The center of the world

Omphal ( Greek: ὀμφαλός - navel) is an ancient cult object ( butyl ) in Delphi , considered the navel of the earth. This stone dedicated to Apollo was stored in his temple , had the appearance of a monolithic block and was in a cella , surrounded by two golden eagles.

In the Talmud, the Foundation Stone (or Cornerstone ) of the Temple Mount , on which the Jerusalem Temple was located, and now stands the Muslim Dome of the Rock , is considered ^{[3] the} cornerstone of the universe, since it was from him that the Lord began the Creation of the world . But according to the story of Abimelech from the Book of Judges ( Judges 9:37 ), the navel of the Earth is a toponym near the city of Shechem , possibly one of the sacred mountains, Grisim .

From ancient times, Christians began to call Jerusalem that way, based on the words of the psalm: “God, my Tsar from all ages, arranging salvation in the midst of the earth!” ( Psalm 73:12 ), as well as on the words of the prophet Ezekiel : “Thus says the Lord God: this is Jerusalem ! I have set it among the nations, and the lands around it. ” ( Ezek. 5: 5 ). In Jerusalem itself, almost from the time of the holy Queen Helena , the Navel of the Earth began to be indicated directly opposite the entrance to the cave of the Holy Sepulcher . Then this place became the symbolic Christian center of the Earth, a place of salvation for the entire human race. According to the Orthodox tradition, it is still inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher , in the middle of a straight line connecting the altar of the Orthodox catholicon and Kuvukliya , a chapel built over the Holy Sepulcher . To indicate its exact location, they place a symbolic low marble bowl with a ball inside, on which a cross is drawn. In the abbot of Hegumen Daniel to the Holy Land (XII century) at the end of the chapter on the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord, it is said: “ Here, behind the wall, outside the altar, is the navel of the earth; a vault was made above it, and Christ was depicted on top with a mosaic, and the inscription reads: “Behold, with My span, I have measured heaven and earth” ” ^[4] .

The bowl is so light that it is chained so that tourists and pilgrims do not displace or carry it away.

Cosmogonic representations of any culture usually contain similar representations:

• Cuzco ( Quechua Qusqu, Qosqo - Navel of the Earth ) - the official name of the capital of the Inca Empire .
• Te-Pitot-te-henua ( rap. Te-Pito-te-henua - Navel of the Earth) - on Easter Island, Rapanuytsy call a ritual site with a large round stone in the center and four smaller ones on the cardinal points, and this is also one of the names islands.
• Songshan Mountain, not correlating with the concept of the Earth as a body , was nevertheless interpreted by the ancient Chinese as the Center of the World. In the imperial era, the notion of grief as the sacred center of the world was attached to Taishan .

• In a figurative sense, "the navel of the earth" is an ironic idiom that characterizes in man an excessive "self" - self-confidence, arrogance and selfishness.
• Since 2007, in Kungur there is a monument "The navel of the earth ."

• The navel of the earth // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Toporov V.N. Navel of the Earth // Myths of the World: Encyclopedia . Electronic Edition / Ch. ed. S. A. Tokarev . - M., 2008 ( Soviet Encyclopedia , 1980). - S. 840-841.
• Wiktionary