Jerusalem was occupied in very ancient times. The Canaanites moved into the area in the 3000s BCE, and a small town, Jebus, grew up, most likely under the ancient priest-king Melchizedek, who ruled at the time of Abraham around 1800 BCE. Abraham, father of the Jews and Arabs, nearly sacrificed his son Isaac here, on the rock in the Dome of the Rock, but he desisted at the last moment.

Around 1250 BCE the Hebrews occupied the Jordan valley, but Jebus remained a Jebusite city for 250 years more, with a Hebrew tribe, the Benjaminities, living peacably outside.

Around 1000 BCE David, king of Judah, took the city, making it Israel's capital. He brought the Ark of the Covenant here. After 960, under Solomon, impressive building took place, including the Temple Mount. Israel divided after Solomon's death in 920, and before long the Egyptians looted the city.

It revived 200 years later, especially after Assyrian attacks caused many people to move into the fortress city. Many tribes of Israel were forcibly dispersed. The city fell in 587 to the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar, and most Jews were removed to Babylon. By 538, Cyrus, the new Persian ruler of Babylon, permitted their return, and by 515 the second Temple was built.

The city remained under Persian rule until the arrival of Alexander the Great in 333 - thereafter the area was Greek dominated. Around 176, in a time of Jewish uprisings, Antiochus of Syria destroyed much of Jerusalem. It was reclaimed and rebuilt under the Hasmoneans.

After a century, the Romans invaded in 63 BCE. Herod, the Roman-appointed king, undertook much building, including a new Temple - the Wailing Wall is a remnant. Jerusalem figured strongly in the life of Jesus and the New Testament. After a Jewish revolt, the Romans destroyed it in 70 CE, and after another revolt in the 130s it was totally destroyed, and the Jews exiled.

Things were quiet until the Christian Byzantines took the city in 324, carrying out new building - such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Life went on until turbulences came in the early 600s. Finally the city was taken by Caliph Omar and the Muslims in 637. The Dome of the Rock was built on the site of the Temple, with al Aqsa just south of it. Life in Palestine was stable, with periodic changes, until 1099. Generally, Christians and Jews were tolerated.

Then came the Crusaders in 1099, who massacred nearly all Jewish and Muslim residents. They occupied the city until 1187, leaving their mark. Jerusalem was re-taken peaceably by Salah-ad-Din and a period of Muslim stability followed, in which Jews and Christians were again tolerated. Egyptian Mamluks ruled the city from 1250 to 1517, during which time the city declined.

The Turkish Ottoman conquest in 1517 brought rebuilding and expansion - the Old City walls date from this time. By 1800 though, the city had declined. Jewish immigration began, with a growth of Jewish settlement to the west and Muslim settlement to the east of the city around mid-century. On the fall of the Ottomans, the British took over in 1917, until 1948. The Arab-Jewish struggle for Jerusalem and Palestine developed, and the inability of the British to resolve this issue led to crisis after WW2.

Arguments over land and rights, with inept political handling abroad, led to the Jewish War of Independence and the founding of the state of Israel. Jerusalem's status has fluxed bewteen Jordanian and Israeli control, with both the Jewish and Palestinian communities wanting Jerusalem as their capital. The intifadas of the late 1980s and after 2000, together with controversial Israeli actions, have made Jerusalem much less visited. One consequence of eventual peace is that it will serve as a world city and place of pilgrimage again.

Glastonbury, the ancient Isle of Avalon, has misty origins. Many suspect it was an ancient centre for a succession of faiths and mystery schools, including that of the Megalithic period (3000s-2000s BCE), ancient Goddess cults and, later, after 1000 BCE, the Druids.

In ancient times, Britain was a leading spiritual culture off Europe. Avalon was a leading centre - a small island surrounded by marshes, crowned by a remarkable hill, the Tor, and populated by a succession of holy people.

Avalon was a Druidic place of learning, isolated yet central, with a tradition of pilgrimage, and hosting one of the three perpetual choirs of Britain.

Tradition has it that Jesus came here as a youth, during the 'lost years', with Joseph of Arimathaea. Hence William Blake's 'And did Those Feet in ancient time, walk upon England's pastures green?'.

A stronger tradition has it that Joseph and twelve followers arrived here after Jesus' Crucifixion, as exiles from Jerusalem, in 37 or 63 CE. Joseph apparently alighted from his boat - Glastonbury could then be approached from the sea - climbed Wearyall Hill, one of Avalon's four sacred hills, rested on his staff, and it sprouted leaves and branches.

He was granted land by the local king. The Christians built a church - the world's first purpose-built Christian shrine - modelled on the dimensions of Solomon's Temple and dedicated to Mary the Mother.

The community slowly declined, to be revived in the 400s by St Patrick. He began the building of a monastery which, by the 1100s, was one of Europe's great abbeys. Glastonbury remained a haven for Celtic Christian and Goddess traditions.

The Abbey grew under St Dunstan in the mid-900s. The church was elongated, a big library accumulated, and a monastery developed. It was known as 'England's Holyeste Earthe', the residence of saints such as Bridget, Benignus and David.

Tragedy struck in 1184, when the Abbey and Library burnt down. Relics, treasures and books were lost. In the ruins were found, reputedly, the remains of King Arthur and Guinevere. Complete rebuilding took 120 years. Glastonbury grew great again and, by the 1300s it was wealthy and semi-autonomous.

This ended in the 1520s when Henry VIII dissolved the Catholic church and monasteries in England, for power-political reasons. He left Glastonbury for two years. The refusal of the Abbot to yield up ancient relics of Jesus and other treasures ended with his execution, and the Abbey was looted and destroyed.

Glastonbury went into decline, occasionally visited by mystics and occultists such as John Dee and William Blake. By the late 1800s it was a centre for eccentrics, a birthplace of what later became the 'new age' movement. In the early 1900s it was a haven for writers and artists, such as Rutland Boughton, George Bernard Shaw and the Bloomsbury Set.

Occultists and spiritualists came. Wellesley Tudor Pole founded the Chalice Well Trust, to protect an ancient 'primary water' spring, and Dion Fortune founded an 'ashram' at the foot of the Tor. During WW2 Glastonbury was the centre for the secret 'psychic war effort' against Hitler.

By the 1960s the mythos of Glastonbury gained new attention, and in 1971 the first Glastonbury Fayre started - a now-famous contemporary arts festival and modern-day annual pilgrimage. A significant alternative community existed in Glastonbury by the 1980s. Today it attracts people of independent spiritual inclination from all over the world, hosting many events, and home to a unique community of unusual people interspersed amongst the 9,000 population. Glastonbury, for its small size, is very cosmopolitan.

Jerusalem - Glastonbury

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