title: Sadducees

text: Flavius Josephus mentions in "Antiquities of the Jews" that "one Judas, a Gaulonite, of a city whose name was Gamala, who taking with him Sadduc, a Pharisee, became zealous to draw them to a revolt". Paul L. Maier suggests that the sect drew their name from the Sadduc mentioned by Josephus.


title: Sadducees

text: The Second Temple period is the period between the construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 516 BCE and its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE.


title: Sadducees

text: Throughout the Second Temple period, Jerusalem saw several shifts in rule. Alexander's conquest of the Mediterranean world brought an end to Persian control of Jerusalem (539–334/333 BCE) and ushered in the Hellenistic period. The Hellenistic period, which extended from 334/333 BCE to 63 BCE, is known today for the spread of Hellenistic influence.


title: Sadducees

text: After the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, his generals divided the empire amongst themselves, and for the next 30 years they fought for control of the empire. Judea was first controlled by the Ptolemies of Egypt () and later by the Seleucids of Syria (). King Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria, a Seleucid, disrupted whatever peace there had been in Judea when he desecrated the temple in Jerusalem and forced Jews to violate the Torah. Most prominent of the rebel groups were the Maccabees, led by Mattathias the Hasmonean and his son Judah the Maccabee. Though the Maccabees rebelled against the Seleucids in 164 BCE, Seleucid rule did not end for another 20 years.


title: Sadducees

text: The Maccabean ( Hasmonean) rule lasted until 63 BCE, when the Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem, at which point the Roman period of Judea began, leading to the creation of the province of Roman Judea in 6 CE and (see Syria Palaestina) extending into the 7th century CE – well beyond the end of the Second Temple period. While cooperation between the Romans and the Jews had been strongest during the reigns of Herod and his grandson, Herod Agrippa I, the Romans moved power out of the hands of vassal kings and into the hands of Roman administrators, beginning with the Census of Quirinius in 6 CE. The First Jewish–Roman War broke out in 66 CE. After a few years of conflict, the Romans retook Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, bringing an end to the Second Temple period in 70 CE.


title: Sadducees

text: During the Persian period, the Temple became more than the center of worship in Judea; following its reconstruction in 516 BCE, it served as the center of society. It makes sense, then, that priests held important positions as official leaders outside of the Temple. The democratizing forces of the Hellenistic period lessened and shifted the focus of Judaism away from the Temple, and in the 3rd century BCE a scribal class began to emerge.


title: Sadducees

text: It was also during this time that the high priesthood of Israel, often referred to as the Sadducees (although not all Sadducees were priests), was developing a reputation for corruption. Questions about the legitimacy of the Second Temple and its Sadducaic leadership freely circulated within Judean society. Sects began to form during the Maccabean reign (see Jewish sectarianism below). The Temple in Jerusalem was the formal center of political and governmental leadership in ancient Israel, although its power was often contested and disputed by fringe groups.


title: Sadducees

text: After the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Sadducees appear only in a few references in the Talmud and in some Christian texts. In the beginnings of Karaism, the followers of Anan ben David were called "Sadducees" and set a claim of the former being a historical continuity from the latter.


title: Sadducees

text: The Sadducee concept of the mortality of the soul is reflected on by Uriel Acosta, who mentions them in his writings.


title: Sadducees

text: The religious responsibilities of the Sadducees included the maintenance of the Temple in Jerusalem. Their high social status was reinforced by their priestly responsibilities, as mandated in the Torah. The priests were responsible for performing sacrifices at the Temple, the primary method of worship in ancient Israel. This included presiding over sacrifices during the three festivals of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Their religious beliefs and social status were mutually reinforcing, as the priesthood often represented the highest class in Judean society.


title: Sadducees

text: However, Sadducees and the priests were not completely synonymous. Cohen points out that "not all priests, high priests, and aristocrats were Sadducees; many were Pharisees, and many were not members of any group at all."


title: Sadducees

text: The Sadducees rejected the Oral Torah as proposed by the Pharisees. Rather, they saw the Written Torah as the sole source of divine authority. The written law, in its depiction of the priesthood, corroborated the power and enforced the hegemony of the Sadducees in Judean society.


title: Sadducees

text: The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection of the dead, but believed (contrary to the claim of Josephus) in the traditional Jewish concept of Sheol for those who had died.


title: Sadducees

text: The Jewish community of the Second Temple period is often defined by its sectarian and fragmented attributes. Josephus, in "Antiquities", contextualizes the Sadducees as opposed to the Pharisees and the Essenes. The Sadducees are also notably distinguishable from the growing Jesus movement, which later evolved into Christianity. These groups differed in their beliefs, social statuses, and sacred texts. Though the Sadducees produced no primary works themselves, their attributes can be derived from other contemporaneous texts, including the New Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and later, the Mishnah and Talmud. Overall, the Sadducees represented an aristocratic, wealthy, and traditional elite within the hierarchy.


title: Sadducees

text: The Dead Sea Scrolls, which are often attributed to the Essenes, suggest clashing ideologies and social positions between the Essenes and the Sadducees. In fact, some scholars suggest that the Essenes originated as a sect of Zadokites, which would indicate that the group itself had priestly, and thus Sadducaic origins. Within the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Sadducees are often referred to as Manasseh. The scrolls suggest that the Sadducees (Manasseh) and the Pharisees (Ephraim) became religious communities that were distinct from the Essenes, the true Judah. Clashes between the Essenes and the Sadducees are depicted in the "Pesher on Nahum", which states "They [Manasseh] are the wicked ones ... whose reign over Israel will be brought down ... his wives, his children, and his infant will go into captivity. His warriors and his honored ones [will perish] by the sword." The reference to the Sadducees as those who reign over Israel corroborates their aristocratic status as opposed to the more fringe group of Essenes. Furthermore, it suggests that the Essenes challenged the authenticity of the rule of the Sadducees, blaming the downfall of ancient Israel and the siege of Jerusalem on their impiety. The Dead Sea Scrolls specify the Sadducaic elite as those who broke the covenant with God in their rule of the Judean state, and thus became targets of divine revenge.


title: Sadducees

text: The New Testament, specifically the books of Mark and Matthew, describe anecdotes which hint at hostility between the early Christians and the Sadducaic establishment. These disputes manifest themselves on both theological and social levels. Mark describes how the Sadducees challenged Jesus' belief in the resurrection of the dead. Jesus subsequently defends his belief in resurrection against Sadducaic resistance, stating, "and as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him "I "am" the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?" He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong." According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus asserts that the Sadducees were wrong because they knew "neither the scriptures nor the power of God". Jesus challenges the reliability of Sadducaic interpretation of biblical doctrine, the authority of which enforces the power of the Sadducaic priesthood. The Sadducees address the issue of resurrection through the lens of marriage, which "hinted at their real agenda: the protection of property rights through patriarchal marriage that perpetuated the male lineage." Furthermore, Matthew records John the Baptist calling the Pharisees and Sadducees a "brood of vipers". The New Testament thus constructs the identity of Christianity in opposition to the Sadducees.


title: Sadducees

text: Josephus, the author of the most extensive historical account of the Second Temple Period, gives a lengthy account of Jewish sectarianism in both "The Jewish War" and "Antiquities of the Jews". In "Antiquities", he describes "the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses, and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them and say that we are to esteem those observance to be obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers." The Sadducees rejected the Pharisaic use of the Oral Torah to enforce their claims to power, citing the Written Torah as the sole manifestation of divinity.


title: Sadducees

text: The rabbis, who are traditionally seen as the descendants of the Pharisees, describe the similarities and differences between the two sects in Mishnah Yadaim. The Mishnah explains that the Sadducees state, "So too, regarding the Holy Scriptures, their impurity is according to (our) love for them. But the books of Homer, which are not beloved, do not ." A passage from the book of Acts suggests that both Pharisees and Sadducees collaborated in the Sanhedrin, the high Jewish court.


title: Dorothy (band)

text: Dorothy is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2014. The band consists of vocalist Dorothy Martin, drummer Jason Ganberg, guitarists Devon Pangle and Eli Wulfmeier, and bassist Eliot Lorango. They released their first project, a self-titled EP, in 2014. "Rolling Stone" deemed them "a [band] you need to know," and named them #14 on their 50 Best New Artists of 2014 list.


title: Dorothy (band)

text: In early 2013, Dorothy Martin was introduced to producer and guitarist Mark Jackson and his production partner Ian Scott by her cousin Sam Wofford, who was playing guitar at the time for Jackson's band, The Remedy. "When we heard Dorothy's voice, we were like, 'Holy shit — if we put this behind some serious old-school metal riffs, we'll have something big,'" said guitarist Mark Jackson in a November 2014 interview with "Rolling Stone". "It sounded so cool when we did it, just having that fat bottom of old-school hip-hop records with metal guitars [playing] really simple riffs. [We're taking] this back to or Sabbath—just one guitar, one bass, and drums and bad-ass vocals." Martin joked, "Basically, we want to make songs that we think Beavis and Butthead would like." Jackson and Scott called on their friend Gregg Cash to play bass.


title: Dorothy (band)

text: What started as a piano ballad Dorothy had played for Jackson and Scott during one of their first meetings transformed into the band's hard-hitting debut "After Midnight". On June 10, 2014, the video for "After Midnight" premiered on Vice music network Noisey, dubbed as "the perfect modern rock concoction". The live performance video was shot at Swinghouse Studios in Hollywood by George Robertson and Aris Jerome. The video featured vocalist Martin donning her trademark fur coat, vintage T-shirt, and red lips.


title: Dorothy (band)

text: The song spread quickly, climbing Hype Machine's music blog charts and gaining traction locally in Los Angeles as well as overseas. Dorothy fielded early comparisons to The Kills, The White Stripes, Patti Smith, and Grace Slick. London-based fashion publication Hunger TV commented "it feels good to know raw power, sex and whiskey is back en vogue". On July 24, 2014, Huffington Post named "After Midnight" the #1 song on their 12 Songs You Need to Know This Week, calling them "dangerous", "kick-ass", and "exactly what rock needs".


title: Dorothy (band)

text: In August 2014, the band was invited by Skullcandy to perform at select cities in Europe, including Paris, Berlin, and San Sebastián. On September 12, 2014, "Vogue UK" debuted a video using "After Midnight" starring English model and actress Suki Waterhouse. After breaking their song on LA radio, KCRW DJ and music director Chris Douridas invited Dorothy to perform during his weekly School Night series at Bardot in Hollywood on October 6, 2014. "A packed house moved increasingly closer to the stage while Dorothy, whiskey in one hand and microphone in the other, mesmerized the crowd with her powerhouse vocals", noted "LA Weekly" Pamela Chelin. "She's such a badass...like a revved up Adele teetering on the brink of chaos", said Douridas to Chelin.


title: Dorothy (band)

text: On August 19, 2014, the band premiered its second single "Wild Fire" on IndieShuffle to great reviews. On October 27, 2014, "Billboard" premiered Dorothy's third single "Wicked Ones", comparing their bluesy, rock sound to Black Sabbath and The White Stripes. "You get a load of their easygoing cool and you're reminded that there have always been kids like them keeping rock edgy, albeit under the radar, far from mainstream attention", noted Chris Payne of "Billboard". "Wicked Ones" became the band's most successful single thus far. It was the number-one trending indie rock song on SoundCloud, peaked at number four on the HypeMachine chart, and was selected by Skullcandy to lead a national ad campaign with James Harden.


title: Dorothy (band)

text: On October 28, 2014, Dorothy released their debut self-titled EP, which was recorded in a spare bedroom at Scott's residence in Los Angeles. Following the release, they headlined a local residency at Bootleg Theater every Monday night in November. That month, they recorded a cover of Jay Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild", and have since added it to their live performances, which have received rave reviews. Following the residency, Dorothy was named on "Rolling Stone"s Artists You Need to Know list on November 24, 2014. "You really get the full energy from everybody, because they put their heart and soul into the performance", Martin told "Rolling Stone". "It's more loose; it's not going to be exactly like the record. There's a lot of energy and vibe." In an interview with "LA Weekly", Martin spoke on the band and overcoming stage fright. "I've always just wanted to sing and it was a long journey to get over the stage fright and find who I was", she says. "If you don't get knocked down, you can't stand up and say, 'I'm ready for this now.' I am fucking ready now. This is what I was meant to do. It's about fucking time. Let's go. This is the first band that has been serious and feels right. I'm not telling the world, 'Fuck me, fuck me.' Fuck you. I don't care if you think I'm hot or not, or want me to take my shirt off. I'm not going to. I'm going to grab the microphone and sing. That's what I came to do."


title: Dorothy (band)

text: On December 30, 2014, "Rolling Stone" included Dorothy at number 14 on their 50 Best New Artists of 2014 list.


title: Dorothy (band)

text: On February 23, 2015, "Complex" premiered the "Wicked Ones" video. On March 5, 2015, Dorothy headlined a show at The Satellite in Los Angeles before a string of SXSW performances. They followed SXSW with an April residency every Monday night at The Satellite, bringing out supporters including Miguel, Tom Morello and Australian actress and model Ruby Rose. On June 16, 2015, Dorothy announced signing a recording deal with Roc Nation. The band also announced that they would go on tour with Miguel starting July 24. The band's song "Wicked Ones" has been used in television advertisements for Levi's and Gatorade. It also served as the theme song for WWE's 2015 pay-per-view .


title: Dorothy (band)

text: In February 2016, "Get Up" was used in the promos for "". On June 24, 2016, Dorothy released their debut studio album, "Rockisdead".


title: Dorothy (band)

text: Dorothy went on tour as an opening act for Halestorm in the spring and fall. When the tour was announced, Halestorm's lead singer Lzzy Hale was quoted as saying, "I [...] welcome newcomers Dorothy who make me so proud of the future of rock."


title: Dorothy (band)

text: In August 2016, Dorothy's song "Missile" was the soundtrack on the trailer for Series 2 of "Poldark" on BBC One.


title: Dorothy (band)

text: On May 5, 2017, Dorothy released "Down to the Bottom" a standalone single. The song would go on to be featured in "Forza Horizon 4"


title: Dorothy (band)

text: On November 3, 2017, Dorothy's song "Naked Eye" was featured on the soundtrack for the documentary film "Served Like a Girl".


title: Dorothy (band)

text: In an interview with GSLM on December 20, 2017, Martin announced the band's second studio album, called "28 Days in the Valley". She described the album as having a "more feminine energy... It has a lighter and brighter feel, with less metal influence and more Stones. It has a cool desert vibe." The album was released on March 16, 2018, and a remixed version of the album's track "Freedom" (featuring Angel Haze and remixed by TROY NōKA) was released on April 26, 2019. In 2019, Dorothy went on tour with opener Spirit Animal.


title: Dorothy (band)

text: On November 30, 2018, Dorothy appeared along with Dolly Parton on the soundtrack album for Parton's film "Dumplin'".


title: Dorothy (band)

text: On November 8, 2019, Dorothy's song "Gun in My Hand" was featured in the "20/20" episode "Growing Up Buttafuoco".


title: Dorothy (band)

text: On January 10, 2021, Martin announced via her Twitter account that her new album would be called "Gifts from the Holy Ghost". In an interview with "Loudwire", she revealed the name of the album came to her following an incident where she claimed to have witnessed her guitar tech die from a heroin overdose and then return to life. "I come out and see him and he's blue and green, and I knew he was dead at the moment. I just knew it, I don't know if anyone's had this experience. I'm pretty sure you know a dead body when you see one. [...] I'm just sitting there breathing and holding hands with my sound engineer. I'm like, 'Whoever's out there, just send him back. Give him another chance.' After a few moments of silence, this voice said to me, 'Okay, we're sending him back now.' And then I open my eyes, all the color had returned to his skin. He opened his eyes, and he was alive, and I couldn't believe it." "Gifts from the Holy Ghost" was released on April 22, 2022.


title: Dorothy (band)

text: On June 6, an EP called "Thrive in the Darkness" was released, comprising four formerly released tracks - "Dark Nights", "After Midnight", "Wicked Ones" and "Raise Hell".


title: Dorothy (band)

text: Alongside Mac Saturn, they are set to support Dirty Honey on the California Dreamin' tour in fall 2022.


title: Japanese Red Army

text: The was a militant communist organization active from 1971 to 2001. It was designated a terrorist organization by Japan and the United States. The JRA was founded by Fusako Shigenobu and Tsuyoshi Okudaira in February 1971 and was most active in the 1970s and 1980s. After the Lod Airport massacre, it sometimes called itself the Arab-JRA. The group was also known as the Anti-Imperialist International Brigade (AIIB), the Holy War Brigade, and the Anti-War Democratic Front.


title: Japanese Red Army

text: The JRA's stated goals were to overthrow the Japanese government and the monarchy, as well as to start a world revolution.


title: Japanese Red Army

text: Fusako Shigenobu had been a leading member in the in Japan, whose roots lay in the militant New Left Communist League. Advocating revolution through terrorism, they set up their own group, declaring war on the state in September 1969. The police quickly arrested many of them, including founder and intellectual leader Takaya Shiomi, who was in jail by 1970. The Red Army Faction lost about 200 members, and the remnants merged with the Maoist group Revolutionary Left Faction () to form the in July 1971. The United Red Army became notable during the Asama-Sanso incident, when it murdered fourteen of its members on Mount Haruna, before a week-long siege involving hundreds of police leaving a bystander and a police officer dead.


title: Japanese Red Army

text: Fusako Shigenobu had left Japan with only a handful of dedicated people, but her group is said to have had about 40 members at its height and was, after the Lod Airport massacre, one of the best-known armed leftist groups in the world.


title: Japanese Red Army

text: The JRA had close ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Wadie Haddad. It was dependent on the PFLP for financing, training, and weaponry.


title: Japanese Red Army

text: In April 2001, Shigenobu issued a statement from detention declaring the JRA had disbanded, and that their battles should henceforth be done by legal means.


title: Japanese Red Army

text: On February 15, 2022, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has renewed calls for arresting other ex-JRA terrorists who have not been arrested, including Kunio Bando and Kozo Okamoto.


title: Japanese Red Army

text: During the 1970s and 1980s, JRA carried out a series of attacks in Japan and around the world, including:


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: "Walk on the Wild Side" is a song by Lou Reed from his second solo album, "Transformer" (1972). It was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson and released as a double A-side with "Perfect Day". Known as a counterculture anthem, the song received wide radio coverage and became Reed's biggest hit and signature song while touching on topics considered taboo at the time, such as transgender people, drugs, male prostitution, and oral sex.


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: The song's lyrics, describing a series of individuals and their journeys to New York City, refer to several of the regular "superstars" at Andy Warhol's New York studio, the Factory; the song mentions Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, Joe Dallesandro, Jackie Curtis and Joe Campbell (referred to in the song by the nickname "Sugar Plum Fairy").


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: In 2013, "The New York Times" described "Walk on the Wild Side" as a "ballad of misfits and oddballs" that "became an unlikely cultural anthem, a siren song luring generations of people...to a New York so long forgotten as to seem imaginary". In 2010, "Rolling Stone" ranked "Walk on the Wild Side" at number 223 in its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: In the 2001 documentary "Classic Albums: Lou Reed: Transformer", Reed says that it was Nelson Algren's 1956 novel, "A Walk on the Wild Side" (itself titled after the 1952 song "The Wild Side of Life"), that was the launching point for the song, even though, as it grew, the song became inhabited by characters from his own life. As with several other Reed songs from the 1970s, the title may also be an allusion to an earlier song, in this case Mack David and Elmer Bernstein's "Walk on the Wild Side", the Academy Award-nominated title song performed by Brook Benton for the 1962 film based on Algren's novel. During his performance of the song on his 1978 "" album, Reed humorously explains the song's development from a request that he write the music for the never-completed musical version of Algren's novel.


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: Like many of Reed's songs, "Walk on the Wild Side" is based on a simple chord progression alternating between C major and F major, or I and IV in harmonic analysis. The pre-chorus introduces the II chord (D major).


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: The baritone saxophone solo played over the fadeout of the song is performed by Ronnie Ross, who had taught David Bowie to play the saxophone during Bowie's childhood. The backing vocals are sung by Thunderthighs, a vocal group that included Dari Lalou, Karen Friedman, and Casey Synge. Drums were played by Ritchie Dharma using brushes rather than drumsticks. David Bowie plays acoustic guitar on the track.


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: The song is noted for its twinned ascending and descending portamento basslines played by Herbie Flowers. In an interview on BBC Radio 4 ("Playing Second Fiddle", aired July 2005), Flowers claimed the reason he came up with the twin bass lines was that as a session musician, he would be paid double for playing two instruments on the same track. Flowers's bass hook was performed on double bass overlaid by fretless Fender Jazz Bass. He was paid a £17 flat fee ().


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: The lyrics of "Walk on the Wild Side" were groundbreaking and risqué for their time, telling stories not usually told in rock songs up to then and containing references to prostitution, transgender people, and oral sex. "I always thought it would be kinda fun to introduce people to characters they maybe hadn't met before, or hadn't wanted to meet," Reed said. "Walk on the Wild Side" became a worldwide hit. The single peaked at #16 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 singles charts in early 1973.


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: The term "colored girls" was an issue in the US. RCA in 1972 provided radio stations with a version without the reference to oral sex, and changing the line "colored girls" to "and the girls". However, most radio stations continued to play the original, uncensored version. In the UK, the oral sex reference slipped past the censors, who in 1972–73 were apparently unfamiliar with the term "giving head".


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: In 2010, "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked it as the 223rd greatest song of all time. After the announcement of Reed's death in October 2013, both the song and the "Transformer" album re-charted via iTunes.


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: In 1990, English musician Jamie J. Morgan released his version of "Walk on the Wild Side". It peaked at number 27 on the UK Singles Chart, number 25 in Australia, and was a number one hit in New Zealand.


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: Also in 1990, British dance act Beat System's cover of the song reached number 63 on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed song)

text: In 1991, American group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, fronted by actor/musician Mark Wahlberg released the single "Wildside", which heavily samples and is stylistically similar to Reed's original version. The song reached No. 10 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and No. 8 on the "Billboard" Hot Rap Singles chart.


title: Cindy Vela

text: Cindy Vela (born January 4, 1979) is an American actress and model. She appeared in "Black November" (2012), "Endgame" (2015), "Camino" (2016) and "Run Hide Fight" (2020).


title: Cindy Vela

text: Vela was born in Brownsville, Texas in 1979. She later lived in Olmito. Vela is the daughter of Lupita and Fred Vela. She has a brother named Freddy Vela. She graduated from Los Fresnos High School. Vela attended the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, where she was the lead saxophonist in the jazz band and concert band. She later received a bachelor of arts degree in music education.


title: Cindy Vela

text: She became a band director at Memorial Middle School and briefly directed the band at Harlingen High School. In 2000, she won the title of Miss Latina. A photographer discovered her while she was in college and Vela moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting and modeling.


title: Cindy Vela

text: Vela has played supporting roles in Mexican-American productions including "Harvest of Redemption" (2007), "Desdemona: A Love Story" (2009), and "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (2014). Vela's first appearance is in 2005 drama "Puños rosas", in an uncredited role. In a 2009 film "Ready or Not", she played one of Alex Rocco's mistress. She was praised for her role in "Desdemona: A Love Story" (2009), which won best feature film at the Boston Film Festival. Vela appeared in a music video for Kris Allen's "The Truth" in 2010. She had previously been in videos for Carlos Santana, Christina Aguilera and Daddy Yankee.


title: Cindy Vela

text: In 2012, she appeared in "Black November", as agent Consuelos. She appeared as a TV reporter in a 2016 film "Camino" starring Zoë Bell. Vela appeared in the film "It's Gawd" (2017) as Lucy. One of Ray Bradbury final plays he produced, "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suite", featured Vela. Vela appears in the film "Run Hide Fight" distributed by "The Daily Wire" and released in 2020 as the character Ms. Nunez, a Spanish teacher caught in the midst of a school shooting.


title: Cindy Vela

text: Vela appeared in the short film "Exhibit-B5" directed by Kyle Rankin and co-starring Corin Nemec and Mircea Monroe. In the film Vela is shown being hit by a car after being "pranked" by her roommate. The film was shared widely on social media as being real. The video was covered by MSNBC "Caught on Camera", for which Vela gave an interview. In an interview with "Herald de Paris", Vela states that she realised the impact of "Exhibit B-5" when she began to be asked for interviews from foreign media outlets.


title: Cindy Vela

text: Vela has taken part in several modeling campaigns. She appeared on boxes of Special K in Mexico, Colombia and Puerto Rico. She was handpicked for the campaign by designer Ximena Valero.


title: Cindy Vela

text: She appeared in campaigns for Motorola, OPI Products and Wells Fargo. She was a cover girl for "Bella Petite" and "L'Estilo" magazine.


title: Cindy Vela

text: Vela is a trained saxophonist and a fan of "Harry Potter". Her brother Freddy is a local news and weather anchor in the Rio Grande Valley. Vela began dating actor Kiefer Sutherland in 2014. They kept their relationship private up until 2017. Vela goes with Sutherland and his band on tour promoting his album "Down in a Hole." Vela and Sutherland became engaged in 2017."" , Vela resides in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, with Sutherland.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The Church of the Nativity, or Basilica of the Nativity, is a basilica located in Bethlehem in the West Bank, Palestine. The grotto it contains holds a prominent religious significance to Christians of various denominations as the birthplace of Jesus. The grotto is the oldest site continuously used as a place of worship in Christianity, and the basilica is the oldest major church in the Holy Land.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The church was originally commissioned by Constantine the Great a short time after his mother Helena's visit to Jerusalem and Bethlehem in 325–326, on the site that was traditionally considered to be the birthplace of Jesus. That original basilica was likely built between 330 and 333, being already mentioned in 333, and was dedicated on 31 May 339. It was probably destroyed by fire during the Samaritan revolts of the sixth century, possibly in 529, and a new basilica was built a number of years later by Byzantine Emperor Justinian (r. 527–565), who added a porch or narthex, and replaced the octagonal sanctuary with a cruciform transept complete with three apses, but largely preserved the original character of the building, with an atrium and a basilica consisting of a nave with four side aisles.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The Church of the Nativity, while remaining basically unchanged since the Justinianic reconstruction, has seen numerous repairs and additions, especially from the Crusader period, such as two bell towers (now gone), wall mosaics and paintings (partially preserved). Over the centuries, the surrounding compound has been expanded, and today it covers approximately 12,000 square meters, comprising three different monasteries: one Roman Catholic, one Armenian Apostolic, and one Greek Orthodox, of which the first two contain bell towers built during the modern era.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The silver star marking the spot where Christ was born, inscribed in Latin, was stolen in October 1847 by Greek monks who wished to remove this Catholic item. Some assert that this was a contributing factor in the Crimean War against the Russian Empire. Others assert that the war grew out of the wider European situation.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Since 2012, the Church of the Nativity is a World Heritage Site and was the first to be listed by UNESCO under 'Palestine'.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Of the four canonical gospels, Matthew and Luke mention the birth of Jesus, both placing it in Bethlehem. Luke mentions the manger: "and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them."


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The holy site known as the Nativity Grotto is thought to be the cave in which Jesus was born. In 135, Emperor Hadrian had the site above the grotto converted into a worship place for Adonis, the mortal lover of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty and desire. Jerome claimed in 420 that the grotto had been consecrated to the worship of Adonis, and that a sacred grove was planted there in order to completely wipe out the memory of Jesus from the world.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: In Bethlehem the cave is pointed out where He was born, and the manger in the cave where He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. And the rumor is in those places, and among foreigners of the Faith, that indeed Jesus was born in this cave who is worshiped and reverenced by the Christians.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The first basilica on this site was built by Emperor Constantine I, on the site identified by his mother, Empress Helena and Bishop Makarios of Jerusalem. The construction started in 326 under the supervision of Makarios, who followed Constantine's orders, and was dedicated on 31 May 339—however, it had already been visited in 333 by the Bordeaux Pilgrim, at which time it was already in use.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Construction of this early church was carried out as part of a larger project following the First Council of Nicaea during Constantine's reign, aimed to build churches on the sites assumed at the time to have witnessed the crucial events in the life of Jesus. The design of the basilica centered around three major architectural sections:


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The structure was burned and destroyed in one of the Samaritan Revolts of 529 or 556, in the second of which Jews seem to have joined the Samaritans.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The basilica was rebuilt in its present form in the 6th century on the initiative of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (527–565), after the destruction of either 529 or 556. It was probably accomplished after the Emperor's death, as is indicated by the dating of the wooden elements embedded in the church walls between 545 and 665, which was provided by the dendrochronological analyses made during the recent restoration works.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The Persians under Khosrau II invaded Palestine and conquered nearby Jerusalem in 614, but they did not destroy the structure. According to legend, their commander Shahrbaraz was moved by the depiction above the church entrance of the Three Magi wearing the garb of Persian Zoroastrian priests, so he ordered that the building be spared.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The Church of the Nativity was used as the primary coronation church for Crusader kings, from the second ruler of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1100 and until 1131. In an earlier phase starting from ca. 1130, the Crusaders promoted the redecoration of the building in the medium of wall painting: images of saints were displayed in the central and southern colonnades of the nave, largely on the initiative of private donors, as is shown by the frequent use of dedicatory inscriptions and portraits. Remnants of a cycle of narrative scenes are preserved in the north-western pillar of the choir and the south transepts, as well as in the chapel located below the bell tower.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The Crusaders undertook extensive decoration and restoration on the basilica and grounds, a process that continued until 1169, from 1165 to 1169 even through a sort of "joint venture" between the Latin Bishop of Bethlehem, Raoul, the Latin King Amalric I of Jerusalem and the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos. As detailed in the bilingual Greek and Latin inscription in the altar space, the mosaic decoration was made by a teamwork headed by a painter named Ephraim. Another bilingual, Latin and Syriac, inscription located in the lower half of a mosaic panel displaying an angel in the northern wall of the nave bears witness to the work of a painter named Basil, who was probably a local Syrian Melkite. The two artists collaborated within the same workshop.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The Ayyubid conquest of Jerusalem and its area in 1187 was without consequences for the Nativity church. The Greek-Melkite clergy was granted the right to serve in the church, and similar concessions were given almost immediately also to other Christian denominations.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: In the year 1227 the church was embellished with an elegantly carved wooden door, the remnants of which can still be seen in the narthex. As detailed in its double, Armenian and Arabic inscription, it was made by two Armenian monks, Father Abraham and Father Arakel, in the times of King Hethum I of Cilicia (1224-1269) and the Emir of Damascus, and Saladin's nephew, al-Mu'azzam Isa.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: In 1229 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II signed an agreement with Sultan al-Kamil which led to the restitution of the Holy Places to the Crusaders. The property of the Nativity Church came back into the possession of the Latin clergy on the condition that Muslim pilgrims may be allowed to visit the holy cave.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Latin hegemony probably lasted until the incursion of Khwarezmian Turks in April 1244. On that occasion, the church treasures, now preserved in the Terra Sancta Museum in Jerusalem, were concealed underground and rediscovered only in 1863. The church was devastated, but not destroyed, the major damage being the dilapidation of its roof.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Under Mamluk rule, the church was used by different Christian denominations, including Greeks, Armenians, Copts, Ethiopians, and Syrians. In 1347 the Franciscans of the newly established Custody of the Holy Land were bestowed with the ownership of the former monastery of the regular canons to the north of the basilica. The Friars managed to gain a hegemonic role in Bethlehem until the Ottoman period.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Starting from the late 13th century, pilgrims lament the dilapidation of the church interior by order of Mamluk authorities: in particular, the marble revetments of the walls and floor were gradually removed, until they thoroughly disappeared.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The Duchy of Burgundy committed resources to restore the roof in August 1448, and multiple regions contributed supplies to have the church roof repaired in 1480: England supplied the lead, the Second Kingdom of Burgundy supplied the wood, and the Republic of Venice provided the labor.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: After the Ottoman conquest of Palestine in 1516, the Nativity church suffered from a long decay. The nave was largely abandoned and used for profane purposes. In the aim to prevent people from entering the church with horses and cattle, the main entrance was walled up and transformed into a diminutive door, known until our days as the "Door of Humility", since visitors are forced to bend down to go through it. An elevated chancel, provided with three doors, thoroughly separated the nave from the east end of the building, which was reserved for liturgical activities.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The Ottoman period was characterized by increasing tensions between the different Christian denominations. In 1637, Greeks were granted hegemony by the Sublime Porte and the Franciscans were expelled from the holy cave. In 1621 the Armenian Patriarch Grigor Paronter bought the partly ruined buildings to the south of the courtyard and established there a monastery and a hospice for pilgrims. In 1639, the Cretan painter Jeremias Palladas was commissioned by the Greek Patriarch to paint new icons to embellish the church. Further works were made in 1671 on the initiative of Patriarch Dositheos II. In 1675, Dositheos managed to gain control also of the nave, and promoted restorations of the floor and the roof, as well as the making of a new iconostasis. The Franciscans were restored in their rights in 1690, but they lose their hegemony once again in 1757, when the Greek Orthodox were granted full ownership of the upper church and the authorization to keep the keys to the grotto. Afterwards, a redecoration of the church was promoted: the nave was newly paved, the bema was provided with a solemn iconostasis and a wooden baldachin was erected over the main altar.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Because of uninterrupted water infiltrations from the roof, the Crusader mosaics started falling down, as is documented in many pilgrims' accounts from the 16th century onwards.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Earthquakes inflicted significant damage to the Church of the Nativity between 1834 and 1837. The 1834 Jerusalem earthquake damaged the church's bell tower, the furnishings in the cave on which the church is built, and other parts of its structure. Minor damages were further inflicted by a series of strong aftershocks in 1836 and the Galilee earthquake of 1837. As part of the repairs executed by the Greek Orthodox after receiving a firman in 1842, a wall was built between the nave and aisles, used at the time as a market, and the eastern part of the church containing the choir, which allowed for worship to be continued there.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The religiously significant silver star marking the exact birthplace of Jesus was removed in October 1847 from the Grotto of the Nativity by the Greek Orthodox. The church was under the control of the Ottoman Empire, but around Christmas 1852, Napoleon III forced the Ottomans to recognise Catholic France as the "sovereign authority" over Christian holy sites in the Holy Land. The Sultan of Turkey replaced the silver star at the grotto, complete with a Latin inscription, but the Christian Orthodox Russian Empire disputed the change in authority. They cited the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca and then deployed armies to the Danube area. As a result, the Ottomans issued firmans essentially reversing their earlier decision, renouncing the French treaty, and restoring to the Orthodox Christians the sovereign authority over the churches of the Holy Land for the time being, thus increasing local tensions—and all this fuelled the conflict between the Russian and the Ottoman empires over the control of holy sites around the region.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: In 1918 British governor, Colonel Ronald Storrs, demolished the wall erected in 1842 by the Greek Orthodox between nave and choir.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The passageway which connects St. Jerome's Cave and the Cave of the Nativity was expanded in February 1964, allowing easier access for visitors. American businessman Stanley Slotkin was visiting at the time and purchased a quantity of the limestone rubble, more than a million irregular fragments about across. He sold them to the public encased in plastic crosses, and they were advertised in infomercials in 1995.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: During the Second Intifada in April 2002, the church was the site of a month-long siege in which approximately 50 armed Palestinians wanted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took refuge inside the church. Christians in the church gave refuge to the fighters, giving them food, water, and protection from Israeli military forces stationed outside. Israeli media claimed that the Christians inside were being held hostage, however, parishioners inside the church say they and the church were treated with respect.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Curtains caught fire in the grotto beneath the church on 27 May 2014, which resulted in some slight damage.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The church's joint owners undertook a major renovation starting in September 2013, probably to be completed in 2021 (see also under Restoration (2013–2019)).


title: Church of the Nativity

text: In 2012, the church complex became the first Palestinian site to be listed as a World Heritage Site by the World Heritage Committee at its 36th session on 29 June. It was approved by a secret vote of 13–6 in the 21-member committee, according to UNESCO spokeswoman Sue Williams, and following an emergency candidacy procedure that by-passed the 18-month process for most sites, despite the opposition of the United States and Israel. The site was approved under criteria four and six. The decision was a controversial one on both technical and political terms. It was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger from 2012 to 2019, as it was suffering from damages due to water leaks.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The basilica was placed on the 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites by the World Monuments Fund:


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The present state of the church is worrying. Many roof timbers are rotting, and have not been replaced since the 19th century. The rainwater that seeps into the building not only accelerates the rotting of the wood and damages the structural integrity of the building, but also damages the 12th-century wall mosaics and paintings. The influx of water also means that there is an ever-present chance of an electrical fire. If another earthquake were to occur on the scale of the one of 1834, the result would most likely be catastrophic. ... It is hoped that the listing will encourage its preservation, including getting the three custodians of the church—the Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenian Orthodox Church, and the Franciscan order—to work together, which has not happened for hundreds of years. The Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority would also have to work together to protect it.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: A Presidential committee for the restoration of the Nativity Church was appointed in 2008. In the following year, an international consortium team of experts from different Universities, under the supervision of Prof. Claudio Alessandri (University of Ferrara, Italy), was given the task of planning and coordinating the restoration works.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: In 2010, the Palestinian Authority announced that a multimillion-dollar restoration programme was imminent. Although overwhelmingly Muslim, Palestinians consider the church a national treasure and one of their most visited tourist sites. President Mahmoud Abbas has been actively involved in the project, which is led by Ziad al-Bandak. The project is partially funded by Palestinians and conducted by a team of Palestinian and international experts.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The initial phase of the restoration work was completed in early 2016. New windows have been installed, structural repairs on the roof have been completed and art works and mosaics have been cleaned and restored. The works went further with the consolidation of the narthex, the cleaning and consolidation of all wooden elements, the cleaning of wall mosaics, mural paintings, and floor mosaics. The works came to an end in 2020.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Italian restoration workers uncovered a seventh surviving mosaic angel in July 2016, which was previously hidden under plaster. According to the Italian restorer Marcello Piacenti, the mosaics "are made of gold leaf placed between two glass plates" and solely "faces and limbs are drawn with small pieces of stone."


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The property rights, liturgical use and maintenance of the church are regulated by a set of documents and understandings known as the Status Quo. The church is owned by three church authorities, the Greek Orthodox (most of the building and furnishings), the Armenian Apostolic and the Roman Catholic (each of them with lesser properties). The Coptic Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox are holding minor rights of worship at the Armenian church in the northern transept, and at the Altar of Nativity.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: There have been repeated brawls among monk trainees over quiet respect for others' prayers, hymns and even the division of floor space for cleaning duties. The Palestinian police are often called to restore peace and order.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The centrepiece of the Nativity complex is the Grotto of the Nativity, a cave which enshrines the site where Jesus is said to have been born.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The core of the complex connected to the Grotto consists of the Church of the Nativity itself, and the adjoining Roman Catholic Church of St. Catherine north of it.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Bethlehem's main city square, Manger Square, is an extension of the large paved courtyard in front of the Church of the Nativity and St Catherine's. Here crowds gather on Christmas Eve to sing Christmas carols in anticipation of the midnight services.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The main Basilica of the Nativity is maintained by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. It is designed like a typical Roman basilica, with five aisles formed by Corinthian columns, and an apse in the eastern end containing the sanctuary.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The church's interior walls feature medieval golden mosaics once covering the side walls, which are now in large parts lost.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The original Roman-style floor of the basilica has been covered over with flagstones, but there is a trap door in the floor which opens up to reveal a portion of the original mosaic pavement from the Constantinian basilica.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: There are 44 columns separating the aisles from each other and from the nave, some of which are painted with images of saints, such as the Irish monk Catald (fl. 7th century), the patron of the Sicilian Normans, Canute IV (c. 1042–1086), king of Denmark, and Olaf II (995–1030), king of Norway.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The east end of the church consists of a raised chancel, closed by an apse containing the main altar and separated from the chancel by a large gilded iconostasis.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The open ceiling exposes the wooden rafters, recently restored. The previous 15th-century restoration used beams donated by King Edward IV of England, who also donated lead to cover the roof; however, this lead was taken by the Ottoman Turks, who melted it down for ammunition to use in war against Venice.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The Grotto of the Nativity, the place where Jesus is said to have been born, is an underground space which forms the crypt of the Church of the Nativity. It is situated underneath its main altar, and it is normally accessed by two staircases on either side of the chancel. The grotto is part of a network of caves, which are accessed from the adjacent Church St Catherine's. The tunnel-like corridor connecting the Grotto to the other caves is normally locked.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The cave has an eastern niche said to be the place where Jesus was born, which contains the Altar of Nativity. The exact spot where Jesus was born is marked beneath this altar by a 14-pointed silver star with the Latin inscription "Hic De Virgine Maria Jesus Christus Natus Est-1717" ("Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary"-1717). It was installed by the Catholics in 1717, removed – allegedly by the Greeks – in 1847, and replaced by the Turkish government in 1853. The star is set into the marble floor and surrounded by 15 silver lamps representing the three Christian communities: six belong to the Greek Orthodox, four to the Catholics, and five to the Armenian Apostolic. The Altar of the Nativity is maintained by the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches. The significance of the 14 points on the star is to represent the three sets of 14 generations in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. First 14 from Abraham to David, then 14 from David to the Babylonian captivity, then 14 more to Jesus Christ. In the middle of the 14 pointed star is a circular hole, through which one can reach in to touch the stone that is said to be the original stone that Mary laid on when she gave birth to Jesus.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Roman Catholics are in charge of a section of the grotto known as the "Grotto of the Manger", marking the traditional site where Mary laid the newborn baby in the manger. The Altar of the Magi is located directly opposite from the manger site.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The adjoining Church of St. Catherine is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Catherine of Alexandria, built in a more modern Gothic Revival style. It has been further modernized according to the liturgical trends which followed Vatican II.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: This is the church where the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem celebrates Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Certain customs in this Midnight Mass predate Vatican II, but must be maintained because the "Status Quo" was legally fixed by a firman (decree) in 1852 under the Ottoman Empire, which is still in force today.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The bas-relief of the Tree of Jesse is a sculpture by Czesław Dźwigaj which was recently incorporated into the Church of St. Catherine as a gift of Pope Benedict XVI during his trip to the Holy Land in 2009. It represents an olive tree as the Tree of Jesse, displaying the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham through Joseph, as well as symbolism from the Old Testament. The upper portion is dominated by a crowned figure of Christ the King in an open-armed pose blessing the Earth. It is situated along the passage used by pilgrims making their way to the Grotto of the Nativity.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: Several chapels are found in the caves accessed from St. Catherine's, including the Chapel of Saint Joseph commemorating the angel's appearance to Joseph, commanding him to flee to Egypt; the Chapel of the Innocents, commemorating the children killed by Herod; and the Chapel of Saint Jerome, in the underground cell where tradition holds he lived while translating the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate).


title: Church of the Nativity

text: According to a tradition not sustained by history, the tombs of four Catholic saints are said to be located beneath the Church of the Nativity, in the caves accessible from the Church of St. Catherine:


title: Church of the Nativity

text: A number of ancient trough-shaped tombs can be seen in the Catholic-owned caves adjacent to the Nativity Grotto and St Jerome's Cave, some of them inside the Chapel of the Innocents; more tombs can be seen on the southern, Greek-Orthodox side of the Basilica of the Nativity, also presented as being those of the infants murdered by Herod.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: According to researcher Haytham Dieck, rock-cut tombs and bone fragments in one restricted room of the church date from the 1st century AD. In another clandestine chamber, the Cave of the Holy Innocents, skulls and other bones from as many as 2,000 people (according to Dieck) are collected, but are not clearly infantile.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: The Catholic Midnight Mass in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve is broadcast around the world. Festivities begin hours earlier when dignitaries welcome the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem at the entrance to the city, near Rachel's Tomb. Accompanied by a parade of youth organizations, he then makes his way to Manger Square, where crowds are waiting. Finally, he enters the Catholic Church of Saint Catherine for Mass, after which he leads the way to the adjacent Church of the Nativity. The patriarch carries an icon of Jesus as a child and places it on the hammered star in the cave under the basilica that marks the Nativity site.


title: Church of the Nativity

text: On the Orthodox Christmas Eve, 13 days later, many visitors and faithful again fill Manger Square, this time to watch processions and receptions for the religious leaders of the different Orthodox communities. Protestants also worship in Bethlehem, either at the Lutheran church or the Church of the Nativity. However, some Protestant congregations go to Beit Sahour, a village near Bethlehem.


title: Ishmaelites

text: The Ishmaelites ( "Yīšməʿēʾlīm," "Bani Isma'il"; "sons of Ishmael") were a collection of various Arabian tribes, confederations and small kingdoms described in Islamic tradition as being descended from and named after Ishmael, a prophet according to the Quran, the first son of Abraham and the Egyptian Hagar.


title: Ishmaelites

text: According to the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, Ishmael had one daughter and twelve sons, the "twelve princes" mentioned in Genesis 17:20. In Islamic tradition, this gave rise to the "Twelve Tribes of Ishmael", Arab tribes from which the early Muslims were descended. In Jewish tradition, the Twelve Tribes of Israel were descended from Abraham's other son, Isaac, via Isaac's son Jacob. These traditions are accepted by both Islam and Judaism.


title: Ishmaelites

text: Genesis and 1 Chronicles describe the Qedarites as a tribe descended from the second son of Ishmael, Qedar. Some Abrahamic scholars described the historic tribe of Nabataeans as descendants of Nebaioth based on the similarity of sounds, but others reject this connection. Different Islamic groups assign the ancestry of the Islamic prophet Muhammad either to Qedar or Nebaioth.


title: Ishmaelites

text: Assyrian and Babylonian Inscriptions refer to the Ishmaelites as "Sumu'ilu", a tribal confederation that would take control of the incense trade route during the dominance of the Assyrian Empire to the north.


title: Ishmaelites

text: According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham's first wife was named Sarah and her Egyptian slave was named Hagar. However, Sarah could not conceive. In chapter 16, Sarah (then Sarai) gave her slave Hagar in marriage to Abraham, in order that Abraham might have an heir.


title: Ishmaelites

text: Hagar conceived Ishmael from Abraham, and the Ishmaelites descend from him. After Abraham pleaded with God for Ishmael to live under his blessing, chapter 17 states:


title: Ishmaelites

text: According to the documentary hypothesis, Genesis 25 would have been added during the Persian Period by the Priestly source, who attributed the known Ishmaelite (Shumu'ilu) Tribes as the names of the sons of Ishmael. However, the name and narrative of Ishmael found in other parts of Genesis would antedate this by centuries. The Hebrew Bible already contained the story of Ishmael, and it would later come across Ishmaelite Tribes, and they would invent names for Ishmael's sons, named after the various tribes in the Ishmaelite Confederacy.


title: Ishmaelites

text: According to the Quran, "Allah has gifted all of Ishmael, Alyasa, Yunus and Lut a favor above the nations. With some of their forefathers and their offspring and their brethren, We chose them and guided them unto a straight path". (Quran 6:86). Ibrahim and Hajar bore the prophetic child, who was named Ishmael by Allah through one of his angels. God ordered Ibrahim to bring Ishmael and Hajar to present-day Mecca. He prayed for them after leaving them, saying: "O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring to dwell in an uncultivatable valley by Your Sacred House (the Kaaba in Mecca) in order, O our Lord, that they may perform As-Ṣalāt. So fill some hearts among men with love towards them, and (O Allah) provide them with fruits so that they may give thanks."


title: Ishmaelites

text: Ishmael and Hagar were very thirsty, and Hagar ran between the hills of Safa and Marwa in search of water for her son. After her seventh run between the hills, an angel appeared before her. He helped them, saying that God heard Ishmael's cry and would provide them with water; Hajar stopped the water with stones. Muhammad said, "May Allah forgive Hajar if she doesn't stop the water, there was a great water fountain." A group of people passed by, and saw the well and Hajar and Ishmael sitting there. They asked Hagar for some of the water from the well; she agreed, and an Arab tribe began there. Ishmael grew up there and learned Arabic from the tribe while waiting for his father. When Ibrahim arrived in Marwa, he learned that his son was alive. When young Ishmael saw his father, he ran to him and they embraced.


title: Ishmaelites

text: God decided to test Ibrahim again, and he dreamed two nights in a row of sacrificing Ishmael. Ibrahim blindfolded himself, because he could not bear to see his son suffer. When he was about to wield the knife, a voice ordered him to sacrifice a goat instead of his son. God then ordered Ibrahim to rebuild the mosque for Ishmael's tribe which had been constructed by Adam, the first Islamic prophet, and Ibrahim and Ishmael began building the Kaaba. Ibrahim built the mosque, and Ishmael provided the stones, When the walls were built and the roof was almost complete, Ibrahim stood on the miraculous small stone to finish the roof.


title: Ishmaelites

text: Josephus also lists the sons and states that they "...inhabit the lands which are between Euphrates and the Red Sea, the name of which country is Nabathæa."


title: Ishmaelites

text: The Targum Onkelos annotates Genesis 25:16, describing the extent of their settlements: "And they dwelt from Hindekaia [India] unto Chalutsa, which is by the side of Mizraim [Egypt], from thy going up towards Arthur [Assyria]."


title: Ishmaelites

text: The 14th century "Kebra Nagast" says "And therefore the children of "Ishmael" became kings over "Tereb", and over "Kebet", and over "Nôbâ", and "Sôba", and "Kuergue", and "Kîfî", and "Mâkâ", and "Môrnâ", and "Fînḳânâ", and "’Arsîbânâ", and "Lîbâ", and "Mase'a", for they were the seed of "Shem"."


title: Ishmaelites

text: Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions and North Arabian inscriptions from 9th to 6th century BC, mention the king of Qedar, sometimes as Arab and sometimes as Ishmaelite. The names "Nabat, Kedar, Abdeel, Dumah, Massa, and Teman" were mentioned in the Assyrian royal inscriptions as Arabian tribes. Jesur was mentioned in Greek inscriptions in the First Century BC. Assyrian and Babylonian Inscriptions have referred to the Ishmaelites as "Sumu'ilu" and Ernst Knauf had written that Yisma'el is a typical West Semitic Personal name found in texts from the 3rd Millennium BC to pre-Islamic Arabic in the First Half of the First Millennium CE. He argues that the North Arabian "Sama'il" would be rendered "Shumu'il" by Assyrians, and would have the same meaning as "Yisma'el" and hence the Shumu'ilu Tribes would be descended to an ancestor named Yisma'el, which is anglicized as Ishmael. One of the Inscriptions mentioning the Ishmaelites is Sennacherib's Annals, in column vii line 96.


title: Ishmaelites

text: The Ishmaelite Confederacy did have differences. The Qedar Tribe’s political center was Duma (Dumat Al-Jandal), which was also the cultic residence of the six deities of the “king of the Arabs” as John Travis Noble writes. Tayma’s pantheon was quite different from that of Duma, which seems to be the capital of the Ishmaelites, even though Tema appears as a son of Ishmael in Genesis 25. Noble then writes that it is unlikely that all 12 tribes associated with the sons of Ishmael were in the Ishmaelite Confederacy simultaneously, and tribes joined in one instance may not be a part of it in another instance, and they sometimes may have fought each other despite the association with the wider Ishmaelite Confederacy. However, the term “Ishmaelites” or rather “Sumu'ilu” disappears from documentary sources as the Assyrian Empire fell. However, the individual tribes and members kept going on, as there are references from the time Cyrus the Great came to power of the kings living in tents. Southern Palestine and the surrounding areas were inhabited considerably by Nabataeans, who had been entrenched there as early as the 6th century BC. According to Knauf, this expansion caused the tribes to decrease contact, and this caused the Ishmaelite Confederacy to end, not any military defeat.


title: Ishmaelites

text: Abu Ja'far al-Baqir (676–743 AD) wrote that his father Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin informed him that Muhammad had said: "The first whose tongue spoke in clear Arabic was Ishmael, when he was fourteen years old." Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (737–819 AD) established a genealogical link between Ishmael and Muhammad using writings and the ancient oral traditions of the Arabs. His book, "Jamharat al-Nasab" ("The Abundance of Kinship"), seems to posit that the people known as "Arabs" (of his time) were all descendants of Ishmael. Ibn Kathir (1301–1373) writes (translated): "All the Arabs of the Hejaz are descendants of Nebaioth and Qedar." Medieval Jewish sources also usually identified Qedar with Arabs and Muslims. According to author and scholar Irfan Shahîd, while Western scholars viewed this kind of "genealogical Ishmaelism" with suspicion, the concept can be supported for certain groups among the Arabs, Genealogical Ishmaelism was viewed with suspicion as a late Islamic fabrication because of the confusion in Islamic times which made it such a capacious term as to include the inhabitants of the south as well as the north of the Arabian Peninsula. But short of this extravagance, the concept is much more modest in its denotation, and in the sober sources, it applies only to certain groups among the Arabs of pre-Islamic times. Some important statements to this effect were made by Muhammad when he identified some Arabs as Ishmaelites and others as not. Ishmaelism in this more limited definition, holds that Ishmael was both an important religious figure and eponymous ancestor for some of the Arabs of western Arabia. Prominence is given in Arab genealogical accounts to the first two of Ishmael's twelve sons, Nebaioth (, "Nabīt") and Qedar (, "Qaydār"), who are also prominently featured in the Genesis account. It is likely that they and their tribes lived in northwestern Arabia and were historically the most important of the twelve Ishmaelite tribes.


title: Ishmaelites

text: "Isma’il grew up among the Jurhum (an Arabic-speaking tribe), learning the pure Arabic tongue from them. When grown-up, he successively married two ladies from the Jurhum tribe, the second wife being the daughter of Mudad ibn ‘Amr, leader of the Jurhum tribe."


title: Ishmaelites

text: In accounts tracing the ancestry of Muhammad back to Ma'ad (and from there to Adam), Arab scholars alternate, with some citing the line as through Nebaioth, others Qedar. Many Muslim scholars see "Isaiah 42" ("21:13-17") as predicting the coming of a servant of God who is associated with Qedar and interpret this as a reference to Muhammad.


title: Samia (musician)

text: Samia Najimy Finnerty (born December 12, 1996) is a Lebanese-American singer-songwriter from New York City.


title: Samia (musician)

text: Finnerty was born to Lebanese-American actress Kathy Najimy and American actor Dan Finnerty. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Samia Najimy ("née" Massery; 1928–2015), who is of Lebanese origin. She attended York Preparatory School, and studied at The New School.


title: Samia (musician)

text: Finnerty is a co-recipient of the 2017 Obie Award for Best Ensemble for her performance in Sarah DeLappe's "The Wolves".


title: Samia (musician)

text: Finnerty released a new song in April 2020 titled "Is There Something in the Movies?" In June 2020, Finnerty announced her debut studio album alongside a new song titled "Fit n Full". Two more songs from the album, "Big Wheel" and "Stellate," were released together in July 2020, preceding the release of "Triptych" in August 2020. Finnerty released her debut studio album "The Baby" to positive reviews in September 2020.


title: Samia (musician)

text: In 2021, Finnerty released the extended play "Scout", containing three original songs: "As You Are", "Show Up" and "Elephant" as well as a cover of When In Romes' "The Promise", which featured Jelani Aryeh. The EP released to generally positive reviews.


title: Samia (musician)

text: In September 2022, Finnerty released the single "Kill Her Freak Out" and announced her upcoming sophomore album, "Honey." Subsequent singles from the album include "Mad At Me" with Papa Mbye in November and a double release in December, "Pink Balloon/Sea Lions."


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument (), also known as Vittoriano or Altare della Patria ("Altar of the Fatherland"), is a large national monument built between 1885 and 1935 to honour Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, in Rome, Italy. It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill. The monument was realized by Giuseppe Sacconi.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: From an architectural perspective, it was conceived as a modern "forum", an agora on three levels connected by stairways and dominated by a portico characterized by a colonnade. The complex process of national unity and liberation from foreign domination carried out by King Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, to whom the monument is dedicated, has a great symbolic and representative value, being architecturally and artistically centred on the Italian unification—for this reason the Vittoriano is considered one of the national symbols of Italy.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: It also preserves the Altar of the Fatherland (), first an altar of the goddess Rome, then also a shrine of the Italian Unknown Soldier, thus adopting the function of a lay temple consecrated to Italy. Because of its great representative value, the entire Vittoriano is often called the Altare della Patria, although the latter constitutes only a part of the monument.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: Standing in the centre of ancient Rome, and connected to the modern one by the streets that radiate from Piazza Venezia, it has been consecrated to a wide symbolic value representing a lay temple metaphorically dedicated to a free and united Italy—celebrating by virtue the burial of the Unknown Soldier (the sacrifice for the homeland and for the connected ideals).


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: It is currently managed by the Polo Museale del Lazio and is owned by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The Vittoriano is on the Capitoline Hill, in the symbolic centre of ancient Rome, and is connected to the modern one thanks to roads that radiate from Piazza Venezia.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: Its design is a neoclassical interpretation of the Roman Forum. It features stairways, Corinthian columns, fountains, an equestrian sculpture of Victor Emmanuel II, and two statues of the goddess Victoria riding on quadrigas. On its summit there would have been a majestic portico characterized by a long colonnade and two imposing propylaea, one dedicated to the "unity of the homeland", and the other to the "freedom of the citizens", concepts metaphorically linked to the figure of Victor Emmanuel II.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The base houses the museum of Italian unification, and in 2007 a lift was added to the structure, allowing visitors to access the roof for 360-degree views of Rome. This terrace, which is the highest of the monument, can also be reached via 196 steps that start from the portico.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The structure is wide, deep, and high. If the quadrigae and "Winged Victorys" are included, the height reaches . It has a total area of and possesses, due to the conspicuous development of the interior spaces, a floor area of .


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: One of the architecturally predominant elements of the Vittoriano are the external staircases, which constitute in the complex 243 steps, and the portico on the top of the monument, which is inserted between two lateral propylaea. The entrance stairway is wide and long, the terrace of the Altar of the Fatherland is wide. The maximum depth of the Vittoriano underground reaches below street level. The colonnade is formed by columns high and the length of the porch is .


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The allegories of the monument mostly represent the virtues and feelings, very often rendered as personifications, also according to the canons of the neoclassical style, which animate the Italians during the Italian unification, or from the revolutions of 1820 to the capture of Rome (1870), through which national unity was achieved. Due to the complex process of unification undertaken by Victor Emmanuel II throughout the second half of the 19th century, the Italians gave him the epithet of "Father of the Fatherland" (). The only non-allegorical work is the "equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II", which is the architectural centre of the Vittoriano.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The monument, as a whole, appears as a sort of marble covering on the northern slope of the Capitoline Hill: it was therefore thought of as a place where it is possible to make an uninterrupted patriotic walk (the path does not in fact have an architectural end, given that the entrances to the highest part are two, one for each propylaeum) among the works present, which almost all have allegorical meanings linked to the history of Italy. Different are the vegetal symbols present, among which the palm, which recalls the "victory", the oak (the "strength"), the laurel (the "victorious peace"), the myrtle (the "sacrifice") and the Olive tree (the "concord").


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: From a stylistic perspective, the architecture and works of art that embellish the Vittoriano have been conceived with the aim of creating a "national style" to be replicated in other areas. It was designed to communicate the imperial splendours of ancient Rome. Above all, for the realization of the Vittoriano, Giuseppe Sacconi took inspiration from the Neoclassical architecture—the reborn heir of the classical Greek and Roman architecture, on which Italic elements were grafted and eclectic influences added.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The Vittoriano is regarded as a national symbol of Italy and every year it hosts important national celebrations. The largest annual celebrations are Liberation Day (25 April), Republic Day (2 June), and Armed Forces Day (4 November). During these celebrations, the President of the Italian Republic and the highest government officials pay tribute to the Italian Unknown Soldier and those who died in the line of duty by laying a laurel wreath.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: After the death of Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy on 9 January 1878, many initiatives were destined to raise a permanent monument that celebrated the first king of a united Italy, creator of the process of unification and liberation from foreign domination, which is indicated by historiography as "Father of the Fatherland" also due to the political work of the President of the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Sardinia Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, and to the military contribution of Giuseppe Garibaldi. The goal was therefore to commemorate the entire Italian unification season ("Risorgimento") through one of its protagonists.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: For this purpose, the Italian government approved the construction of a monumental complex on the Northern side of Rome's Capitoline Hill. The monument would celebrate the legacy of the first king of a united Italy and would become a symbol of national patriotism. The project was realized by Giuseppe Sacconi in 1885, in an eclectic style.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: Sacconi was inspired by the Hellenistic sanctuaries, such as the Pergamon Altar and the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia in Palestrina. The Vittoriano was conceived as a vast and modern "forum" open to citizens, on a sort of elevated square in the historic centre of Rome organized as an agora on three levels connected by tiers, with conspicuous spaces reserved for strolling visitors.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: To erect the Vittoriano it was necessary, between the last months of 1884 and 1899, to proceed with numerous expropriations and extensive demolitions of the buildings that were on site. The place chosen was in the heart of the historic centre of Rome and was therefore occupied by ancient buildings arranged according to urban planning that dated back to the Middle Ages. This was considered necessary because the Vittoriano should have been built in the heart of the historic centre of Rome, in a modern urban context, in front of a new large square (the future Piazza Venezia), which at the time was just a narrow open space in front of Palazzo Venezia.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The general objective was also to make Rome a modern European capital that rivaled Berlin, Vienna, London and Paris overcoming the centuries-old pontifical town planning. In this context, the Vittoriano would have been the equivalent of the Brandenburg Gate of Berlin, the Admiralty Arch of London and the Opéra Garnier of Paris; these buildings are all united by a monumental and classical aspect that metaphorically communicates pride and the power of the nation that erected them.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: It would then become one of the symbols of the new Italy, joining the monuments of ancient Rome and those of the popes' Rome. Having then been conceived as a large public square, the Vittoriano, in addition to representing a memorial dedicated to Victor Emmanuel II, was invested with another role—a modern "forum" dedicated to the new free and united Italy.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: Established Italian sculptors, such as Leonardo Bistolfi, Manfredo Manfredi, Giulio Monteverde, Francesco Jerace, Augusto Rivalta, Lodovico Pogliaghi, Pietro Canonica, Ettore Ximenes, Adolfo Apolloni, Mario Rutelli and Angelo Zanelli, made its sculptures nationwide. The partly completed monument was inaugurated on 4 June 1911, on the occasion of the Turin International world's fair and the 50th anniversary of Italian unification. Construction continued throughout the first half of the 20th century; in 1921 the body of the Italian Unknown Soldier was placed in the crypt under the statue of the goddess Roma, and in 1935 the monument was fully completed amidst the inauguration of the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento Italiano.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The decision to include an altar dedicated to the homeland in the Vittoriano was taken by Giuseppe Sacconi only after the planning phase, during the construction of the monument. The place and the dominant subject were immediately chosen, being a large statue of the goddess Rome that would have been placed on the first terrace after the entrance to the monument, just below the "equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II". Thus, the Altar of the Fatherland, at least initially and before the burial of the body of the Unknown Soldier, was thought of as a chapel of the deity. In this way, the greatness and majesty of Rome was celebrated, elected to the role of legitimate capital of Italy. Within the Vittoriano are numerous artistic works that recall the history of ancient Rome.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: After the First World War the Vittoriano was chosen to house the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, or the burial of an Italian soldier who died during the First World War whose identity remains unknown due to the serious injuries that made the body unrecognizable, which represents all the Italian soldiers who died during the wars. The reason for his strong symbolism lies in the metaphorical transition from the figure of the soldier to that of the people and finally to that of the nation. This transition between increasingly broader and generic concepts is due to the indistinct traits of the non-identification of the soldier.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The Vittoriano was thus consecrated to a wide symbolic value representing a lay temple metaphorically dedicated to a free and united Italy—celebrating by virtue the burial of the Unknown Soldier (the sacrifice for the homeland and for the connected ideals).


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: With the rise of Fascism in 1922, the Vittoriano became the setting for the military parades of the authoritarian regime of Benito Mussolini. After World War II, with the institution of the Italian Republic in 1946, the monument was stripped of all its Fascist symbols and reassumed its original function as a secular temple dedicated to the Italian nation and its people. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, however, its significance as a symbol of national identity started to decline as the public opinion started to perceive it as a cumbersome relic. At the turn of the 21st century, Italy's President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi pushed for a revaluation of national symbols of Italy, including the Vittoriano.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The monument holds the Tomb of the Italian Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame, built under the statue of goddess Roma after World War I following an idea of General Giulio Douhet. The body of the unknown soldier was chosen on 28 October 1921 from among 11 unknown remains by Maria Bergamas, a woman from Gradisca d'Isonzo whose only child was killed during World War I. Her son's body was never recovered. The selected unknown was transferred from Aquileia, where the ceremony with Bergamas had taken place, to Rome and buried in a state funeral on 4 November 1921.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: His tomb is a symbolic shrine that represents all the fallen and missing of the war. The side of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier that gives outward at the Altar of the Fatherland is always guarded by a guard of honour and two flames that burn perpetually in braziers. The guard is provided with military personnel of the various weapons of the Italian Armed Forces, which alternate every ten years.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The allegorical meaning of the perpetually burning flames is linked to their symbolism, which is centuries old, since it has its origins in classical antiquity, especially in the cult of the dead. A fire that burns eternally symbolizes the memory, in this case of the sacrifice of the Unknown Soldier moved by patriotic love, and his everlasting memory of the Italians, even in those who are far from their country. The two perennial braziers next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is placed a plaque whose text reads "Italians Abroad to the Motherland" in memory of donations made by Italian emigrants between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century for the construction of the Vittoriano.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument is also known as "Mole del Vittoriano" or simply "Vittoriano", and "Altare della Patria", which are now the most commonly used names for it. From 1921, when the Unknown Soldier was buried under the statue of the goddess Rome in the part of the Vittoriano that is called "Altare della Patria", the expression began to indicate not only the place of burial of the soldier, or the personification of all the fallen and lost in war, but the whole structure due to the strong popular sentiment for the symbolic Unknown Soldier.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: Set against the external base of the Vittoriano, on the sides of the entrance to Piazza Venezia, are the "fountains of the two seas" which are dedicated to the Adriatic sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea. Both are inserted in a flower bed and possess, from the beginning, a hydraulic system that recycles the water avoiding waste. Historically, a water cistern was also active, then abandoned, in the basement of the monument. The two fountains therefore represent the two major Italian seas and, therefore, in this perspective the Vittoriano is assimilated to the Italian Peninsula. This way the whole country is represented, even geographically.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The exterior staircases of the Vittoriano follow the ascending sides of the northern slope of the Capitoline Hill and lead, starting from the entrance of Piazza Venezia, to the terrace of the Altar of the Fatherland, then to the terrace of the redeemed cities (the one immediately below the colonnade of the portico), and finally to the terraces of the two propylaea flanked by the portico constituting the two entrances.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: At the entrance is a staircase leading to the terrace of the Altar of the Fatherland and of the Italian Unknown Soldier, which represent the first raised platform of the Vittoriano, as well as its symbolic centre. The path along the staircase continues beyond the tomb of the Unknown Soldier to symbolically represent a continuous and uninterrupted procession of Italians, continuing up to the highest point of the construction, the portico and the propylaea.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The artistic gate of access to the Vittoriano, which is the work of Manfredo Manfredi, is able to slide vertically underground on tracks. The plant that allows the lowering of the railing, originally hydraulic, was considered at the time of its construction among the most technologically advanced in the world. The entrance gate has a length of and a weight of 10,500 tons.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: On both sides of the entrance stairway are a series of sculptures that accompany the visitor towards the Altar of the Fatherland. The first sculptures are two groups in gilded bronze, with subjects inspired by the thought of Giuseppe Mazzini, "The Thought" and "The Action" (respectively, to the left and right of the staircase for those coming from Piazza Venezia), followed by two sculptural groups (also in this case one on each side) depicting as many "Winged lions" and finally, on the top of the staircase, before the beginning of the terrace of the Altar of the Fatherland, two "Winged Victorys". "The Action" has a triangular and angular profile, while "The Thought" has a circular shape. The "Winged Victories", in addition to recalling the military and cultural successes of the Roman era, symbolize allegorically the good luck of national unity.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: At the end of the entrance stairway, immediately after the statues of the "Winged Victories", opens the terrace of the Altar of the Fatherland, the first raised platform of the Vittoriano, which is dominated centrally by the statue of the goddess Rome and the shrine of the Unknown Soldier. On the terrace of the Altar of the Fatherland are also the Botticino marble sculptural groups that symbolize the moral values of the Italians, or the ideal principles that make the nation firm. The four groups have a height of and are to the right and left of the entrance to the terrace of the Altar of the Fatherland (two on each side), sideways to the statues of "The Thought" and of "The Action" and in correspondence of the fountains of two seas, along the parapets that overlook Piazza Venezia. The concepts expressed by these four sculptural groups, "The Force", "The Concord", "The Sacrifice" and "The Right", are the tangible emanation of "The Thought" and "The Action".


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: At the sides of the Altar of the Fatherland, the staircase resumes dividing into two symmetrical ramps parallel to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Both reach a pronaos where two large doors open (one on each side, both positioned symmetrically and laterally to the Unknown Soldier, and each in correspondence with one of the two propylaea) that lead to the interior spaces of the Vittoriano. Above each door are two statues; on the left door are "The Politics" and "The Philosophy", while on the right door are two statues depicting "The War" and "The Revolution".


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: From the two shelves where the doors open to give access to the interior spaces, two further flights of stairs start that converge, directly behind the Altar of the Fatherland, towards the base of the "equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II" – the latter is on the second large elevated platform, in order of height, of the Vittoriano. Behind it, the stairway resumes its ascent in the direction of the portico, reaching a small shelf, from which two staircases start laterally leading to the entrance of a propylaeum. Before reaching the entrances of the propylaea, each of the two staircases is interrupted, creating a small intermediate shelf, which allows access to the terrace of the redeemed cities—the third large and last elevated platform of the Vittoriano—directly behind the "equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II" and immediately below the colonnade of the portico.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The redeemed cities are those united to Italy following the Treaty of Rapallo (1920) and the Treaty of Rome (1924), peace agreements at the end of the First World War. These municipalities are Trieste, Trento, Gorizia, Pola, Fiume and Zara. Following the Paris treaties of 1947, Pola, Fiume and Zara moved on to Yugoslavia and, after the dissolution of the latter, to Croatia. After the conflict, Gorizia was divided into two parts—one part remained in Italy while the other, which was renamed "Nova Gorica", passed first to Yugoslavia and then to Slovenia. Each redeemed city is represented by an altar against the back wall, which bears the corresponding municipal coat of arms. The six altars were placed on the terrace between 1929 and 1930.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: At the centre of the row of altars of the redeemed cities, engraved on the stylobate, is a monumental inscription carved on the occasion of the solemn ceremony of the Unknown Soldier (4 November 1921) which contains the text of the Victory Bulletin, an official document written after the Armistice of Villa Giusti with which the general Armando Diaz, supreme commander of the Royal Army, announced, on 4 November 1918, the surrender of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the victory of Italy in the First World War.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: At the base of the text of the Victory Bulletin are two other altars similar to those of the redeemed cities but which have, instead of the municipal coat of arms of the municipalities, a helmet—these two altars bear the inscription "" on the left alter and "" on the right alter. They echo the Latin phrase "et facere et pati fortia Romanum est" ("It is the attribute of a Roman to perform as well as to suffer mighty things") written by Livy in the "History of Rome, book 11; in the work the phrase is pronounced by Scaevola towards Lars Porsena.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The Altar of the Fatherland is the most famous part of the Vittoriano and is the one with which it is often identified. On the top of the entrance stairway, it was designed by the Brescian sculptor Angelo Zanelli, who won a competition specially held in 1906. It is formed from the side of the Tomb of Italian Unknown Soldier that faces the outside of the building (the other side, which faces inside the Vittoriano, is in a crypt), from the "sacellum" of the statue of the goddess Rome (which is exactly above the tomb of the Unknown Soldier) and two vertical marble reliefs that descend from the edges of the aedicula containing the statue of the goddess Rome and which run downwards laterally to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The statue of the goddess Roma present at the Vittoriano interrupted a custom in vogue until the 19th century, by which the representation of this subject was with exclusively warlike traits. Angelo Zanelli, in his work, decided to further characterize the statue by also providing the reference to Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and the arts, as well as of war. The great statue of the deity emerges from a golden background. The presence of the goddess Roma in the Vittoriano underlines the irremissible will of the Unification of Italy patriots to have the Rome as the capital of Italy, an essential concept, according to the common feeling, from the history of the peninsula and the islands of Italian culture.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The general conception of the bas-reliefs, beside the statue of the goddess Roma, one to her left and the other to her right, recalls Virgil's "Bucolics" and "Georgics", which complete the triptych of the Altar of the Fatherland with the statue of the Roman divinity.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The allegorical meaning of the bas-reliefs that are inspired by the works of Virgil is linked to the desire to conceptually render the Italian soul. In the "Georgics", the reference to the "Aeneid" is in fact present, and in both the works the industriousness in the work of the Italians is recalled.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The bas-relief on the left of the Altar of the Fatherland represents the "Triumph of Labour" and the one on the right symbolizes the "Triumph of the Patriotic Love" where both converge scenically towards the statue of the goddess Rome.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: After the Altar of the Fatherland is the "equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II", a bronze work by Enrico Chiaradia and architectural centre of the Vittoriano. The personifications of the noble Italian cities are carved on the marble base of the statue. The statue is bronze, high, long, and weighs 50 tons. Including the marble base, the entire sculptural group is high.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The "equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II" is the only non-symbolic representation of the Vittoriano, given that it is the representation of the homonymous monarch. In classical antiquity the equestrian statues were aimed at the exaltation of the portrayed subject, whose warlike virtues were emphasized. Furthermore, riding and controlling a steed, the character's ability to control primordial instincts was communicated—in this way, the subject was also recognized as civic virtues.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The statue being at the architectural centre of the Vittoriano, above the Altar of the Fatherland and in front of the colonnade of the portico, is not fortuitous – in classical antiquity such equestrian statues were often in front of colonnades, public squares, temples or along the triumphal streets; in places, therefore, stressing centrality. The presence of the basement on which the personifications of the noble cities are carved is linked to the same archaic traditions.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: On the base of the "equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II" are sculptural depictions of 14 Italian noble cities, or rather the capitals of Italian states founded before the Savoy monarchy.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: They aren't the statues of the most important cities in Italy, but of those that were once capitals of ancient Italian pre-unification monarchies, all of which are precedent and therefore historically converging towards the Savoy monarchy—for this reason they are considered "mothers noble"s of Unification of Italy.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The 14 sculptural representations of the noble cities are deliberately placed at the base of the "equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II", which metaphorically symbolizes the nature of historical foundations of Italy. In a broader sense, they also represent the concept that the unity of the homeland, as a whole, rests on a basis constituted by the municipalities. Unlike those dedicated to the regions of Italy, the statues depicting the 14 cities are all the work of the same sculptor, Eugenio Maccagnani.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: Continuing to climb the stairway beyond the equestrian statue of Victor Emmnauel II, is the most imposing and striking architectonic element—the large portico with Corinthian-style columns, slightly curved, on the top of the monument, and inserted between two temple propylaea called "sommoportico" due to its elevated position. The propylaea are the two small porticos projecting from the portico, at its lateral (side) ends, that constitute the entrances.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: The portico is long and is centrally supported by 16 tall columns surmounted by Corinthian capitals, embellished by the face of the "Italia turrita" (at centre) and acanthus leaves. The cornice above the colonnade is instead decorated with statues representing the 16 allegorical personifications of the Italian regions where each statue corresponds to a column. Giuseppe Sacconi was inspired by the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum nearby.


title: Victor Emmanuel II Monument

text: Each propylaeum has a bronze statue depicting quadrigae, each one hosting a "Winged Victory". The architectural and expressive synergies of the triumphal arches are thus re-proposed—the allegorical meaning of the "quadriga", since ancient times, is in fact that of success. This concept is reinforced by the presence of the "Winged Victories", messengers descended from heaven by the divinities who flank the winner of a military battle as their favourite.