I am posting this month from the Holy Land, in an area known locally as the “Galile” but more famous to westerners as the region surrounding the Sea of Galilee. The “sea” is, in fact, a large freshwater lake, the lowest of its kind on earth. Its various names--Galile, Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret, Sea of Tiberias—testify both to its significance in antiquity and to the multiple historical streams that feed the region. To the scientific eye, the lake is a particularly beautiful manifestation of the Jordan Great Rift Valley, a structure brought about by the split between the Arabian and African tectonic plates. Looking across its azure surface from the west I can see the rocky steeps of the Golan Heights; beyond them, just perceptible after sunset, appear the lights of Syria, and the greater middle east.

Moving around Israel this week I have been struck again and again by the significance of domes to human cultural expression. In the “Old City” section of Jerusalem, still kept behind massive stone walls, the skyline is wholly dominated by the Dome of the Rock, refurbished in glaring gold recently by King Hussein of Jordan. In the Christian Quarter of the divided city believers gather at the double-domed Church of the Holy Sepulcher (itself divided among Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Roman Catholic and other Christian denominations, an arrangement not without its own tensions). With a little hunting—the door is tiny and all but concealed by Arab market stalls--I was able to discover the silver-domed Church of St. John the Baptist, built in the 5th century, rebuilt in the 11th by Crusaders in one of the many periods during which Jerusalem was being overthrown. In a fanciful way one might see the unending struggle for possession of this city as a debate over domes.

Traveling north from the place once called the Center of the World one finds Jerusalem’s architectural predilection is not singular: domes appear in every Arab village, most often accompanied by minarets, gesturing skyward as if in longing. (Depending on their size, some villages have two, or three, or – once -- as many as six visible mosques.) More recent religions have also found Israel: in Haifa, adherents of the Baha’i faith have erected their own dome at the “Shrine of the Bab.”



In Tzfat, a Kaballistic Jewish community just north of the Sea of Galilee, I peered into the domed interior of an ancient synagogue and reflected that regardless of origin these structures are almost always painted with stars. At one time the pinnacle of architectural ability—one thinks of the great Duomo in Florence---domes replicate the apparent arch of the sky, what for all but the most recent human history was thought to be something like an enormous inverted bowl, or possibly a transparent sphere studded with lights.

And again I am struck by that seemingly universal inclination skyward we, as a species, inherit. Up there, the Pythagoreans dreamed in nearby Greece, moved the timeless perfections of mathematics. Up there, various sages of the Middle East cried, dwelt the divine. In Jewish tradition, Elijah rode to the heavens in a flaming chariot; for Muslims, Mohammad took a night journey to al-Aqsa — now a steely gray dome -- before rising to the sky on a winged horse. The theme seems to be that we build domes to commemorate some moment of cosmic identification, a transcendent connection between humanity and the broader universe.

I am moved by these structures, by the aspiration they imply -- and am led to reflect that our generation has a new type of cosmic dome as well: that of the observatory. Though we have too often allowed scientific inquiry to become passionless in the public mind, these modern domes are, to the ones built atop ancient mountains, more than a little bit akin. They are part of the overall human quest for “gnosis,” or understanding; they bring us together as a species intent on discovering our place in the cosmic. They inspire -- or should inspire -- a grand sense of purpose and discovery. I would submit that we fail as moderns if we think of our holy places, from whatever tradition we hail (if any), as expressing a connection to profundity -- while regarding our observatories as “mere machines,” the province of a fusty few.

To my eye, the domes of the Keck, ESO and elsewhere are as much a cause for deep reflection as the various monuments to world faiths that fill this region. And, like them, their interiors are filled with stars.



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IN the ancient or medieval world the domes created a space inside which set to focus of ritual activity. The telescope dome houses instruments which focus us on great distances.

LC

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Contemplation and observation. Private contemplation in a beautiful and peaceful space can be a deep exploration of the personal experience of subjective reality. Whether that is within the natural environment, church, mosque or temple. A place set apart from the noise and haste of the world and worldly affairs. Ritual does not allow deep contemplation but serves other social functions. The construction of many places of worship go beyond that required for ritual. Seeking to inspire and demonstrate the magnificence of the particular deity (and sometimes also the wealth of the patron).

The housing of the telescope is a result of its function. The telescope seeks to give us comprehension of external reality that exists separately from the experience of the observer. It could also serve as a space for peaceful, private contemplation should the astronomer wish. Both contemplation and observation are valuable attempts to reach for deeper comprehension. One looking out, the other searching within, freed from the distractions of everyday life.

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As far as I know there is no specific religious or spiritual reason for the domes. It's purely architectural, and was implemented by the Turks (what I discovered by downloading some articles from rapidhsare SE and which was actually a surprise to me). I must say that many mosques, catholic and orthodox churches carrying this design are quite beautiful. sure thing, I can't agree more saying that I'm also moved by these structures, by the aspiration they imply. as for the modern dome -observatory or planetarium- it is one of the best places to blend the rational scientific with the mystic sense of enchantment, as everyone who has experienced the strong “wow effect” under a dark starry sky knows. Things that seem contradictory (science, technology, enchantment) may coexist in harmony there, stimulating questions and thoughts.

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The dome was first introduced by the Byzantine Greeks. St Sophia was Greek Orthodox Church, but converted to a grand Mosque after the Turks took Constantinople in 1453. Islam early took on the dome as the format for a Mosque, which was borrowed from the Byzantine Greeks. The Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the one which Mohammed is thought to have ascended to heaven from, and which the al-Haram ash-Sharif (Most Noble Holy Ground --- Dome on the Rock) is based upon, is a remodelled version of a Church established by the Byxantine emperor Justinian a century before Muslims took Jerusalem. Within Islamic architecture the dome was perfected into works of art.

Cheers LC

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Lawrence, et al.

A little more on Domes as I once researched them. They go back well beyond the Byzantine Greeks, but you're right in that they pushed the technology on to new limits, and gained far better longevity (which is why few remain from previously). Actually they pushed well BEYOND technology, as did the Romans, as the history of domes is fraught with failures due to poor and over simplistic understanding of the structural dynamics.

Christopher Wren still struggled horribly with St Paul's, and the present dome we see will not stand up. It's a purely decorative 'dressing' over the real structure hidden beneath.

There have now been a few films showing the iconic Dome of the Capital in Washington DC either blowing up or in ruins. What do you think it's made of? I once won a £100 bet with an engineering professor who thought he knew better and should have done. All the films show it as masonry. It would not stand up as a masonry dome. It's one of very few made of cast iron.

Architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome, properly understanding and using the one extra single dimension, rendered almost all other dome theory obsolete and brought a new simpler understanding of forces.

I believe to perceive the sky as a dome could be too conceptually misleading, but there are other parallels with current physics, where we don't seem to have quite yet found the equivalent of the complex but really simple geodesic solution.

Peter

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