JERUSALEM (pop 729,100)
Jerusalem has been seducing travellers, pilgrims and curiosity seekers since time immemorial. Holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, the city is overflowing with sites of intense religious importance, not the least of which are the Dome of the Rock, the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Even for the nonreligious, it’s hard not to be moved by the emotions and history that come alive in the narrow alleyways of the Old City.
I’m staying at the Jerusalem Hostel (80S per night or an 8-bed dorm). It is on Jaffa Street, a long pedestrianized street with only a light-rail line. The hostel is in an old hotel called the Ron Hotel. Maybe I was meant to be here. Half the guests are tourists and half are young people working as volunteers on kibbutzes or moshaves (private and communal enterprises).
A sign in East Jerusalem read “This Road Leads to a Palestinian Village. The Entrance for Israeli Citizens is Dangerous.”
History. Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, placed under siege 23 times, attacked another 52 times and captured and recaptured 44 times.
The first settlement on the site of Jerusalem was a small Jebusite village situated south of Mt Moriah (today Al-Haram ash-Sharif/Temple Mount), where the Bible says Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac. In 997 BC King David captured the city and made it his capital. His son, King Solomon, built the First Temple. This was destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, who exiled the Jews to Babylonia. In 538 BC they were allowed to return by Cyrus the Great, and almost immediately began construction of the Second Temple, which was consecrated in 516 BC.
Power in Jerusalem shifted between Jewish rulers, such as the Maccabees, and various regional empires, until the Romans took control in 63 BC, installing Herod the Great as king of Judea. He launched a massive building campaign, significantly expanding the Second Temple. The city was then ruled by a series of procurators; it was the fifth of these, Pontius Pilate, who ordered the crucifixion of Jesus.
Growing Jewish discontent with Roman rule exploded in AD 66 with the Great Jewish Revolt (the First Jewish–Roman War), which ended with the sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70. After the Bar Kochba Rebellion (AD 132–35), the Jews were banished from Jerusalem. Emperor Hadrian razed the city and rebuilt it as Aelia Capitolina – the street grid forms the basis of today’s Old City.
During the Byzantine era (4th to early 7th century AD), Christianity became the official state religion, forcing the conversion of many local Jews and Samaritans. Many Christian shrines were built; work on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, for instance, commenced in AD 326.
In AD 638 Byzantine Jerusalem fell to a new power, Islam, and came under the sway of Arab civilization. The Dome of the Rock, instantly recognizable thanks to its gleaming gold dome, was completed in AD 691. But despite its significance to Islam, Jerusalem’s political and economic fortunes fell into decline, the result of the city’s distance from the imperial capitals of Damascus and Cairo.
In the 11th century, Palestine fell to the Seljuk Turks, who stopped Christian pilgrims from visiting Jerusalem. The response of Western European Christians was a series of Crusades – and Crusader kingdoms – that lasted from 1095 to 1270. The Crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099, but lost it in 1187 to Saladin (Salah ad-Din), Kurdish founder of the Muslim Ayyubid dynasty.
In 1250 the city came under the influence of the Mamluks, successors to the Ayyubids, who ruled from Egypt and turned the city into a centre of Islamic learning. In 1517 the Ottoman Turks absorbed Jerusalem into their expanding empire, where it would remain, something of a backwater, for the next 400 years. Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (r 1520–66) built the walls that still surround the Old City.
In the 19th century the first road linking Jerusalem with Jaffa was built, greatly increasing the number of Jewish and Christian pilgrims. By about 1850, Jews constituted the majority of the city’s 25,000 residents. The first neighbourhood built outside the walls of the Old City was Yemin Moshe, established in 1860. Access to the city became quick and easy with the completion of the Jaffa–Jerusalem rail line in 1892.
The British captured Jerusalem from the Ottomans in December 1917 and later made it the capital of the British Mandate of Palestine. Tensions between Jews and Arabs flared in the 1920s and 1930s. After the British left Palestine in 1948, fighting between the new State of Israel and Jordan’s Arab Legion resulted in the city partition. West Jerusalem became the capital of Israel; East Jerusalem, including the entire Old City, was annexed by Jordan.
Jerusalem was reunified after Israel captured the eastern part of the city during the 1967 Six Day War. Shortly after the war, Israel annexed East Jerusalem, declaring the entire city to be its ‘eternal capital’. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state of Palestine. Israel’s Separation Fence – in many places around Jerusalem an 8m-high cement wall – cuts East Jerusalem off from the West Bank.
Sights. Jerusalem is divided into three distinct parts: the walled Old City, with its four quarters; the predominantly Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem; and the Israeli New City, also known as West Jerusalem.
OLD CITY. Protected by 16th-century stone ramparts, the magical, mysterious Old City is divided into Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian quarters, each with a distinct and intoxicating atmosphere. The sturdy Old City walls are the legacy of Süleyman the Magnificent, who built them between 1537 and 1542. Above all, the Old City is a holy place – the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are hardly more than a stone’s throw from each other.
Most visitors enter through Jaffa Gate; the rest of the Old City is downhill.
City Gates. Jaffa Gate, so named because it was the beginning of the old road to Jaffa, is now the main entrance to the Old City from the New City. Moving clockwise, the 1887 New Gate, built by Sultan Abdul Hamid, gives access to the Christian Quarter. Down the hill, Damascus Gate, the most attractive and crowded of all the city gates, links the Muslim Quarter with the bustling centre of Arab East Jerusalem. Here, you’ll see vendors selling their wares, as they have for centuries, and armed Israeli border policemen peeping out from atop Süleyman’s magnificent gateway. It was near Herod’s Gate in 1099 that the Crusaders first breached Jerusalem’s walls. Lion’s Gate, facing the Mount of Olives, is also called St Stephen’s Gate, after the first Christian martyr, who was stoned to death nearby. It was from here that Israeli paratroops took the Old City in the 1967 Six Day War. Dung Gate links the Western Wall with the City of David excavations, a bit down the slope to the south. Zion Gate became known as the Gate of the Jewish Quarter in late medieval times, and is still pocked with reminders of the fierce fighting that occured here during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Ramparts Walk. This is a 1km jaunt along the top of the city walls – from Jaffa Gate north to Lion’s Gate, via New, Damascus and Herod’s Gates; and Jaffa Gate south to Dung Gate, via Zion Gate. The stretch along Al-Haram ash-Sharif/Temple Mount is closed for security reasons. You can only enter at Jaffa gate and my Jerusalem Walls ticket didn’t work.
Citadel (Tower of David). Dominating the Jaffa Gate area is the Citadel, which includes Roman-era Herod’s Tower and the Tower of David (actually a minaret). Inside, the highly worthwhile Tower of David Museum, presents the entire history of Jerusalem in a concise and easily digestible format. Among the highlights: a scale model of Jerusalem, made in the late 19th century and discovered almost 100 years later, forgotten in a Geneva warehouse.
CHRISTIAN QUARTER. Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter, to the left as you enter Jaffa Gate, is an attractive blend of clean streets, souvenir stalls, hospices and religious institutions belonging to 20 different Christian denominations.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The centrepiece of the Christian Quarter is this sombre, exuberantly decorated church, at the site also known as Calvary or Golgotha – this is where the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Ethiopian and Coptic churches believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. The Via Dolorosa ends here. The original Byzantine church was destroyed by the mad Caliph Hakim in 1009, extensively rebuilt by the Crusaders, and tweaked by numerous others over the years. To keep the peace between the church’s notoriously fractious Christian denominations, a Muslim family keeps the keys, unlocking the doors each morning and securing them again at night. Open daily to anyone who’s modestly dressed. This is a moving place. I was interviewed by Russian TV by a good interviewer who asked some good questions. After walking the Via Dolorosa, i entered the Church again and waited in the long line to get into the resurrection chamber. I waited in line with a Baptist minister from Kentucky and got into a pointless discussion with him over evolution. He asked if I believed in “in kind” or gradual evolution!! He wanted to know the specific date that humans appeared. He really didn’t know much about evolution.
Ethiopian Monastery. Located in the northwest corner of the Holy Sepulchre complex, where a few Ethiopian monks reside in a highly atmospheric medieval cloister.
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. Built in 1898, this church is famed for its excellent views over the Old City (from the tower). I attended a lovely mass here for a large tour group from England.
Most of the tourists in Jerusalem are in tour groups on short holidays to Israel. Many are religious pilgrimages and I saw groups from America, Korea, Singapore (one group had 614 people in it), Indonesia and England. I’m sure they get more information and the independent traveller has to do his own research to get the most out of all the sites.
ARMENIAN QUARTER & MT ZION. Armenia was the first nation to officially embrace Christianity when their king converted in AD 303. When the Armenians’ kingdom disappeared at the end of the 4th century, they adopted Jerusalem as their spiritual capital and have had an uninterrupted presence here ever since. The city’s Armenian population, now numbered at about 1500, grew significantly in the early 1900s, when immigrants arrived – both to work on re-tiling the Dome of the Rock and to escape Ottoman Turkish persecution.
St James’ (Jacques’) CathedraL. The glowing lamps that hang from the ceiling and the richly patterned carpets strewn across the floors give St James’ Cathedral a palpable aura of mystery. The cathedral is only open for services; the most impressive are held on Sunday when nine hooded priests take part. Not open when I visited.
Room of the Last Supper. From the Armenian Quarter, Zion Gate leads out to Mt Zion, where you’ll find a room believed to be where Jesus’ last supper took place.
King David’s Tomb. At the back of the same building as the Room of the Last Supper.
Church & Monastery of the Dormition. Where Jesus’ mother Mary fell into ‘eternal sleep’. The mosaics here were quite astounding.
Grave of Oskar Schindler. The Austrian industrialist who saved more than 1200 Jews from the gas chambers (and whose story was captured by filmmaker Steven Spielberg in the Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List) is buried on Mt Zion, downhill and bearing left at the fork as you exit Zion Gate. I couldn’t find this.
Chamber of the Holocaust. Very interesting, this was not a museum but had hundreds of marble plaques commemorating all the European towns and cities where all the inhabitants had been killed.
JEWISH QUARTER. Largely residential, the wheelchair-friendly Jewish Quarter was almost entirely flattened during and after the 1948 fighting, and was reconstructed following its capture by Israel in 1967. Consequently, there are few historic monuments above ground level, but excavations have unearthed a number of archaeological sites.
Western Wall. Judaism’s holiest site was built about 2000 years ago as a simple retaining wall for the Temple Mount, upon which stood the Second Temple. It became a place of pilgrimage during the Ottoman period – Jews would come to mourn the destruction of the temple, which is why the site came to be known as the Wailing Wall (a name that Jews themselves tend to avoid). The area immediately in front of the wall now serves as an open-air synagogue; the right side is for women (who must dress modestly, covering their arms and legs), and the larger left side for men (who must wear a kippa; paper ones are provided). It’s accessible 24 hours a day. Look out for the prayers on slips of paper stuffed into cracks in the wall, which are thought to have a better chance than others of being answered.
Beside the wall in a large room, I watched 50-five-year-old Hassidic Jews singing – they were so behaved.
Western Wall Tunnels. This fascinating 488m passage, excavated by archaeologists, follows the northern continuation of the Western Wall. The foundation stones here are enormous – one is a 570-ton monster the size of a small bus. Visitable only on a 75-minute guided tour that was amazing (30S). The tour follows the Western Wall along its entire length under the Muslim Quarter which was built on top. The two or three? layers of previous cities are visible in many places – a never ending archaeological dig. A video shows how all these stones were moved and quarried. The surface of the unweathered stones are dressed perfectly.
Jerusalem Archaeological Park & Davidson Centre. A bit south of the Western Wall, this area’s streets, columns, walls and plazas offer a peek into the history of the Temple Mount.
Cardo Maximus. Cutting a broad north–south swath, the Cardo Maximus is the reconstructed main street of Roman and Byzantine Jerusalem. At one time it would have run the whole breadth of the city, up to what’s now Damascus Gate. Part of the street has been restored to approximate its original appearance, while another section has been turned into a shopping arcade with thoroughly modern gift and souvenir shops. Close to the large menorah (seven-branched candelabra) near the southern end of the Cardo, the Alone on the Walls Museum documents the Jews’ unsuccessful 1948 campaign for control of the city.
Wohl Archaeological Museum (Herodian Quarter). Features a 1st-century home and several Herodian archaeological sites, plus interpretive displays detailing the lavish lifestyle enjoyed in the Jewish neighbourhood of Herod’s city.
Hurva Synagogue. Built in the early 1700s, rebuilt in 1864 and destroyed by the Jordanians after a pitched battle in 1948, this synagogue underwent a lengthy post-1967 reconstruction and re opened in 2009.
MUSLIM QUARTER Running from Damascus Gate south and southeast towards the Temple Mount, this is the most visually stimulating area of the Old City; it’s also the most claustrophobic, confusing and crowded. You’ll inevitably get lost in the tangle of trade and teeming humanity and be enchanted by the tempting aromas emanating from spice merchants, coffee shops, bakeries and tiny restaurants. Wander its Mamluk and medieval alleyways and you’ll be transported back to a different century.
Al-Haram ash-Sharif/Temple Mount. There are few patches of ground as holy, or as disputed, as this one.
The huge, open stone plaza, dotted with cypress trees, was built over the biblical Mt Moriah, the location, according to Jewish tradition, of the foundation stone of the world itself. It was here, says the Talmud, that Adam, Cain, Abel and Noah performed ritual sacrifices, and where Abraham offered his son Isaac to God in a supreme test of faith. It was also the site of Solomon’s First Temple, where the Ark of the Covenant was housed, and the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. The Romans subsequently erected a temple to Zeus on the site, which later served as a Christian church.
There are nine gates to the enclosure, but though you can leave the compound by most of them, non-Muslims are allowed to enter only at the Bab al-Maghariba/Sha’ar HaMugrabim (Gate of the Moors), reached from the Western Wall plaza. Line up early for security checks and bear in mind that the Mount closes on Muslim holidays. Modest dress is required. Non-Muslims can walk around the Temple Mount, but are barred from entering the Dome of the Rock. Hours are very restricted: 07:30am to 10am and 12noon to 1pm daily.
Dome of the Rock. The centrepiece of the Temple Mount today is the gilded, mosaic-adorned Dome of the Rock, completed in AD 691, which covers the slab of stone on which, according to the Quran, Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Ishmael, and from which Mohammed ascended to heaven. I was very disappointed that non-Muslims cannot enter the building.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is a functioning house of worship believed to be a partial conversion of a 6th-century Byzantine church, with columns donated – oddly enough – by Benito Mussolini. For Muslims, Al-Haram ash, Islam’s third-holiest site, after Mecca and Medina.
Via Dolorosa. The road leading from Lion’s Gate into the heart of the Old City is known as Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows) or the Stations of the Cross. It’s the route that many Christians believe was taken by the condemned Jesus as he carried his heavy cross to Calvary. At 3pm on Fridays, the Franciscan Fathers lead a solemn procession here; you’re also likely to encounter groups of Italian or Spanish pilgrims lugging their own huge (rented) crosses up the hill. Explanations on plaques at each of the nine ‘stations’ along the way illuminate the New Testament story (the final five stations are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
I visited all the locations. Finding #9 took a long time. I passed one store owner a few times and unfortunately stopped to look around and mistakenly picked up a falofel maker, then had a lot of fun bargaining with him. The kitchen gadget everyone should have. You enter the Church of the Sepulchre through a dimly chapel. This was a fun hunt to find them all.
St Anne’s Church. Near Lion’s Gate, this church – famed for its superb acoustics – is perhaps the finest example of Crusader architecture in Jerusalem. It is traditionally thought to have been the home of Joachim and Anne, parents of the Virgin Mary.
CITY OF DAVID & KIDRON VALLEY. To the east of the Old City, outside Lion’s Gate, the land drops away into the Kidron Valley, then rises again up the slopes of the Mount of Olives. The Kidron Valley has over four millennia of archaeological remains. Because of the steep terrain, it’s more isolated than other areas of Jerusalem, making it all the more worth exploring.
City of David. The oldest part of Jerusalem, the City of David was the Canaanite settlement captured by King David some 3000 years ago. David brought the Ark of the Covenant into the city, thus transforming it into a spiritual and political centre. David’s son Solomon enlarged the city to include Mount Moriah where he built the Temple and his Royal Palace. Razed to the ground by the Babylonians in 586 BC and again by the Romans in 66AD, in the 11th century the southern wall of Jerusalem was diverted northward leaving the City of David outside the city limits. The excavations are the result of work, still ongoing, started in 1850. I walked through the extraordinary 500m-long, water-filled Hezekiah’s Tunnel.The Gihon Spring (always the Jerusalem’s water source) ended up outside the city walls. In the 18th century BC, the Canaanites hewed a large pool in the rock near the spring and fortified it. Fearing that the waters could be used by the Assyrians, King Hezekiah of Judah dug this tunnel to a pool built within the walls in the southern part of the city. It was hewn simultaneously from both sides for 533m with a height differential between the source of the spring and its end a mere 30 centimetres (an average slope of .06%), a truly amazing feat of engineering. The tunnel is about 2 feet wide and 5-6 feet high and still has running water in it that came to above my knees for only a few feet. The tunnel ends on a city street in the Kidron Valley that I walked up towards the Mount of Olives.
Pillar of Absalom. At the top of the Kidron Valley sits the legendary tomb of David’s son (II Samuel 18:17).
MOUNT OF OLIVES
For Christians, this hillside holds special significance as the site where it is believed Jesus took on the sins of the world, was arrested and later ascended to heaven. According to the Book of Zechariah, this is where God will redeem the dead on the Day of Judgement (that’s why much of the Mt of Olives is covered with a Jewish cemetery). Keep yourself busy exploring the half-dozen churches, most commemorating events in Jesus’ life. The panorama of the Old City from the summit is spectacular – visit early in the morning for the best light.
Church of the Ascension. This church has stunning views from its 45m-high tower. Closed at 1pm, also shorts not allowed.
Church of All Nations. Situated amid the Gardens of Gethsemane, this church has glistening golden mosaics on its facade.
Garden of Gethsemane. This is the garden where Jesus is believed to have been arrested (Mark 14:32-50). It contains several ancient olive trees that were probably already standing during Jesus’ lifetime. Spectacular mosaic floor and nave.
Tomb of the Virgin Mary. One of the holiest sites in Christianity, the Tomb of the Virgin Mary is a dim and somewhat forlorn place, owned by the Greek Orthodox Church. One descends down many steps into a sunken church.
EAST JERUSALEM. Modern, workaday, predominantly Arab East Jerusalem is filled with plenty of hustle and bustle, some lovely (if crumbling) architecture, and a number of worthwhile sights.
Rockefeller Museum. Archaeology buffs who do not get their fill at the Israel Museum should drop by this octagonal building, established thanks to a US$2 million donation from the Rockefeller family in 1927.
Garden Tomb. This garden and ancient stone tomb may have once been the property of Joseph of Arimathaea. It’s believed by some to be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, an alternative location to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Museum on the Seam. Conflict, prejudice and racism (and occasional coexistence) are on display at the Museum on the Seam, a sociopolitical/contemporary-art museum that speaks to issues both global and local. It’s located on the Green Line, which divided East and West Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967.
NEW CITY. The New City is centred on the triangle formed by Jaffa Rd, King George V St and the pedestrianised Ben Yehuda St. The latter two are good bets for shopping, as is nearby Yoel Solomon St.
Mahane Yehuda Market. Jerusalem’s bustling main market is crammed with fresh, delicious edibles, trendy restaurants, bars and art galleries.
Mea She’arim. One of the world’s most reluctant tourist attractions, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Mea She’arim is reminiscent of a shtetl (ghetto) in pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe, with the customs and dress code to go with it. Dress conservatively (crucial if you’re female – women should wear long skirts and long-sleeve shirts), don’t take photos without permission and avoid the area during Shabbat – though Thursday night and Friday daytime before Shabbat are particularly lively times to visit. In 2011 extremist groups tried to segregate some of Mea She’arim’s sidewalks – men on one side, women on the other. The campaign, opposed by many mainstream ultra-Orthodox Jews, was declared unconstitutional by Israel’s Supreme Court.
HAR HAZIKARON & MUSEUM ROW.
Yad Vashem. This moving museum is Israel’s official memorial to the six million victims of the Holocaust. The centrepiece is a prism-like history museum illustrating not only how Jews died during WWII but also how they lived before the Nazis’ onslaught. In the underground Children’s Memorial, a solitary flame commemorates the 1.5 million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust. The Avenue of the Righteous is lined with trees dedicated to the Gentiles who risked their own lives to save Jews. Down the hill, in the Valley of the Communities, columns of stone are inscribed with the names of 5000 Jewish communities wiped out by the Nazis.
Israel Museum. At this world-class museum highlights include the Shrine of the Book, where you can see some of the extraordinary Dead Sea Scrolls and a 1:50 scale model of Jerusalem as it looked towards the end of the Second Temple period. Inside the main building, the Judaica wing includes synagogues brought from northern Italy, Germany and southern India; a Jewish bride’s outfit from San’a in Yemen; and costumes from the Jewish communities of Ethiopia and Kurdistan. In the Archaeology Wing, look out for the First Temple– period ‘House of David’ Victory Stele, the only contemporary, extra-biblical reference to the Davidic dynasty; a superb bronze bust of Hadrian from the 2nd century AD, found at Beit She’an; and a replica of a nail pierced through a human anklebone, dated to the first century BC, a victim of Roman crucifixion. The Israeli Art pavilion has striking paintings and sculptures.
I saw this on one of my last days and quite enjoyed it – as with most national museums, it shows the best stuff and are always well done. The art gallery showed all the big names. The exhibition of Dead Sea Scrolls was underwhelming, but the description of the community of Essenes at Qumran who produced them quite fascinating.
Bible Lands Museum. This museum presents the material culture and history of both the Holy Land and neighbouring civilisations, with a wealth of well-displayed artefacts and background information.
On my last tourist day in Jerusalem, I had a long list of things I wanted to see.
Yad Vashem (the holocaust museum) was good but I felt much less “moved” than at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.
I went to the Israel Museum and it then took me 30minutes to walk to Jaffa Gate. I wanted to see the Temple Institute, a museum showing what the Dome of the Rock would look like. The plan is to extend the south end of the Western Wall, remove the old walls dividing it up and enlarge the plaza. Then the Israelis will take over the Dome of the Rock and rebuild the temple over the Foundation Stone. War will result and the elderly Jewish lady in the hostel predicted “End of Days”. The exorbitant cost of 35S dissuaded me from going. I also missed the Garden Tomb, possibly the actual site of the crucifixion (it closed at 4:55).
I walked most of the length of Mea She’arim., the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood. You see Hassidic Jews everywhere but a lot more here.
Jerusalem Botanical Gardens (JBG) Opened in 1985, it is located in the neighbourhood of Nayot on the southeastern edge of the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The garden is arranged in phytogeographic sections, featuring flora of various regions around the world. The Japanese section has 150 bonsai trees, the largest collection in the world. Birdwatchers have identified 46 species that visit the Gardens throughout the year. The 500-meter long “Bible Path” is planted with most of the 70 species that scientists have identified as some of the 400 types of plants mentioned in the.
On Feb 29, after 5 days in Jerusalem, I left for the north, to Nazareth. This is the first time I have been on a bus where the driver was armed. Instead of heading north, the bus went west to almost the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and I realized we were skirting the West Bank and the Palestinian Territory. The countryside is remarkably green and fertile looking – large green fields, pine trees, vineyards, olive trees – in a rolling lovely landscape. The highway is 6-lane divided. At one point the barrier wall appears, 4m concrete slabs topped with barbed wire and an electric fence. It has lights on 24/7 and cameras everywhere. But no sooner did it disappear to snake east through a town. It probably also is cutting another chunk out of Palestine.
I realize it is spring, but the country here is surprisingly green. The road rarely loses sight of a town and the stony hillsides are covered in very attractive houses and apartment buildings.
Since deciding to include Israel in this winter’s trip, the desire has always been to do some long walk. First the 920km National Trail of Israel (far too energetic and difficult to figure out the logistics of water and food caches) and then, more recently, the 65km Jesus Trail between Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee.
But, I am doubting if I will even do that. For many reasons, I want to get Israel over with and go somewhere else. It is now over 6 months on the road, 16 countries, and I am tired. Israel has lots of history and things to see, but I simply don’t like Israelis, at least the Jewish ones. I have already ranted about this, but I don’t think I have ever traveled in any country where the locals keep themselves so distant – respond to questions usually with “I don’t know”, are dismissive and condescending, brusque to the point of rude, and show absolutely no interest in you. What they are doing to the Palestinians can only be described as amoral and evil. And more than anything, I want to go to China and see Anna, relax and come down after this year’s adventure.
OTHER SIGHTS IN JERUSALEM I didn’t visit.
The Tisch Family Zoological Gardens in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Biblical Zoo). In the Malha neighbourhood, it is famous for its Afro-Asiatic collection of wildlife many in the Hebrew Bible and breeding endangered species. It was the most popular tourist attraction in Israel from 2005-07
The Gottesman Family Israel Aquarium
Jerusalem Botanical Gardens
Malls: Azrieli Mall (Malcha Mall)
OTHER SIGHTS NEAR JERUSALEM
Ein Karem. A village on the southwestern outskirts of Jerusalem is surrounded by extinct land of Israel landscapes and holy sites. The unique connection between the biblical scenery, Christian heritage and architecture of a nearly flawlessly preserved Arab village attracts about three million visitors a year – one-third of them pilgrims from around the world. The main attraction is Mary’s Well, Jesus’s mother met Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, when both women bore the children in their wombs. Across from the spring is a green valley with its traces of ancient agricultural terracing. Seven churches and monasteries.
White Mosque is an ancient Ummayad mosque in the city of Ramla. Only the 27m, 5-story minaret (Tower of the Forty Martyrs) is still standing. Built in 715-20, an earthquake in 1034 destroyed it, and it was rebuilt in white marble with cypress and cedar wood doors. It is a tentative UNESCO WHS.
Liftah (Mey Naftoah) – The traditional mountain village (05/02/2015). Abandoned in 1948, the only intact Palestinian village has numerous original dwellings, spring, agricultural terraces and partly preserved landscape. It has never been re-occupied or demolished preserving in the most authentic way all the elements of a hilly, East Mediterranean village.