Center of World

View of the marble stand (left) which is located in the Catholicon and that represents the “center of the world.”

In the Old Testament Jerusalem was considered to be the center of the nations:

Psalm 74:12
"But you, O God, are my king from of old;
you bring salvation in the midst of the earth."

Ezekiel 5:5 
“This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
This is Jerusalem,
which I have set in the center of the nations,
with countries all around her."

Many consider the Temple Mount area to be the “center of the world” but with the growing influence of Christianity during the Byzantine period, some of these traditions “migrated” to the site of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

Indeed, Medieval maps typically portray Jerusalem at the center of the world!

In Greek tradition, Delphi was considered to be the “center of the world”—the “Omphalos.”