Jerusalem travel guide — Jerusalem tourism and travel information

Jerusalem travel guide

about Jerusalem

Jerusalem (Modern Hebrew: ירושליםYerushaláyim, Biblical Hebrew: ירושלם, Arabic: القدسal-Quds) is an ancient Middle Eastern city of key importance to the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

With today's population of 700,000, it is a richly heterogeneous city, representing a wide range of national, religious, and socioeconomic groups. The section called the "Old City" is surrounded by walls and has four quarters: Jewish, Christian, Armenian, and Muslim.

The status of the city is hotly disputed. The 1949 cease-fire line between Israel and the West Bank, also known as the Green Line, cuts through the city. After Israel's victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, it controls the entire city and claims sovereignty over it. According to Israeli Jerusalem Law, Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel, and is the center of Jerusalem District; it serves as the country's seat of government and otherwise functions as capital. Most countries do not recognize Israeli sovereignty over some or all of the city and enforce this view by maintaining their embassies in Tel Aviv or in the suburbs. Palestinians also claim all or part of Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The origin of the name of the city is uncertain. A common theory is that it combines the names of two Biblical cities which may have been Jerusalem: Jebus (named after the founder of the Jebusites) and Salem (The name that is used in Genesis 14:18 for explanation). It is also possible to translate the name as either "Foundation of Salem" or "Foundation of Peace". It is also known by some as the City of David and Zion.

Jerusalem geography

Jerusalem is situated in 31° 46′ 45″ N. lat. and 35° 13′ 25″ E. long., upon the southern spur of a plateau the eastern side of which slopes from 2,460 ft. above sea-level north of the Temple area to 2,130 ft. at the southeastern extremity. The western hill is about 2,500 ft. high and slopes southeast from the Judean plateau.

Jerusalem is surrounded upon all sides by valleys, of which those on the north are less pronounced than those on the other three sides. The principal two valleys start northwest of the present city. The first runs eastward with a slight southerly bend (the present Wadi al-Joz), then, deflecting directly south (formerly known as "Kidron Valley," the modern Wadi Sitti Maryam), divides the Mount of Olives from the city. The second runs directly south on the western side of the city, turns eastward at its southeastern extremity, then runs directly east, and joins the first valley near Bir Ayyub ("Job's Well"). It was called in olden times the "Valley of Hinnom," and is the modern Wadi al-Rababi, which is not to be identified with the first-mentioned valley.

A third valley, commencing in the northwest where is now the Damascus Gate, ran south-southeasterly down to the Pool of Siloam, and divided the lower part into two hills (the lower and the upper cities of Josephus). This is probably the later Tyropœon ("Cheese-makers'") Valley. A fourth valley led from the western hill (near the present Jaffa Gate) over to the Temple area: it is represented in modern Jerusalem by David Street. A fifth cut the eastern hill into a northern and a southern part. Later Jerusalem was thus built upon four spurs.

Today, neighboring towns are Bethlehem and Beit Jala at the southern city border, and Abu Dis to the East.

Jerusalem history

Antiquity

This city has known many wars and various periods of occupation. At one time it was a city of the Jebusites. Later it came under Jewish control. The Bible, supported by archeological finds, records that King David defeated the Jebusites in war and captured the city without destroying it. David then expanded the city to the south, and declared it the capital city of the united Kingdom of Israel.

Later, still according to the Bible, the First Jewish Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon. The Temple became a major cultural center in the region, eventually overcoming other ritual centers such as Shilo and Bethel. By the end of the "First Temple Period," Jerusalem was the sole acting religious shrine in the kingdom and a center of regular pilgrimage. It was at this time that historical records begin to corroborate the biblical history, and the kings of Judah are historically identifiable, and we learn of the significance the Temple had.

Near the end of the reign of King Solomon, the northern ten tribes split off to form the Kingdom of Israel with its capital at Samaria. Jerusalem then become the capital of the southern kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah.

Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah for some 400 years. It had survived (or, as some historians claim, averted) an Assyrian siege in 701 BC, unlike Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, which had fallen some twenty years previously. However, the city was overcome by the Babylonians in 598 BC, who then took the young king Jehoiachin into eternal captivity, together with most of the aristocracy of that time. However, the country rebelled again under Zedekiah, prompting the city's repeated conquest and destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. The temple was burnt, and the city's walls were ruined, thus rendering what remained of the city unprotected.

After several decades of captivity and the Persian conquest of Bablyon, the Persians allowed the Jews to return to Judah and rebuild the city's walls and the Temple. It has continued to be the capital of Judah, as a province under the Persians, Greek and Romans, with a relatively short period of independence. The Temple complex was upgraded and the Temple itself rebuilt under Herod the Great. That structure is known as the Second Temple.

The city was ruined yet again when a civil war accompanied by a revolt against Rome in Judea led to the city's repeated sack and ruin, by the hands of Titus at 70 AD.

The Second Temple was burnt, and the whole city was ruined. The only remaining part of the Temple was a portion of an external (retaining) wall which became known as the Western Wall.

Sixty years later, after crushing the Bar Kokhba's revolt, the Roman emperor Hadrian resettled the city as a pagan polis under the name Aelia Capitolina. Jews were forbidden to enter the city, but for a single day of the year, Tisha B'Av, (the Ninth of Av), when they could weep for the destruction of their city at the Temple's only remaining wall.

The Byzantine Empire, which came to control the region after the split of the Roman Empire, cherished the city for its Christian history. However, in accordance with traditions of religious tolerance often found in the ancient East, Jews were allowed into it in the 5th century A.D.

Although the Koran does not mention the name "Jerusalem", Islamic tradition holds that it was from Jerusalem that the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven in the Night Journey, or Isra. The city was one of the Arab empire's first conquests in 638 AD; according to Arab historians of the time, the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab personally went to the city to receive its submission, cleaning out and praying at the Temple Mount in the process. Sixty years later, the Dome of the Rock was built, a structure in which there lies the stone where Muhammad is said to have tethered his mount Buraq during the Isra. This is also reputed to be the place where Abraham went to sacrifice his son (Isaac in the Jewish tradition, Ishmael in the Muslim one.) Note that the octagonal and gold-sheeted Dome is not the same thing as the Al-Aqsa Mosque beside it, which was built more than three centuries later.

Second millennium

On July 15, 1099 during the First Crusade, Christian soldiers took Jerusalem after a difficult one month siege. They then proceeded to slaughter most of the city's Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. Raymond d'Aguiliers, chaplain to Raymond de Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse, wrote:

Jerusalem became the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which lasted until 1291, although Jerusalem itself was recaptured by Saladin in 1187. In 1173 Benjamin of Tudela visited Jerusalem. He described it as a small city full of Jacobites, Armenians, Greeks, and Georgians. Two hundred Jews dwelt in a corner of the city under the Tower of David.

The early Arab period was also one of religious tolerance. However, in early 11th century, the Egyptian Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of all churches and synagogues in Jerusalem. The Crusaders, at the end of the century, captured Jerusalem and massacred the whole Jewish and Muslim population. They made Jerusalem the center of a feudal state, of which the King of Jerusalem was the chief. Neither Jews nor Muslims were allowed into the city during that time. In 1187, Jerusalem was retaken by Salah ad-Din, who permitted worship of all religions.

In 1219 the walls of the city were taken down by order of the Sultan of Damascus; in 1229, by treaty with Egypt, Jerusalem came into the hands of Frederick II of Germany. In 1239 he began to rebuild the walls; but they were again demolished by Da'ud, the emir of Kerak.

In 1243 Jerusalem came again into the power of the Christians, and the walls were repaired. The Kharezmian Tatars took the city in 1244; and they in turn were driven out by the Egyptians in 1247. In 1260 the Tatars under Hulaku Khan overran the whole land, and the Jews that were in Jerusalem had to flee to the neighboring villages.

In 1244, Sultan Malik al-Muattam razed the city walls, rendering it again defenseless and dealing a heavy blow to the city's status. In the middle of the 13th century, Jerusalem was captured by the Egyptian Mameluks. In 1517, it was taken over by the Ottoman Empire and enjoyed a period of renewal and peace under Suleiman the Magnificent - including the rebuilding of magnificent walls of what is now known as the Old City (however, some of the wall foundations are remains of genuine antique walls). The rule of Suleiman and the following Ottoman Sultans brought an age of "religious peace"; Jew, Christian and Muslim enjoyed the freedom of religion the Ottomans granted them and it was possible to find a synagogue, a church and a mosque in the same street. The city remained open to all religions, although the empire's faulty management after Suleiman meant slow economical stagnation.

In 1482, the visiting Dominican priest Felix Fabri described Jerusalem as a dwelling place of diverse nations of the world, and is, as it were, a collection of all manner of abominations. As abominations he listed Saracens, Greeks, Syrians, Jacobites, Abyssianians, Nestorians, Armenians, Gregorians, Maronites, Turcomans, Bedouins, Assassins, a sect possibly Druze, Mamelukes, and the most accursed of all, Jews. Only the Latin Christians long with all their hearts for Christian princes to come and subject all the country to the authority of the Church of Rome. (A. Stewart, Palestine Pilgrims Text Society, Vol 9-10, p. 384-391)

19th-early 20th centuries

The modern history of Jerusalem began in the mid-nineteenth century, with the decline of the Ottoman Empire. At that time, the city was a backwater, with a population that did not exceed 8,000. Nevertheless, it was, even then, an extremely heterogeneous city because of its significance to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The population was divided into four major communities--Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Armenian--and the first three of these could be further divided into countless subgroups, based on precise religious affiliation or country of origin. An example of this would be the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was meticulously partitioned between the Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, Coptic, and Ethiopian churches. Tensions between the groups ran so deep that the keys to the shrine were kept with a 'neutral' Muslim family for safekeeping.

At that time, the communities were located mainly around their primary shrines. The Muslim community, then the largest, surrounded the Haram ash-Sharif or Temple Mount (northeast), the Christians lived mainly in the vicinity of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (northwest), the Jews lived mostly on the slope above the Western Wall(southeast), and the Armenians lived near the Zion Gate (southwest). In no way was this division exclusive, however, it did form the basis of the four quarters during the British Mandate period (1917-1948).

Several changes occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, which had long-lasting effects on the city: their implications can be felt today and lie at the root of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over Jerusalem. The first of these was a trickle of Jewish immigrants, from the Middle East and Eastern Europe, which shifted the balance of population. The first such immigrants were ultra-Orthodox Jews: some were elderly individuals, who came to die in Jerusalem and be buried on the Mount of Olives; others were students, who came with their families to await the coming of the Messiah, and adding new life to the local population. At the same time, European colonial powers also began among the Muslim and especially the Jewish populations, believing that this would speed the Second Coming of Christ. Finally, the combination of European colonialism and religious zeal was expressed in a new scientific interest in the biblical lands in general and Jerusalem in particular. Archeological and other expeditions made some spectacular finds, which increased interest in Jerusalem even more.

By the 1860s, the city, with an area of only 1 square kilometer, was already overcrowded. Thus began the construction of the New City, the part of Jerusalem outside of the city walls. Seeking new areas to stake their claims, the Russian Orthodox Church began constructing a complex, now known as the Russian Compound, a few hundred meters from Jaffa Gate. The first attempt at residential settlement outside the walls of Jerusalem was begun by Jews, who built a small complex on the hill overlooking Zion Gate, across the Valley of Hinnom. This settlement, known as Mishkenot Shaananim, eventually flourished and set the precedent for other new communities to spring up to the west and north of the Old City. In time, as the communities grew and connected geographically, this became known as the New City.

The British were victorious over the Turks in the Middle East and with victory in Palestine, General Sir Edmund Allenby, commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force entered Jerusalem on foot, out of respect for the Holy City, on December 11th, 1917. By the time General Allenby took Jerusalem from the Ottomans in 1917, the new city was a patchwork of neighborhoods and communities, each with a distinct ethnic character.

This continued under British rule, as the neighborhoods flourished and the Old City of Jerusalem gradually emerged as little more than an impoverished older neighborhood. One of the British bequests to the city was a town planning order requiring new buildings in the city to be faced with sandstone thus preserving some of the overall look of the city.

Near cities to Jerusalem

• Qiryat Atta travel guide 12 km
• Bet Shemesh travel guide 22 km
• Bet She an travel guide 22 km
• Ramla travel guide 38 km
• Lod travel guide 39 km
• Rehovot travel guide 42 km
• Givatayim travel guide 42 km
• Nes Ziyyona travel guide 44 km
• Yehud travel guide 44 km
• Or Yehuda travel guide 46 km

Near webcams to Jerusalem

• Jerusalem - Golden Gate webcam 0 km
• Western Wall webcam 0 km
• Western Wall webcam 0 km
• Jerusalem - Western Wall webcam 1.6 km
• Jerusalem - Olive Hill webcam 1.6 km
• Tel Aviv - Hilton Beach webcam 55 km
• Tel Aviv - Beach webcam 55 km
• Beirut - Jounieh Highway webcam 230 km
• Beirut webcam 240 km
• Nicosia webcam 420 km

back to top

Jerusalem travel services

cheap flights to Jerusalem

• book cheap flights to Jerusalem »
• book cheap flights to Israel »

City Travel Guide is exclusive partner of four main cheap airline tickets and cheap flights online booking systems. We are happy to offer cheap airline tickets Jerusalem, cheap flights Jerusalem, also available cheap airline tickets to Israel and to the whole world. Up to date cheap flights Jerusalem deals also available.

cheap Jerusalem hotels

• book cheap hotels to Jerusalem »
• book cheap hotels to Israel »

City Travel Guide is exclusive partner of main cheap hotels and accommodation online booking systems. We are happy to offer cheap hotels in Jerusalem, Israel hotel guide and cheap hotels and accommodation in lot of other world-wide destinations. Up to date cheap Jerusalem hotel deals and discount accommodation tips also available.

cheap Jerusalem vacations

• book Jerusalem vacations »
• book Israel vacations »

City Travel Guide is exclusive partner of main cheap vacations online booking systems. We are happy to offer cheap vacations in Jerusalem, Israel vacation rentals and cheap vacations in lot of other destinations world-wide. Up to date Jerusalem vacation deals also available.

cheap car rentals in Jerusalem

• book cheap car rental in Jerusalem »
• book cheap car rentals in Israel »

City Travel Guide is exclusive partner of main car rentals online booking systems. We are happy to offer car rentals in Jerusalem, car hire in Israel and cheap car rental in lot other world-wide destinations. Up to date cheap Jerusalem car hire deals also available.

Jerusalem travel insurance

• Jerusalem cheap travel insurance »
• cheap travel insurance for Israel »

City Travel Guide is exclusive partner of Essential Travel Ltd., leading online travel insurance company, we can offer you health travel insurance for Jerusalem, accident health Jerusalem travel insurance, all using our online Jerusalem travel insurance form. We also offer travel insurance for other cities in Israel. This offer is available for UK residents only.

Jerusalem real estate

• Jerusalem real estate guide »
• real estate listings in Israel »

City Travel Guide comes with Jerusalem real estate guide with several tips on home valuation, realtors comparison, secrets on finding the "right" home, loans guide and other helpful real estate advices. Our partners also maintain Jerusalem property for sale and rental listings, real estate laws and reviews. We will try to help you with buying property in Israel, choosing real estate agents, property finders, relocation help, and information for English speakers wanting to buy real estate in Jerusalem.

back to top

Jerusalem travel books

Jerusalem travel guide books

• Jerusalem travel guide books »
• Israel travel guide books »

Jerusalem maps and atlases

• Jerusalem maps and atlases »
• Israel maps and atlases »

back to top