsan

text: Marsan married make-up artist Janine Schneider in 2002. They have four children. Marsan is a humanist and was appointed a patron of Humanists UK in 2015.


title: Eddie Marsan

text: Marsan won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor, London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor, and British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "Happy-Go-Lucky". Marsan also won the latter for his performance in "Vera Drake".


title: Eddie Marsan

text: For his performance in "Happy-Go-Lucky", Marsan also earned other nominations, such as the Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the Women Film Journalists Awards for Best Supporting Actor.


title: Eddie Marsan

text: In 2014, Marsan earned the Best British Actor award at the 2014 Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Best Actor award at the VOICES film festival in Vologda, Russia, for his performance in "Still Life".


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of thirteen children's novels written by American author Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket. The books follow the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. After their parents' death in a fire, the children are placed in the custody of a murderous relative, Count Olaf, who attempts to steal their inheritance and later, orchestrates numerous disasters with the help of his accomplices as the children attempt to flee. As the plot progresses, the Baudelaires gradually confront further mysteries surrounding their family and deep conspiracies involving a secret society known as the V.F.D. (Volunteer Fire Department).


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Characterized by Victorian Gothic tones and absurdist textuality, the books are noted for their dark humour, sarcastic storytelling, and anachronistic elements, as well as frequent cultural and literary allusions. They have been classified as postmodern and metafictional writing, with the plot evolution throughout the later novels being cited as an exploration of the psychological process of the transition from the idyllic innocence of childhood to the moral complexity of maturity. As the series progresses, the Baudelaires must face the reality that their actions have become morally ambiguous, blurring the lines between which characters should be read as "good" or "evil".


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Since the release of the first novel, "The Bad Beginning", in September 1999, the books have gained significant popularity, critical acclaim, and commercial success worldwide, spawning a film, a video game, assorted merchandise, and a television series. The main thirteen books in the series have collectively sold more than 60 million copies and have been translated into 41 languages. Several companion books set in the same universe of the series have also been released, including "", "The Beatrice Letters", and the noir prequel tetralogy "All the Wrong Questions", which chronicles Snicket's childhood.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Prior to the publication of "A Series of Unfortunate Events", Handler had never written for children. According to an interview with Handler, he was encouraged to try writing children's books by his friend and editor, Susan Rich. In a separate author interview, Daphne Merkin wrote that Handler adapted a manuscript for a "mock-gothic" book originally intended for adults into a series more suited for children. Handler invented the pseudonym "Lemony Snicket" as an inside joke among friends years before the publication of "A Series of Unfortunate Events".


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Handler acknowledges Edward Gorey and Roald Dahl as influences for his writing style in the series. The first book in the series was "The Bad Beginning", released on September 30, 1999.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: The series follows the adventures of three orphaned siblings. Lemony Snicket documents their lives and explains to the readers that very few positive things happen to the children.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: The series begins when the orphans are at a beach alone, when they receive news that their parents were killed in a fire that also destroyed the family mansion. In "The Bad Beginning", they are sent to live with a distant relative named Count Olaf after briefly living with Mr. Poe, a banker in charge of the orphans' affairs. The siblings discover that Count Olaf intends to get his hands on the enormous Baudelaire fortune, which Violet is to inherit when she reaches the age of eighteen. In the first book, Olaf attempts to marry Violet to steal the Baudelaire fortune, and pretends that the marriage is the storyline for his latest play, but the plan falls through when Violet uses her non-dominant hand to sign the marriage document, thus causing the marriage to not be successful. After the crowd realizes, Olaf manages to escape with his henchmen.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: In the following six books, Olaf disguises himself, finds the children, and, with help from his many accomplices, tries to steal their fortune, committing arson, murder, and other crimes. In the eighth through twelfth books, the orphans adopt disguises while on the run from the police after Count Olaf frames them for one of his murders. The Baudelaires routinely try to get help from Mr. Poe, but he, like many of the adults in the series, is oblivious to the dangerous reality of the children's situation.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: As the books continue, another running plot is revealed concerning a mysterious secret organization known as the Volunteer Fire Department or V.F.D. From "The Austere Academy" onwards, the relationship between the Baudelaires, V.F.D., and their parents' deaths are slowly revealed, leading the siblings to question their previous lives and the history of their family. The siblings continue to get more involved with the organization until they are forced to flee with Count Olaf to an island where Olaf accidentally causes the deaths of himself and possibly the idyllic colonists of the island, whose fates are left unknown. Having finally found a safe place to live, the children spend the next year raising the baby of one of their parents' friends from V.F.D. who died giving birth to the child. After a year, the siblings decide to try to return to the mainland to continue their lives.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: The books seem to be set in an alternate, "timeless" world with stylistic similarities to both the 19th century and the 1930s, though with contemporary, and seemingly anachronistic scientific knowledge. For instance, in "The Hostile Hospital", the Baudelaire children send a message via Morse code on a telegraph, yet the general store they are in has Fiber-optic cable for sale. An "advanced computer" appears in "The Austere Academy."


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Danielle Russell, a professor at Glendon College, argues that the settings are reflective of familiar places, but are "bizarre" enough that young readers feel distanced from the Baudelaires' world. The setting of the world has been compared to "Edward Scissorhands" in that it is "suburban gothic". While the film version sets the Baudelaires' mansion in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, real places rarely appear in the books, though some are mentioned. For example, in "The Ersatz Elevator", a book in Jerome and Esmé Squalor's library was titled "Trout, In France They're Out." There are also references to the fictional nobility of North American regions, specifically the Duchess of Winnipeg and the King of Arizona.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Violet Baudelaire, the eldest, is fourteen when the series begins and is an inventor. Klaus Baudelaire, the middle child, is twelve when the series begins; he loves books and is an extraordinary speed reader with a first-class photographic memory. Sunny Baudelaire is a baby at the beginning of the series, and enjoys biting things with her abnormally large teeth; she develops a love for cooking later in the series.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: In most books, the children's skills are used to help them defeat Count Olaf's plots; for instance, Violet invents a lockpick in "The Reptile Room". Occasionally, the children's roles switch (Klaus inventing and Violet reading in "The Miserable Mill") or other characters use their skills to assist the Baudelaires (e.g. Quigley's cartography skills help Violet and Klaus in "The Slippery Slope").


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Snicket translates for the youngest Baudelaire orphan, Sunny, who in the early books almost solely uses words or phrases that make sense only to her siblings. As the series progresses, her speech often contains disguised meanings. Some words are spelled phonetically: 'Suruchi' in "The Slippery Slope "and 'Kikuchi?' in "The End"; some are spelled backwards: " in "The Carnivorous Carnival", and " in "The Miserable Mill". Some contain references to culture or people: for instance, when Sunny says "Bushenyi" (combining the last names of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, presumably), it is followed by the definition of "you are a vile man who has no regard for anyone else". Some words Sunny uses are foreign, such as "Shalom", "Sayonara" or "Arête". Some are more complex, such as when she says "Akrofil, meaning, 'they were not afraid of heights'", which phonetically translates to acrophilia, meaning one who loves heights. She begins to use standard English words towards the end of the books, one of her longer sentences being "I'm not a baby" in "The Slippery Slope".


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: When asked in a "Moment Magazine" interview about the Baudelaire children and Snicket's own Jewish heritage he replied, "Oh yeah! Yes. The Baudelaires are Jewish! I guess we would not know for sure but we would strongly suspect it, not only from their manner but from the occasional mention of a rabbi or bar mitzvah or synagogue. The careful reader will find quite a few rabbis."


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: While the books are marketed primarily to children, the series features numerous references that adults or older children are more likely to understand.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Many of the characters' names allude to other fictional works or real people with macabre connections. For example, "The Reptile Room" includes allusions to Monty Python (the Baudelaire children's uncle Monty has a large snake collection, including a python, and a reference to the "Self-Defence Against Fresh Fruit" sketch). The Baudelaire orphans are named after Charles Baudelaire; Violet's name also comes from the T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land", specifically its verses concerning the "violet hour," and Sunny and Klaus take their first names from Claus and Sunny von Bülow, while Mr. Poe is a reference to Edgar Allan Poe (his sons are named Edgar and Albert). In the seventh installment, "The Vile Village," Count Olaf's disguise, Detective Dupin, is an allusion to C. Auguste Dupin, a fictional detective created by Edgar Allan Poe.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Isadora and Duncan Quagmire are named after Isadora Duncan, a notorious dancer also remembered for her unusual death by strangulation when her scarf entangled around the wheels of the open car in which she was a passenger. In the fourth book, "The Miserable Mill", Dr. Georgina Orwell is a reference to British author George Orwell. Orwell finished his famous book "1984" in 1948, and in the sixth book, "The Ersatz Elevator", it is not clear if the skyscraper in which Esmé and Jerome Squalor live has 48 or 84 stories. The Squalors' names reference Jerome David "J. D." Salinger and his short story "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor", while in an auction on which the plot hinges, Lot 49 is skipped, i.e. not cried, an allusion to Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49". Both Salinger and Pynchon were reputed at one time not to be actual persons. The ninth book in the series, "The Carnivorous Carnival", takes place at Caligari Carnival; the carnival's name is a nod to the 1920 silent horror film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". Also in the ninth book, Hugo the Hunchback's name is an allusion to French author Victor Hugo, who wrote the famous book "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Subsequently, many of the inhabitants of the island in which the Baudelaires find themselves on in "The End" are named after characters from "The Tempest", a play by William Shakespeare, while some are named after characters from "Robinson Crusoe", "Moby-Dick" and others after general nautical or island-based literature. The Fire and the Sugar Bowl was inspired by We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: The name of Beatrice, Snicket's dedicatee, may be an allusion to the poem "La Beatrice" by Charles Baudelaire. The poem references an "actor without a job", like the actor Count Olaf. The poem also begins with the line "In a burnt, ash-grey land without vegetation", similar to the Baudelaire mansion burning down at the beginning of the series. The name Beatrice could also be an allusion to Italian poet Dante. Dante dedicated all of his works to "Beatrice", with whom he was obsessed, and who was also dead, like Snicket's Beatrice.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: In the final book, in an allusion to the Book of Genesis, a snake offers the children a life-giving apple (which the other characters in "The End" refuse to eat despite the fact that it is a cure for a fatal illness).


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Tison Pugh argues that the series challenges traditional gender roles and norms. The Baudelaire children's ability to traverse these gender lines causes them to become "hermaphroditic" characters who embody multiple genders at once.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: This series is most commonly classified as children's fiction, but the book has also been classified in more specific genres such as gothic fiction, or some variety thereof, whether it is mock-gothic, a satire of gothic literature, neo-Victorian or "suburban gothic". The series has been described as absurdist fiction, because of its strange characters, improbable storylines, and black comedy.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: The books can be categorized as mystery novels. According to Chris McGee, The Baudelaires spend the series trying to uncover the truth about their parents’ deaths. He also likens the series to noir fiction. Danielle Russell argues that mysteries are solved for the reader by their end. So, the lack of clear answers in "The End" does not align with this genre.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Although the series does not neatly fit into the genres of fantasy or science fiction, it does feature occasional instances of whimsy, the supernatural, and steampunk technology. There is a constant theme of some form of fate guiding the characters throughout the books. The Baudelaires are capable of communicating with their infant sister, as well as with reptiles. The Reptile Room houses a variety of fantastical reptiles, including the Incredibly Deadly Viper, which is extremely intelligent and seems to have a humanoid consciousness. There is a mysterious aquatic monster known as the Bombinating Beast.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: In a paper for the Maria Curie-Sklodowski University, Barbara Kaczyńska claims that "realism" is absent within the series. Russell disputes this, noting that throughout the novels, the narrator insists that the stories he recounts are completely true. She believes that this strong level of realism discredits any argument that the books can be classified as fantasies.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Social commentary is a major element in the books, which often comment on the seemingly inescapable follies of human nature. The books consistently present the Baudelaire children as free-thinking and independent, while the adults around them obey authority and succumb to mob psychology, peer pressure, ambition, and other social ills. A high account is given to learning: those who are "well-read" are often sympathetic characters, while those who shun knowledge are villains.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Tison Pugh argues that the central issue of the series is whether the Baudelaires are morally good and distinct from the villains of the story, or whether their actions make them as morally ambiguous as the so-called evil characters. The books have strong themes of moral relativism.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Evil characters are shown to have sympathetic characteristics. Similarly, good characters' flaws become major problems. The books highlight the inevitability of temptation and moral decision-making, regardless of the external situation. This indicates that regardless of one's outside influences, one always has the final choice in whether to be good or bad. Characters that make brave decisions to fight back and take charge are almost always "good", and characters that just go along end up as "bad." However, some characters suggest that people are neither good nor bad, but a mix of both. Rebecca-Anne C. Do Rozario notes the nihilistic tone of the series, claiming the lines between good and evil acts become blurred to the point where they become meaningless.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: The series is narrated by Lemony Snicket, the pseudonym of Daniel Handler. He dedicates each of his works to his deceased love interest, Beatrice, and often attempts to dissuade the reader from reading the Baudelaires' unfortunate story. Handler has referred to Lemony Snicket as a "character" who also doubles as the series' narrator. Some details of his life are explained somewhat in a supplement to the series, "".


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: When Snicket describes a word the reader may be unfamiliar with, he typically prefaces it with the saying "a word which here means . . . ." He sometimes follows this phrase with a humorous definition, or one that is relevant only to the events at hand (for example, he describes "adversity" as meaning "Count Olaf").


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Lemony Snicket continuously maintains that the story is true and that it is his "solemn duty" to record it. Snicket often goes off into humorous or satirical asides, discussing his opinions or personal life.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Lemony Snicket's narration and commentary are characteristically cynical and despondent. In the blurb for each book, Snicket warns of the misery the reader may experience in reading about the Baudelaire orphans and suggests abandoning the books altogether. However, he also provides ample comic relief with wry, dark humor. Snicket's narration has been described as "self-conscious" and "post-modern." Daphne Merkin characterizes Snicket's narration style as "droll and detached."


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: When describing a character whom the Baudelaires have met before, Snicket often describes the character first and does not reveal the name of the character until they have been thoroughly described. Lemony Snicket starts each book with a "post-modern dissection of the reading experience" before linking it back to how he presents the story of the Baudelaires and what their current situation is. Snicket often uses alliteration to name locations, as well as book titles, throughout the story. Many of the books start with a theme being introduced that is continually referenced throughout the book—such as the repeated comparisons of the words "nervous" and "anxious" in "The Ersatz Elevator", the consistent use of the phrase "where there's smoke, there's fire" in "The Slippery Slope," and the descriptions of the water cycle in "The Grim Grotto".


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: The plots of the first seven books follow the same basic pattern: the Baudelaires go to a new guardian in a new location, where Count Olaf appears and attempts to steal their fortune. The books following pick up where the previous book ended. There are thirteen books in the series and each book has thirteen chapters. The last book in the series, "The End", contains two stories: "The End", which has 13 chapters, and a separate "book" that is titled "Chapter Fourteen". The location of each book's events is usually identified in the book's title; the first twelve book titles are generally alliterative.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: After the fourth book, Barbara Kaczyńska argues that secrets play a more important role in the story. In the final book, "The End", the concept is especially important, as demonstrated by a several-page-long discussion of the phrase "in the dark." The children hear of a massive schism within the organization of V.F.D., which was once noble but became filled with corruption and split into two sides, "volunteers" and "villains." While many of the critical plot points are given answers, Snicket explains that no story can be fully devoid of questions as every story is intertwined with numerous others and every character's history is shared in a great web of mysteries and unfortunate events that make up the world's legacy, making it impossible for anyone to know all the answers to every question. The Baudelaire children and Count Olaf's story is said to be merely a fragment of a much bigger story between numerous characters with the central connection being the organization of V.F.D.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: There is a full-page picture at the end of each book, showing a hint or clue about the content of the next book. This may be show a flyer or piece of paper drifting by, though sometimes by a significant object: a snake appears at the end of "The Bad Beginning", referring to Montgomery's snake collection in the following book. The same picture is used at the start of the succeeding book. This practice continued at the end of "The End" which shows a boat sailing off into the sunset and at the start of "Chapter Fourteen". The picture at the end of "Chapter Fourteen" includes a shape of a question mark.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Following the picture is a letter to the editor, which explains to the editor how to get a manuscript of the next book. Snicket is writing from the location of the next book and usually reveals its title. Snicket notes that the editors will find various objects along with the manuscript, all of them having some impact in the story. Starting with the fourth book (which previews the fifth), each letter has a layout relating to the next book, such as torn edges, fancy stationery, sopping wet paper, or telegram format. The letters change dramatically starting with the letter at the end of "The Hostile Hospital"—for this preview letter, the letter is ripped to shreds and only a few scraps remain. The remaining letters are difficult to read, and some do not reveal the title. The final letter appears at the end of "The End" and simply has "The end of THE END can be found at the end of THE END." There is no letter after "Chapter Fourteen".


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Each book begins with a dedication to a woman named Beatrice, and references to her are made by Snicket throughout the series, describing her as the woman he still loves while emphasizing the fact that she apparently died long ago. At the end of the "Chapter Fourteen" epilogue, it is revealed that Beatrice was the Baudelaires' late mother, who married their father after an unknown event caused her to return Snicket's engagement ring, alongside a two-hundred-page book explaining all the reasons she could not marry him.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Bruce Butt describes the hardcover books as "elegant" and "collectible." He argues that the endpapers and overall book design resemble Victorian-era novels. Russell argues that the visual stylization of the books adds to their sense of timelessness. The hardcover books were printed with a deckle edge.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: A paperback release of the series, featuring restyled covers, new illustrations, and a serial supplement entitled "The Cornucopian Cavalcade" happened with "", "The Reptile Room: or, Murder!", and "The Wide Window: or, Disappearance!", but stopped after the third.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: There are books that accompany the series, such as "The Beatrice Letters", "", and "The Puzzling Puzzles"; journals "The Blank Book" and "The Notorious Notations"; and short materials such as "The Dismal Dinner" and "13 Shocking Secrets You'll Wish You Never Knew About Lemony Snicket". Humorous quotes from the series were used in a book published under the Snicket name, "".


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Lemony Snicket's "All the Wrong Questions" is a four-part young adult series focused on Snicket's childhood working for V.F.D. It is set in the same universe as "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and features several of the same characters and locations. The first book was titled "Who Could That Be at This Hour?", and was released in October 2012. The second, "When Did You See Her Last?", was released in October 2013, and the third, "Shouldn't You Be in School?", was released in September 2014. The final book, "Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?" was released on September 29, 2015.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Netflix, in association with Paramount Television, announced in November 2014 its plans to adapt the books into an original TV series with 25 total episodes spanning 3 seasons, with 2 episodes dedicated to each book, with the exception of the 13th book, The End. Author Daniel Handler serves as a writer and executive producer.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: On September 4, 2015, it was announced that filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld and "True Blood" showrunner Mark Hudis had agreed to helm the series. Hudis would serve as showrunner, Sonnenfeld as director, and both as executive producers. Daniel Handler is penning the scripts. On December 3, 2015, an open casting call was announced for the roles of Violet and Klaus Baudelaire, with the casting call confirming that the series would begin production in March 2016.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: In January 2016, Netflix announced that Hudis had left the project and they have not yet named a replacement showrunner. However, it was announced that Sonnenfeld and Handler were both still on board, and that Neil Patrick Harris had been cast as Count Olaf and Malina Weissman and Louis Hynes as Violet and Klaus.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: In March 2016, K. Todd Freeman and Patrick Warburton were cast as Mr. Poe and Lemony Snicket respectively. The first season, consisting of eight episodes that cover the first four books, was released worldwide on Netflix on January 13, 2017. "A Series of Unfortunate Events" was renewed for a second season, which was released on March 30, 2018, and consisted of ten episodes that adapt books five through nine of the novel series. The television series was also renewed for a third and final season, which was released on January 1, 2019, consisting of seven episodes that adapted the final four books. The last book, "The End", was adapted into one episode instead of the standard two episodes.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" is a film adaptation of the first three titles in the series, mixing the various events and characters into one story. It was released on December 17, 2004. Directed by Brad Seiberling, it stars Jim Carrey as Count Olaf, Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine, Billy Connolly as Uncle Monty, Emily Browning as Violet, Liam Aiken as Klaus, Timothy Spall as Mr. Poe, and Jude Law as the voice of Lemony Snicket. The film was financially successful, but received criticism over its comical tone.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Considering the success of the movie, the director and some of the lead actors hinted that they were keen on making a sequel, but no script was written.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Browning has said that further films would have to be produced quickly, as the children do not age much throughout the book series.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: In 2008, Daniel Handler stated in a Bookslut Interview that another film was in the works, but had been delayed by corporate shake-ups at Paramount Pictures. In June 2009, Silberling confirmed he still talked about the project with Handler, and suggested the sequel be a stop motion film because the lead actors have grown too old. "In an odd way, the best thing you could do is actually have Lemony Snicket say to the audience, 'Okay, we pawned the first film off as a mere dramatization with actors. Now I'm afraid I'm going to have to show you the real thing.'"


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" is a video game based on the film that was released in 2004 by Adenium Games and Activision for PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, and PC. The player plays as all three orphans at points in the game, and encounters characters such as Mr. Poe, Uncle Monty and Aunt Josephine, along with villains such as Count Olaf, the Hook-Handed Man, the White-Faced Woman, and the Bald Man. The game, like the movie, follows only the first three books in the series.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: A separate casual game titled "A Series of Unfortunate Events" was published by Oberon Media the same year as a different tie-in to the books. Set in Count Olaf's house, the game involves his six associates and many objects they use in Olaf's efforts to capture the children. Gameplay includes three difficulty levels and two game modes: Deduction Junction and Swap Monster.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: A board game based on the books was distributed by Mattel in 2004, prior to the movie. "The Perilous Parlor Game" is for 2–4 players, ages 8 and up. One player assumes the role of Count Olaf, and the other players play the Baudelaire children. Count Olaf's objective in the game is to eliminate the guardian, while the children try to keep the guardian alive. The game employs Clever Cards, Tragedy Cards, Secret Passage Tiles, and Disguise Tiles in play.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: "The Catastrophic Card Game" is the second game based on the books. In this card game, players are looking to complete sets of characters. There are 4 different sets: The Baudelaire Orphans, Count Olaf in Disguise, Olaf's Henchmen, and the Orphans Confidants. Players take turns drawing a card from either the draw pile or the top card from the discard pile in hopes of completing their sets. For 2–4 players, ages 14 and under.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Most of the series of unabridged audiobooks are read by British actor Tim Curry, though Handler as Lemony Snicket reads books 3 to 5. Of narrating the audiobooks, Handler has said: "It was very, very hard. It was unbelievably arduous. It was the worst kind of arduous." As such, future narrating duties were handed back to Curry, of whom Handler states: "he does a splendid job". The "Dear Reader" blurb is usually read by Handler (as Snicket) at the beginning, although it is missing in "The Hostile Hospital". Handler usually reads the "To my Kind Editor" blurb about the next book at the end. Starting at "The Carnivorous Carnival", there is another actor who replaces Handler in reading the two blurbs, although they are skipped entirely in "The Grim Grotto". All of the recordings include a loosely related song by The Gothic Archies, a novelty band of which Handler is a member, featuring lyrics by Handler's Magnetic Fields bandmate Stephin Merritt.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: In October 2006, "The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events" by The Gothic Archies was released. The album is a collection of thirteen songs written and performed by Stephin Merritt (of The Magnetic Fields), each one originally appearing on one of the corresponding thirteen audiobooks of the series. Two bonus songs are included.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Reviews for "A Series of Unfortunate Events" have generally been positive, with reviewers saying that the series is enjoyable for children and adults alike, and that it brings fresh and adult themes to children's stories. The "Times Online" refer to the books as "a literary phenomenon", and discuss how the plight of the Baudelaire orphans helps children cope with loss—citing the rise in sales post September 11, 2001 as evidence. Mackey attributes the series' success to the "topsy-turvy moral universe." Langbauer feels that the series "offers a critique of the pieties" of earlier generations and imparts "its own vision of ethics." In a May 2000 article for "Publishers Weekly", Sally Lodge notes kids and educators' enthusiasm for the first four books in the series.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: The series has come under criticism from some school districts for its dark themes. Access to the books was similarly restricted at Katy ISD Elementary School in Katy, Texas. Similarly, a school in Decatur, Georgia criticized "The Reptile Room" for its inclusion of the word “damn,” canceling an author event with Handler in protest.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Criticisms include the suggested incest in Olaf's attempt to marry his distant cousin Violet in "The Bad Beginning". The series has also been criticized for its formulaic and repetitive storytelling. For example, Bruce Butt criticizes the series for its formulaic and predictable nature, likening the first eight books to "junk food" for children.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Within a year of "The Bad Beginning"'s publication, the first four books in the series had a combined printing of 125,000 copies. "A Series of Unfortunate Events" has been printed in 41 different languages, selling at least sixty-five million copies as of 2015.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: "The Bad Beginning" won multiple literary awards, including the Colorado Children's Book Award, the Nevada Young Readers Award and the Nene Award. It was also a finalist for the Book Sense Book of the Year.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: Its sequels have continued this trend, garnering multiple awards and nominations. Among these are three IRA/CBC Children's Choice Awards, which it received for "The Wide Window", "The Vile Village", and "The Hostile Hospital." "The Penultimate Peril" won a best book prize at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, and a 2006 Quill Book Award.


title: A Series of Unfortunate Events

text: While not technically awards, "The Ersatz Elevator" was named a "Book Sense 76 Pick", and "The Grim Grotto" is an Amazon.com Customers' Favorite.


title: Ansu Fati

text: Anssumane Fati Vieira (born 31 October 2002), more commonly known as Ansu Fati, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club FC Barcelona and the Spain national team.


title: Ansu Fati

text: Fati was born in Guinea-Bissau but chose to represent the Spain national team after gaining citizenship. He is widely considered one of Spain's most exciting football talents, and one of the best young players in the world.


title: Ansu Fati

text: Fati moved to Herrera, Seville, with his family at the age of six, when his older brother Braima signed for Sevilla. His other brother, Miguel Fati, is also a footballer. His older cousin Ença Fati is a footballer in Portugal.


title: Ansu Fati

text: His father, Bori Fati, is an ex-footballer, who was born in Guinea-Bissau. After emigrating to Portugal, Bori played for some teams in the lower leagues. Then, he moved to Marinaleda, a small town located near Seville, that was offering work to immigrants. After struggling in Marinaleda, he met the mayor Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, and found a job as a driver. He then settled in the nearby town of Herrera, where Ansu spent most of his childhood, and started his football training. Though born in Guinea-Bissau, Bori has said he is "a Sevillian".


title: Ansu Fati

text: After representing local side Herrera and the youth teams of Sevilla, he joined Barcelona's La Masia in 2012, aged ten, a year after his brother had made the same move.


title: Ansu Fati

text: On 24 July 2019, Fati signed his first professional contract with Barcelona, agreeing to a deal until 2022. On 25 August, before even appearing with the reserves, Fati made his first team and La Liga debut. He came on as a late-game substitute for goalscorer Carles Pérez in a 5–2 home win over Real Betis. Aged 16 years and 298 days, he became the second-youngest player to debut for the club, only 18 days older than Vicenç Martínez in 1941.


title: Ansu Fati

text: On 31 August 2019, he scored his first professional goal in a 2–2 away draw between Barcelona and Osasuna at the age of 16 years and 304 days, becoming the Barcelona senior team's youngest goalscorer ever and the third-youngest scorer in the history of La Liga.


title: Ansu Fati

text: On 14 September 2019, in his first career start, Fati became the youngest player in the history of La Liga to score and assist in the same match, at the age of 16 years and 318 days. Fati scored a goal in the 2nd minute which was assisted by Frenkie de Jong and later assisted Frenkie de Jong's goal in the 7th minute of an eventual 5–2 home win against Valencia.


title: Ansu Fati

text: On 17 September, Fati made his Champions League debut in a 0–0 away draw against Borussia Dortmund, becoming the youngest player to feature for Barcelona in the competition at the age of 16 years and 321 days, breaking the previous record held by Bojan Krkić (17 years and 22 days); he also became the third-youngest player ever to appear in the competition. On 10 December, Fati became the youngest goalscorer in UEFA Champions League history at the age of 17 years and 40 days when he scored the game winner in Barcelona's 2–1 victory over Inter Milan at the San Siro.


title: Ansu Fati

text: On 2 February 2020, Fati became the youngest player to score a brace in La Liga, scoring both goals in Barcelona's 2–1 win over Levante. On 5 July, Barcelona defeated Villarreal away from home and he scored the fourth goal in the 4–1 win. His goal was the 9,000th in Barça's history. On 9 July 2020, Fati was sent off after fouling Fernando Calero in the derby match against Espanyol. Fati had only entered the match five minutes earlier as a second-half substitute for Nélson Semedo.


title: Ansu Fati

text: On 23 September 2020, Fati was officially promoted to the first team. Four days later, in Barcelona's first match of the 2020–21 La Liga season and the first under new head coach, Ronald Koeman, Fati scored a brace and forced a penalty in a 4–0 win over Villarreal. He scored again in the following match, a 3–0 away win over Celta Vigo on 1 October. His performances led to him being named as the La Liga Player of the Month for September 2020. On 20 October, he scored a goal in a 5–1 win over Ferencváros in the Champions League, to become the first player to score more than one goal in the competition before turning 18. On 24 October, he scored a goal in a 1–3 defeat against Real Madrid, to become the second youngest scorer in El Clásico, at 17 years and 359 days, behind Alfonso Navarro who scored at 17 years and 356 days on 30 March 1947. On 7 November, Fati suffered a knee injury against Real Betis and was subbed off at half-time; tests later confirmed that he tore the meniscus in his left knee. Two days later he underwent surgery and the club announced that he would be out for approximately four months. Unfortunately, he was out for 9 months — he started training after 9 months — ahead of the 2021–22 La Liga season.


title: Ansu Fati

text: Ahead of the 2021-22 season, Barcelona announced Fati would inherit the number 10 shirt from Lionel Messi. On 5 August 2021, Ansu Fati returned to training on the pitch at the Ciutat Esportiva after nine months out of action. On 26 September, Fati made his first appearance after 323 days of absence in a 3–0 home victory against Levante. He came on as a substitute, playing for 10 minutes and scoring within minutes after coming on. On 20 January 2022, he suffered a hamstring injury in a 3–2 defeat to Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey. On 1 May, he returned after a three-month injury absence to play in a 2–1 win against Mallorca.


title: Ansu Fati

text: Fati was originally eligible to represent Guinea-Bissau at international level, but did not represent the nation of his birth at any level. After his debut in La Liga, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) showed interest in him, with "Diario AS" reporting that the Spanish government had set its sights on granting Fati citizenship with a view to including him in the squad for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup. He was also reportedly eligible for a Portuguese passport through his grandparents' birth in colonial Portuguese Guinea.


title: Ansu Fati

text: Fati was granted Spanish citizenship on 20 September 2019, renouncing his Bissau-Guinean citizenship. He was called up to the Spain under-21 team on 11 October 2019, following an injury to Carles Pérez. Fati made his debut for the Spain under-21 team on 15 October 2019 against Montenegro.


title: Ansu Fati

text: Fati received his first call up to the full Spain squad on 20 August 2020, for the initial two matches of the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League. He made his full international debut on 3 September 2020, coming off the bench for the second 45 minutes in a 1–1 draw to Germany. He scored his first goal in his first international start on 6 September 2020, scoring Spain's third goal against Ukraine to be the national team's youngest ever goalscorer at the age of 17 years and 311 days; hence, breaking the 95-year record of Juan Errazquin, aged 18 years and 344 days. He also became the youngest player to start a match in the UEFA Nations League, breaking the previous record of Welsh player Ethan Ampadu in 2018, aged 17 years and 357 days. Both these records were beaten by his teammate at Barcelona, Gavi, on 5 June 2022.


title: Ansu Fati

text: Widely considered by several pundits to be one of the most talented and promising young players in the world, Fati's playing style has been compared with that of former Barcelona player Lionel Messi. A versatile forward, Fati is capable of playing in any attacking position; he started his career as a striker, although he was later moved to the position of left winger. Being adept with either foot, despite being naturally right-footed, he is also capable of playing on the right flank, in the centre as a false 9, as a second striker or number 11, or in a free role as an attacking midfielder or number 10. A 2019 profile by "FourFourTwo" magazine described him with the following words: "Standing at 5ft 10in, Fati boasts a powerful frame and brings a physical approach to the game which is often lacking among a technically gifted Barcelona side. Nevertheless, despite his robust physique, the La Masia graduate possesses outstanding dribbling skills which, when combined with his speed, makes him incredibly difficult to stop in one-on-one situations." It also highlighted his eye for goal and ability in the air, as well as his vision and ability to control play from midfield. His perceived selfishness and decision-making were instead highlighted as weaknesses in his game. Tor-Kristian Karlsen of "ESPN" described Fati as a "generational talent" in 2021, praising him for his speed, acceleration, ambidexterity, low centre of gravity, and technical skills, which make him difficult to dispossess, also noting his intelligence, movement, defensive work-rate, and link-up play as some of his main strengths.


title: Murray Bartlett

text: Murray Bartlett (born 20 March 1971) is an Australian actor. His roles include Dominic "Dom" Basaluzzo in the HBO comedy-drama series "Looking", Michael "Mouse" Tolliver in the Netflix revival of "Tales of the City", and Armond in the HBO satire comedy series "The White Lotus", for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. He is set to star in the upcoming television series adaptation of "The Last of Us". He also has a role on the Apple TV+ series "Physical" and the Hulu miniseries "Welcome to Chippendales".


title: Murray Bartlett

text: Bartlett was born in Sydney, New South Wales. At age four, his family moved to Perth, where he was raised. Bartlett attended John Curtin College of the Arts in Fremantle, where he graduated from the drama program in 1988. Upon graduating, he was admitted to the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.


title: Murray Bartlett

text: Bartlett pursued an acting career in Australia for several years, including a role in the series "headLand". In 1993, he played con man Luke Foster in "Neighbours". In 2000, Bartlett relocated to the United States. His first big break there came a few years later, when he was cast as a guest star in the HBO series "Sex and the City". He also played D.K., John Crichton's best friend, in four episodes of the SciFi Channel series "Farscape". In 2006, Bartlett toured with Hugh Jackman in the Australian touring company production of Jackman's Broadway hit "The Boy From Oz".


title: Murray Bartlett

text: From March 2007 until the show's cancellation in September 2009, Bartlett was a cast member on the CBS daytime soap opera "Guiding Light", where he played Cyrus Foley. He starred as Dominic "Dom" Basaluzzo in the HBO comedy-drama series "Looking" from 2014 to 2015, and then reprised his role in the series finale television film, "" in 2016. In 2017, he portrayed a recurring role in the musical drama series "Nashville". Bartlett assumed the central role of Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver in the Netflix revival of "Tales of the City".


title: Murray Bartlett

text: In 2021, Bartlett starred in "The White Lotus" as Armond, the luxury resort manager and a recovering drug addict who has been "clean" for 5 years. Bartlett got the role through a self tape audition. For his portrayal, Bartlett received nominations at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and Independent Spirit Awards and won at the AACTA Awards, Critics' Choice Television Awards, and Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Murray Bartlett

text: Bartlett came out as gay early in his career, saying, "I didn’t feel like I really had an alternative; I just never felt I could ever be anything but myself." He resides in Provincetown, Massachusetts.


title: Temple Mount

text: The Temple Mount (), also known as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, lit. 'The Noble Sanctuary'), al-Aqsa Mosque compound, or simply al-Aqsa Mosque (, "al-Masjid al-Aqṣā", lit. 'The Furthest Mosque'), and sometimes as Jerusalem's sacred (or holy) esplanade, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a holy site in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for thousands of years.


title: Temple Mount

text: The present site is a flat plaza surrounded by retaining walls (including the Western Wall), which were originally built by King Herod in the first century BCE for an expansion of the Second Jewish Temple. The plaza is dominated by two monumental structures originally built during the Rashidun and early Umayyad caliphates after the city's capture in 661 CE: the main praying hall of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, near the center of the hill, which was completed in 692 CE, making it one of the oldest extant Islamic structures in the world. It stands where past Jewish temples are commonly believed to have stood. The Herodian walls and gates, with additions from the late Byzantine, early Muslim, Mamluk, and Ottoman periods, flank the site, which can be reached through eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, with guard posts of the Israel Police in the vicinity of each. The courtyard is surrounded on the north and west by two Mamluk-era porticos ("riwaq") and four minarets.


title: Temple Mount

text: The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. According to Jewish tradition and scripture, the First Temple was built by King Solomon, the son of King David, in 957 BCE, and was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. As no scientific excavations have ever been conducted on the site, no archaeological evidence has been found to verify this. The Second Temple was constructed under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE, was renovated by King Herod, and was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Orthodox Jewish tradition maintains it is here that the third and final Temple will be built when the Messiah comes. The Temple Mount is the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Jewish attitudes towards entering the site vary. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since, according to rabbinical law, there is still some aspect of the divine presence at the site.


title: Temple Mount

text: Among Muslims, the whole plaza is revered as "the Noble Sanctuary" or as the al-Aqsa Mosque, the second oldest mosque in Islam, and one of the three Sacred Mosques, the holiest sites in Islam. The courtyard ("sahn") can host more than 400,000 worshippers, making it one of the largest mosques in the world. For Sunni and Shia Muslims alike, it ranks as the third holiest site in Islam. The plaza includes the location regarded as where the Islamic prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, and served as the first ""qibla"", the direction Muslims turn towards when praying. As in Judaism, Muslims also associate the site with Solomon and other prophets who are also venerated in Islam. The site, and the term "al-Aqsa", in relation to the whole plaza, is also a central identity symbol for Palestinians, including non-Muslim Palestinians.


title: Temple Mount

text: Since the Crusades launched by the Latin Church (11th–13th century), the Muslim community of Jerusalem has managed the site through the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. The site, along with the whole of East Jerusalem (which includes the Old City), was controlled by Jordan from 1948 until 1967, and has been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. Shortly after capturing the site, Israel handed its administration back to the Waqf under the Jordanian Hashemite custodianship, while maintaining Israeli security control. The Israeli government enforces a ban on prayer by non-Muslims as part of an arrangement usually referred to as the "status quo." The site remains a major focal point of the Arab–Israeli conflict.


title: Temple Mount

text: The name of the site is disputed, primarily between Muslims and Jews, in the context of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some Arab-Muslim commentators and scholars attempt to deny Jewish connection with the Temple Mount, while some Jewish commentators and scholars attempt to belittle the importance of the site in Islam. During a 2016 dispute over the name of the site, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova stated: "Different peoples worship the same places, sometimes under different names. The recognition, use of and respect for these names is paramount."


title: Temple Mount

text: The term "Har haBayīt" – commonly translated as "Temple Mount" in English – was first used in the books of Micah (4:1) and Jeremiah (26:18) – literally as "Mount of the House", a literary variation of the longer phrase "Mountain of the House of the Lord"– the abbreviation was not used again in the later books of the Hebrew Bible or in the New Testament. The term was used throughout the Second Temple period, however, the term Mount Zion – which today refers to the eastern hill of ancient Jerusalem – was more frequently used. Both terms are in use in the Book of Maccabees. The term "Har haBayīt" is used throughout the Mishnah and later Talmudic texts.


title: Temple Mount

text: The exact moment when the concept of the Mount as a topographical feature separate from the Temple or the city itself first came into existence is a matter of debate among scholars. According to Eliav, it was during the first century CE, after the destruction of the Second Temple. Shahar and Shatzman reached different conclusions. In the Books of Chronicles, edited at the end of the Persian period, the mountain is already referred to as a distinct entity. In 2 Chronicles, Solomon's Temple was constructed on Mount Moriah (3:1), and Manasseh's atonement for his sins is associated with the Mountain of the House of the Lord (33:15). The conception of the Temple as being located on a holy mountain possessing special qualities is found repeatedly in Psalms, with the surrounding area being considered an integral part of the Temple itself.


title: Temple Mount

text: The governmental organization which administers the site, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf (part of the Jordanian government), have stated that the name "The Temple Mount" is a "strange and alien name" and a "newly-created Judaization term". In 2014, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) issued a press release urging journalists not to use the term "Temple Mount" when referring to the site. In 2017, it was reported that Waqf officials harassed archeologists such as Gabriel Barkay and tour guides who used the term at the site. According to Jan Turek and John Carman, in modern usage, the term Temple Mount can potentially imply support for Israeli control of the site.


title: Temple Mount

text: 2 Chronicles 3:1 refers to the Temple Mount in the time before the construction of the temple as Mount Moriah (, ).


title: Temple Mount

text: Several passages in the Hebrew Bible indicate that during the time when they were written, the Temple Mount was identified as Mount Zion. The Mount Zion mentioned in the later parts of the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 60:14), in the Book of Psalms, and the First Book of Maccabees () seems to refer to the top of the hill, generally known as the Temple Mount. According to the Book of Samuel, Mount Zion was the site of the Jebusite fortress called the "stronghold of Zion", but once the First Temple was erected, according to the Bible, at the top of the Eastern Hill ("Temple Mount"), the name "Mount Zion" migrated there too. The name later migrated for a last time, this time to Jerusalem's Western Hill.


title: Temple Mount

text: The English term "al-Aqsa Mosque" is a translation of either "al-Masjid al-'Aqṣā" () or "al-Jâmi' al-Aqṣā" (). "Al-Masjid al-'Aqṣā" – "the farthest mosque" – is derived from the Quran's "Surah 17" ("The Night Journey") which writes that Muhammad travelled from Mecca to the mosque, from where he subsequently ascended to Heaven. Arabic and Persian writers such as 10th century geographer Al-Maqdisi, 11th century scholar Nasir Khusraw, 12th century geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi and 15th century Islamic scholar Mujir al-Din, as well as 19th century American and British Orientalists Edward Robinson, Guy Le Strange and Edward Henry Palmer explained that the term Masjid al-Aqsa refers to the entire esplanade plaza which is the subject of this article – the entire area including the Dome of the Rock, the fountains, the gates, and the four minarets – because none of these buildings existed at the time the Quran was written.


title: Temple Mount

text: "Al-Jâmi' al-Aqṣá" refers to the specific site of the silver-domed congregational mosque building, also referred to as Qibli Mosque or Qibli Chapel ("al-Jami' al-Aqsa" or "al-Qibli", or "Masjid al-Jumah" or "al-Mughata"), in reference to its location on the southern end of the compound as a result of the Islamic qibla being moved from Jerusalem to Mecca. The two different Arabic terms translated as "mosque" in English parallels the two different Greek terms translated as "temple" in the New Testament: (equivalent to Masjid) and (equivalent to Jami'a), and use of the term "mosque" for the whole compound follows the usage of the same term for other early Islamic sites with large courtyards such as the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and the Great Mosque of Kairouan. Other sources and maps have used the term "al-Masjid al-'Aqṣā" to refer to the congregational mosque itself.


title: Temple Mount

text: The term "al-Aqsa" as a symbol and brand-name has become popular and prevalent in the region. For example, the Al-Aqsa Intifada (the uprising that broke out in September 2000), the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (a coalition of Palestinian nationalist militias in the West Bank), al-Aqsa TV (the official Hamas-run television channel), al-Aqsa University (Palestinian university established in 1991 in the Gaza Strip), Jund al-Aqsa (a Salafist jihadist organization that was active during the Syrian Civil War), the Jordanian military periodical published since the early 1970s, and the associations of both the southern and northern branches of the Islamic Movement in Israel are all named Al-Aqsa after this site.


title: Temple Mount

text: During the period of Mamluk (1260–1517) and Ottoman rule (1517–1917), the wider compound began to also be popularly known as the Haram al-Sharif, or "al-Ḥaram ash-Sharīf" (), which translates as the "Noble Sanctuary". It mirrors the terminology of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca; This term elevated the compound to the status of Haram, which had previously only been reserved for the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina. Other Islamic figures disputed the haram status of the site. Usage of the name Haram al-Sharif by local Palestinians has waned in recent decades, in favor of the traditional name of Al-Aqsa Mosque.


title: Temple Mount

text: Some scholars have used the terms Sacred Esplanade or Holy Esplanade as a "strictly neutral term" for the site. A notable example of this usage is the 2009 work "", written as a joint undertaking by 21 Jewish, Muslim and Christian scholars. In recent years, the term is also used by the UN and its subsidiary organs.


title: Temple Mount

text: The Temple Mount forms the northern portion of a very narrow spur of hill that slopes sharply downward from north to south. Rising above the Kidron Valley to the east and Tyropoeon Valley to the west, its peak reaches a height of above sea level. In around 19 BCE, Herod the Great extended the Mount's natural plateau by enclosing the area with four massive retaining walls and filling the voids. This artificial expansion resulted in a large flat expanse which today forms the eastern section of the Old City of Jerusalem. The trapezium shaped platform measures along the west, along the east, along the north and along the south, giving a total area of approximately . The northern wall of the Mount, together with the northern section of the western wall, is hidden behind residential buildings. The southern section of the western flank is revealed and contains what is known as the Western Wall. The retaining walls on these two sides descend many meters below ground level. A northern portion of the western wall may be seen from within the Western Wall Tunnel, which was excavated through buildings adjacent to the platform. On the southern and eastern sides the walls are visible almost to their full height. The platform itself is separated from the rest of the Old City by the Tyropoeon Valley, though this once deep valley is now largely hidden beneath later deposits, and is imperceptible in places. The platform can be reached via Gate of the Chain Street – a street in the Muslim Quarter at the level of the platform, actually sitting on a monumental bridge; the bridge is no longer externally visible due to the change in ground level, but it can be seen from beneath via the Western Wall Tunnel.


title: Temple Mount

text: In 1980, Jordan proposed that the Old City be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it was added to the List in 1981. In 1982, it was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger.


title: Temple Mount

text: On 26 October 2016, UNESCO passed the Occupied Palestine Resolution that condemned Israeli escalating aggression and illegal measures against the waqf, called for the restoration of Muslim access and demanded that Israel respect the historical status quo and also criticized Israel for its continuous "refusal to let the body's experts access Jerusalem's holy sites to determine their conservation status". While the text acknowledged the "importance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls for the three monotheistic religions", it referred to the sacred hilltop compound in Jerusalem's Old City only by its Muslim name Al-Haram al-Sharif.


title: Temple Mount

text: In response, Israel denounced the UNESCO resolution for its omission of the words "Temple Mount" or "Har HaBayit", stating that it denied Jewish ties to the site. Israel froze all ties with UNESCO. In October 2017, Israel and the United States announced they would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias.


title: Temple Mount

text: On 6 April 2022, UNESCO unanimously adopted a resolution reiterating all 21 previous resolutions concerned with Jerusalem.


title: Temple Mount

text: The Temple Mount has historical and religious significance for all three of the major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It has particular religious significance for Judaism and Islam.


title: Temple Mount

text: The Temple Mount is considered the holiest site in Judaism. According to Jewish tradition, both Temples stood at the Temple Mount. Jewish tradition further places the Temple Mount as the location for a number of important events which occurred in the Bible, including the Binding of Isaac, Jacob's dream, and the prayer of Isaac and Rebekah. According to the Talmud, the Foundation Stone is the spot from where the world was created and expanded into its current form. Orthodox Jewish tradition maintains it is here that the third and final Temple will be built when the Messiah comes.


title: Temple Mount

text: The Temple Mount is the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Jewish attitudes towards entering the site vary. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since, according to rabbinical law, there is still some aspect of the divine presence at the site.


title: Temple Mount

text: According to the Hebrew Bible, the Temple Mount was originally a threshing-floor owned by Araunah, a Jebusite. The Bible narrates how David united the twelve Israelite tribes, conquered Jerusalem and brought the Israelites' central artifact, the Ark of the Covenant, into the city. When a great plague struck Israel, a destroying angel appeared on Araunah's threshing floor. The prophet Gad then suggested the area to David as a fitting place for the erection of an altar to Yawheh. David bought the property from Araunah, for fifty pieces of silver, and erected the altar. God answered his prayers and stopped the plague. David subsequently the site for a future temple to replace the Tabernacle and house the Ark of the Covenant; God forbade him from building it, however, because he had "shed much blood".


title: Temple Mount

text: The First Temple was instead constructed under David's son Solomon, who became an ambitious builder of public works in ancient Israel:


title: Temple Mount

text: Solomon placed the Ark in the Holy of Holies – the windowless innermost sanctuary and most sacred area of the temple in which God's presence rested; entry into the Holy of Holies was heavily restricted, and only the High Priest of Israel entered the sanctuary once per year on Yom Kippur, carrying the blood of a sacrificial lamb and burning incense. According to the Bible, the site functioned as the center of all national life – a governmental, judicial and religious center.


title: Temple Mount

text: The Genesis Rabba, which was probably written between 300 and 500 CE, states that this site is one of three about which the nations of the world cannot taunt Israel and say "you have stolen them," since it was purchased "for its full price" by David.


title: Temple Mount

text: The First Temple was destroyed in 587/586 BCE by the Neo-Babylonian Empire under the second Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar II, who subsequently exiled the Judeans to Babylon following the fall of the Kingdom of Judah and its annexation as a Babylonian province. The Jews who had been deported in the aftermath of the Babylonian conquest of Judah were eventually allowed to return following a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great that was issued after the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Empire. In 516 BCE, The returned Jewish population in Judah, under Persian provincial governance, rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem under the auspices of Zerubbabel, yielding what is known as the Second Temple.


title: Temple Mount

text: During the Second Temple Period, Jerusalem was the center of religious and national life for Jews, including those in the Diaspora. The Second Temple is believed to have attracted tens and maybe hundreds of thousands during the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. The holiday of Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt in the 2nd century BCE. During the first century BCE, the Temple was renovated by Herod. It was destroyed by the Roman Empire at the height of the First Jewish-Roman War in 70 CE. Tisha B'Av, an annual fast day in Judaism, marks the destruction of the First and Second Temples, which according to Jewish tradition, occurred on the same day on the Hebrew calendar.


title: Temple Mount

text: In 1217, Spanish Rabbi Judah al-Harizi found the sight of the Muslim structures on the mount profoundly disturbing. "What torment to see our holy courts converted into an alien temple!" he wrote.


title: Temple Mount

text: In Jewish tradition, the Temple Mount is also believed to be the location of Abraham's binding of Isaac. 2 Chronicles 3:1 refers to the Temple Mount in the time before the construction of the temple as Mount Moriah (, ). The "land of Moriah" (, ) is the name given by Genesis to the location of the binding of Isaac. Since at least the first century CE, the two sites have been identified with one another in Judaism, this identification being subsequently perpetuated by Jewish and Christian tradition. Modern scholarship tends to regard them as distinct (see Moriah).


title: Temple Mount

text: According to the rabbinic sages whose debates produced the Talmud, the Foundation Stone, which sits below the Dome of the Rock, was the spot from where the world was created and expanded into its current form, and where God gathered the dust used to create the first human, Adam.


title: Temple Mount

text: Jewish texts predict that the Mount will be the site of a Third and final Temple, which will be rebuilt with the coming of the Messiah. The rebuilding of the Temple remained a recurring theme among generations, particularly in thrice-daily Amidah (Standing prayer), central prayer of the Jewish liturgy, which contains a plea for the building of a Third Temple and the restoration of sacrificial services. A number of vocal Jewish groups now advocate building the Third Temple without delay in order to bring to pass God's "end-time prophetic plans for Israel and the entire world."


title: Temple Mount

text: The Temple was of central importance in Jewish worship in the Tanakh (Old Testament). In the New Testament, Herod's Temple was the site of several events in the life of Jesus, and Christian loyalty to the site as a focal point remained long after his death. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, which came to be regarded by early Christians, as it was by Josephus and the sages of the Jerusalem Talmud, to be a divine act of punishment for the sins of the Jewish people, the Temple Mount lost its significance for Christian worship with the Christians considering it a fulfillment of Christ's prophecy at, for example, Matthew 23:38 and Matthew 24:2. It was to this end, proof of a biblical prophecy fulfilled and of Christianity's victory over Judaism with the New Covenant, that early Christian pilgrims also visited the site. Byzantine Christians, despite some signs of constructive work on the esplanade, generally neglected the Temple Mount, especially when a Jewish attempt to rebuild the Temple was destroyed by the earthquake in 363. It became a desolate local rubbish dump, perhaps outside the city limits, as Christian worship in Jerusalem shifted to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Jerusalem's centrality was replaced by Rome.


title: Temple Mount

text: During the Byzantine era, Jerusalem was primarily Christian and pilgrims came by the tens of thousands to experience the places where Jesus walked. After the Persian invasion in 614 many churches were razed and the site was turned into a dumpyard. The Arabs conquered the city from the Byzantine Empire which had retaken it in 629. The Byzantine ban on the Jews was lifted and they were allowed to live inside the city and visit the places of worship. Christian pilgrims were able to come and experience the Temple Mount area. The war between Seljuqs and Byzantine Empire and increasing Muslim violence against Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem instigated the Crusades. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 and the Dome of the Rock was given to the Augustinians, who turned it into a church, and al-Aqsa Mosque became the royal palace of Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1104. The Knights Templar, who believed the Dome of the Rock was the site of the Solomon's Temple, gave it the name "Templum Domini" and set up their headquarters in al-Aqsa Mosque adjacent to the Dome for much of the 12th century.


title: Temple Mount

text: In Christian art, the circumcision of Jesus was conventionally depicted as taking place at the Temple, even though European artists until recently had no way of knowing what the Temple looked like and the Gospels do not state that the event took place at the Temple.


title: Temple Mount

text: Though some Christians believe that the Temple will be reconstructed before, or concurrent with, the Second Coming of Jesus (also see dispensationalism), pilgrimage to the Temple Mount is not viewed as important in the beliefs and worship of most Christians. The New Testament recounts a story of a Samaritan woman asking Jesus about the appropriate place to worship, Jerusalem (as it was for the Jews) or Mount Gerizim (as it was for the Samaritans), to which Jesus replies:


title: Temple Mount

text: This has been construed to mean that Jesus dispensed with physical location for worship, which was a matter rather of spirit and truth.


title: Temple Mount

text: Among both Sunni and Shia Muslims, the entire plaza, known as the al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as Haram al-Sharif or "the Noble Sanctuary", is considered the third holiest site in Islam. According to Islamic tradition, the plaza is the location of Muhammad's ascension to heaven from Jerusalem, and served as the first ""qibla"", the direction Muslims turn towards when praying. As in Judaism, Muslims also associate the site with Abraham, and other prophets who are also venerated in Islam. Muslims view the site as being one of the earliest and most noteworthy places of worship of God. They preferred to use the esplanade as the heart for the Muslim quarter, since it had been abandoned by Christians, to avoid disturbing the Christian quarters of Jerusalem. Umayyad Caliphs commissioned the construction of al-Aqsa Mosque on the site, including the shrine known as the "Dome of the Rock". The Dome was completed in 692 CE, making it one of the oldest extant Islamic structures in the world. The Al-Aqsa Mosque, sometimes known as the Qibli Mosque, rest on the far southern side of the Mount, facing Mecca.