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| City Guide - Jerusalem - City Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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City Overview No other city has the ability to inspire quite the same passions as the Old City of Jerusalem. With claims on it by three of the major world religions, it is no wonder that the history of Jerusalem (Yerushalayim in Hebrew, Al-Quds in Arabic) is marked by political and religious turmoil. The Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount is the third most important religious site of Islam (after Mecca and Medina), and it is from here that Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven. For Jews, the Western Wall is all that remains of the Second Temple, while for Christians the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is thought to contain the tomb where Jesus was laid to rest after the Crucifixion, the cross having been carried through the streets of the city along the route known as the Via Dolarosa. Every visitor to Jerusalem soon realises that the city is fundamentally divided, and that it is this division that accounts for the city's spellbinding appeal. Modern Jerusalem is in two parts: West Jerusalem, which has been part of the state of Israel since the country's establishment in 1948, and East Jerusalem, which belonged to Jordan from 1948 to 1967, when it was formally annexed by Israel. West Jerusalem is in many ways a tribute to the economic growth and prosperity Israel has enjoyed since its foundation and is very much characterised by leafy suburbs and smart cafés. East Jerusalem, by contrast, offers very different charms. Predominantly Arab, it has its own more relaxed pace of life, and street markets instead of shopping malls. However, the bullet holes that scar many of the houses in its neighbourhoods are a reminder of the political conflict that still resonates in the Middle East and a comment on East Jerusalem's relative economic neglect. It is in the midst of these two contrasting halves that the Old City is to be found. Into this small area of land, less than one sq kilometre, is crammed a labyrinth of streets enclosed within walls of limestone dating back to the sixteenth century and the reign of the Ottoman ruler, Suleiman the Magnificent. This, the focus of all Jerusalem's historical and religious divisions, is where the majority of visitors to the city will spend most of their time. The Old City is divided into four quarters, each named after the community that mainly inhabited it during the Middle Ages: Arab, Jewish, Christian and Armenian. As well as the grand holy sites, its network of winding streets offers the chance to step back in time to savour the feel of cheek-by-jowl Middle Eastern life. Within yards, you may wander from the hustle and bustle of an Arab souk into the quiet calm of an Armenian garden, before ending up before the splendour of a medieval citadel. Jerusalem provides a unique opportunity to experience at close hand the contrasting opposites of ancient and modern, oriental and western, heavenly and earthly. There is no other city that demands and offers quite so much. |
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