The Holy Land, in the Abrahamic faiths, is a region of the Levant located between the River Jordan in the east and the Mediterranean Sea in the west, in what is now Israel, Palestine, western Jordan, and southern Lebanon. The region is important in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as the land of the Old Testament prophets and the location of the holy city of Jerusalem, with Christians emphasizing the region's importance as the birthplace of Jesus and the location of his ministry from 27 to 33 AD, and Muslims emphasizing its importance to the prophet Muhammad's nighttime journeys Isra and Mi'raj and his ascent into the heavens (at the site of al-Aqsa Mosque) in 621 AD. The Holy Land was under Roman and Byzantine rule from the 1st century BC to the 7th century AD, when it was conquered by the Islamic caliphate. In spite of Christian attempts to reconquer the Holy Land in the Crusades of 1099-1291, the region remained under Islamic rule until the 20th century. In 1918, following World War I, the British Empire conquered the Holy Land from the Turkish Ottoman Empire, and, in 1948, following World War II and the Holocaust, Britain gave independence to Mandatory Palestine, which split into the Jewish state of Israel and the Arab state of Palestine. From 1948 to 1973, Israel survived several Arab assaults and expanded its borders, and, following the Six-Day War of 1967, the Holy Land was partitioned between Israel and the Palestinian territories (the West Bank and Gaza). By the 21st century, the Holy Land was still religiously and culturally diverse, with Jews and Muslims making up the majority of inhabitants, and Christians and Druze making up a minority. It is still a major pilgrimage destination for worshippers of all Abrahamic faiths, and Jerusalem is still held in high importance by the three main faiths.
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