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Mount Carmel, the wooded coastal ridge above Haifa, is formally linked to three religions in this atlas: Judaism, Christianity and the Bahai Faith, all three links carrying no further comment at the religion level. Its own description differentiates all three anyway, each holding the ridge for a different, concrete historical reason.

A Prophet's Cave, an Order's Name, a Faith's World Centre

"In the Hebrew Bible it is the mountain where the prophet Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal and called down fire, and a cave near the shore is venerated as his." The Carmelite order "takes its name and origin from the mountain, where European hermits gathered in the twelfth century; their monastery of Stella Maris stands on the northern headland." And "on the mountain's Haifa slope stand the golden domed Shrine of the Bab and the terraced gardens of the Bahai World Centre, among the holiest places of the Bahai Faith." A cave, an order's name, and a faith's own world centre, three different kinds of claim on one ridge.

Named Honestly: A Fourth Tradition in the Text but Not in the Graph

Its own description names Elijah's cave as "venerated as his by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike," a fourth tradition alongside the three the atlas's own links actually count. No formal link connects Mount Carmel to Islam. This essay reports that plainly rather than treating the sentence as a fourth counted convergence the atlas does not yet carry.

Where To Read More

• Mount CarmelChristian SitesFew sites carry so many living claims at once; three religions counted, a fourth named in the text but not yet anchored
• JudaismAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Elijah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal, and a cave venerated as his
• ChristianityAbrahamic (Monotheistic)The Carmelite order takes its name and its origin from this mountain
• Bahá’í FaithAbrahamic (Monotheistic)The Shrine of the Bab and the Bahai World Centre stand on its Haifa slope