Jerusalem, the most fought over city in the world. Many have given their lives for her, written songs about her, destroyed her, rebuilt her and dreamed of her. The city of the great King. No other city carries a history like hers and never will. Jerusalem the only city that will be eternal. This was the place where the Jews built the Temple, where Jesus was crucified. Pilgrims, beggars, merchants, students of great scholars, warriors and slaves have all walked its streets, and have praised and revered her. Jerusalem's history stretches back several thousand years. Around 2500 BC, the Canaanites inhabited the city, and sometime later it become a Jebusite city.

David captured the city about 1004 BC. after he was anointed king at the age of thirty. He took his army to fight against the Jebusites. They were arrogant and proud as they taunted David that he was to dumb and blind to take the city. Yet, that is exactly what he did, he took the stronghold of Zion, and it became the City of David. It was situated on the southern slope of Mount Moriah, just outside today's Old City walls.

 

The Old City

Jerusalem has played quite an amazing role of symbolic importance for Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It has over 100 streets, 1000 shops and 3000 years of history, not to mention a large number of historic holy sites. The most obvious is the Dome of the Rock which stands erect on Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount, a beacon of color in an otherwise seemingly sandstone landscape of which Jerusalem is built, the stone reflects the sun and blinds the eye giving it an angelic glow. The Dome of the Rock was built in the 7th century, decorated with bright blue motifs with a pure gold overlay on its dome, it resides on the most valuable piece of real estate in the world. The Temple Mount is recognised by all three religions as the site where Abraham was to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Many a pilgram has wondered why the Temple Mount is nott located on the highest pinacle in the city not realising that in fact this is so. Over the years the city has shifted, the original Jerusalem was in the City of David, just south and downhill from the Jewish temple which was located on the highest peak, Mount Moriah.

The Old City is only about one square mile with no less than 30,000 inhabitants living amoungst its narrow alleyways that wind and twist in every direct. The Old City retains a charm that has fascinated everyone that has entered by her gates. Narrow crowded shops and oriental bazaars with its markets offering endless adventures. It is hard to escape the sence that one has stepped back in time. Donkeys pull rickety wooden carts, children play with old tyres and sticks, their skin smudged with grime from the city streets, yet their faces glow with child like contentment.

This city, this very old city which has swayed under the pressure of division and uproar continues to this day to be divided not just politicaal, but spiritually also. The Old City is divided into quarters, Moslem, Christian, Greek Orthodox and Jewish.

The Christian Quarter

The Christian Quarter is accessible through the New Gate and Jaffa Gate in the north and via Damascus Gate in the south. The Christian Quarter is developed around the Holy Sepulcher, the place where Jesus dies and rose again from the dead. The Christian Quarter lies in the northeast sector. The church was built to commemorate the place where Jesus Christ was buried. It was built in the 4th century AD by Emperor Constantine. It was destroyedand rebuilt several times throughout the centuries, until the three leading Christian communities (Latin, Greek and Armenian) finally came to an agreement regarding its repair in 1959. The Holy Sepulcher was first destroyed by Persian invaders in 614 AD and rebuilt nearly 500 years later by the Crusaders.

The Via Dolorosa or Way of Sorrows is a trail marked by the 14 Stations of the Cross, is said to be the path Jesus walked from the time of his arrest, through his Crucifixion and till the time of his Resurrection. The final five stations of the Via Dolorosa are located inside the Holy Sepulcher. The Via Dolorosa begins at the courthouse located at the Lions’ Gate, also named St. Stephen’s Gate in the south and ends at Calvary Hill or Golgotha, where the Holy Sepulcher is now located.

The Moslem Quarter

The Moslem Quarter is the largest and the most densely populated quarter in the Old City. It has churches and mosques, and there are several Jewish homes and Yeshivas. The most important site in the Moslem Quarter is the Dome of the Rock. The Muslim Quarter is the largest and most populous of the four quarters and is situated in the northeastern corner of the Old City, extending from the Lions' Gate in the east, along the northern wall of the Temple Mount in the south, to the Damascus Gate in the west. Its population is currently over 22,000. Like the other three quarters of the Old City, the Muslim quarter had a mixed population of Jews as well as Muslims and Christians prior to 1929, and was previously called the Mixed Quarter.

St. Anne's Church was built between 1131 and 1138 to replace a Byzantine church. It is traditionally believed to be the place where Anne and Joachim, the parents of the Virgin Mary, lived. In 1192, Saladin turned the church into a Muslim theological school. Later the church fell into ruins until it was donated to France by the Ottomans in 1856. Outside the church are the extensive remains of curative baths as well as the ruins of a Roman temple dedicated to the god of medicine. It is widely believed that this site is the Pool of Bethesda where, according to the Gospel of John (5:1-15), Christ healed a paralysed man. The Ecce Homo Arch spans the Via Dolorosa, was built by the Romans in AD 70 to support a ramp for the attack on the Antonia Fortress. The arch was reconstructed as a monument to victory when the Romans rebuilt Jerusalem in AD 135. Incorporated into the structure of the neighboring Convent of the Sisters of Zion, Christian tradition states that this is the place where Pilate presented Christ to the crowd and spoke the words, "Ecce Homo" which means "Behold the Man", in Latin.

The Jewish Quarter

The Jewish Quarter is the main residential area for Jews in the Old City. This quarter contains the Western Wall, or the Wailing Wall which has been a holy place for Jews since it was part of the Temple and close to the Holy of Holies within the Temple. The Jewish Quarter also contains interesting archeological sites such as the Burnt House, the remains of a house from the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans 2000 years ago. The Cardo is a typical Roman street built in the 6th century consisting of stores situated between two rows of columns. The remains of the tall columns, arches, and stone floor can still be seen. The Cardo was excavated for about 200 meters, this portion dates to the time of Emperor Justinian in the first half of the 6th century A.D. The central street of the Cardo is 40 feet wide and is lined on both sides with columns.  The total width of the street and shopping areas on either side is 70 feet, the equivalent of a 4-lane highway today.  This street was the main thoroughfare of Byzantine Jerusalem and served both residents and pilgrims.  Large churches flanked the Cardo in several places.

The Western Wall is the most holy place accessible to the Jewish people.  It was built by Herod the Great as the retaining wall of the Temple complex.  Three times a day the Jewish people pray (morning, afternoon, evening) and they do so with phylacteries tied around their forehead and wrists and with the white and blue prayer shawls they cover their heads.

One of the most significant finds from the Old Testament period is the Broad Wall, built by Hezekiah (Isaiah 22), in the days before the 701 B.C. invasion by the Assyrian king Sennacherib. The Broad Wall enclosed the Western Hill and increased the walled area of Jerusalem five-fold. This wall protected what would be called the “Mishneh” or the “Second Quarter” where Huldah the prophetess lived (2 Kings 22:14–20). 

The Armenian Quarter

The Armenian Quarter is the smallest quarter of the Old City. It occupies the southwest corner and covers one-sixth of the area inside the walls. It is believed that between 35 and 25 BC, that Herod built a fortress and his palace along the western wall of the quarter which at that time was called the Upper City or Zion. After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70, the area was occupied by the Tenth Roman Legion and became a government center. One of the gates of the Old City along the southern end of the Armenian Quarter is called Zion Gate. Although the Armenian's are Christian, the Armenian Quarter is distinct from the Christian Quarter. Despite its small size and population, the Armenians and their Patriarachate remain staunchly independent and form a vigorous presence in the Old City. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the four quarters of the city were under Jordanian control. Jordanian law required Armenians and other Christians to “give equal time to the Bible and Qur'an” in private Christian schools, and restricted the expansion of church assets. The 1967 war is remembered by residents of the quarter as a "miracle," after two unexploded bombs were found inside the Armenian monastery. Today more than 3,000 Armenians live in Jerusalem, 500 of them in the Armenian Quarter. Some are temporary residents studying at the seminary or working as church functionaries. The Patriarchate owns the land in this quarter.

The Old City Gates

Damasus Gate

The Damascus Gate is the best example of Ottoman artwork in the city.  Herod Agrippa I built the lower gate (41 AD), then rebuilt by Hadrian in his building of Aelia Capitolina. The Hadrianic gate, now uncovered below the present gate, had a large center gate with two pedestrian gates on either side. The gate’s Arabic name, Bab el Amud or Gate of the Column, reflects the column from the Byzantine Period that once stood near the gate as a landmark. You can see the column on the Medaba map mosaic (6 AD). Outside the gate there were two roads, one leading to Damascus in the north and on veering west to the coast. Damascus Gate is also called the Shechem Gate by the Jews.

Old City Map

New Gate

New Gate was not built by Sulieman, but was opened later in 1887 by Sultan Abdul Hamid to link the properties near the wall in the northwest of the city with the Old City. It is the entry into the Christian Quarter.

 

 

 

Herods Gate

Built in 1538-40 by Sulieman the Magnificent’s architects. Became a direct entry during the British Mandate, losing its L shape interior for traffic purposes. Called in Arabic Bab ez-Zahra or Flowers Gate, and is called Herod’s Gate because pilgrims of the C16 and C17 thought that a house built in the Mameluke Period  (1250-1517 BC) was the former palace of Herod Antipas from the Passion story. They were wrong, but the name stuck. At noon on 15 July 1099, the Crusaders breached the wall at this gate to take the city of Jerusalem and proclaim the Latin Kingdom.

Jaffa Gate

Is named because the road leading from it goes to the port city of Jaffa (Joppa), this gate isthe only one on the western side of the Old City.  Jaffa Gate is called Bab el Khalil or Gate of the Friend, a reference to the connecting road to Hebron (cp. Isa. 41:8). The wall next to the gate was torn down and a moat filled in 1898 by Sultan Abdul Hamid, so that Kaiser Wilhelm II could ride into the city. It retains the L shape interior, an ancient defensive method of slowing the advance of armies through the gate and forcing a turn that exposes their unshielded side. A legend says that Sulieman was angry about the architects not including Mt. Zion in the walls of the city, so they are buried in the two graves inside the gate. This gate was also the famous scene of the English General Allenby's entrance in 1917.

St. Stephens Gate

This gate is so named because of the tradition that the first Christian martyr was stoned outside this gate. Lions' Gate is another name for this eastern entrance into the Old City because of the four animals that decorate the gate's facade and reportedly placed there because of a dream of the builder Suleiman. The Lion’s Gate gets its name from the decorative lions which were theemblems of the Mameluke Sultan Baybars (Egyptian rulers that toppled the dynasty of Salahadin and took over his empire). Bab el Ghor or Jordan Gate are other names it was known by because it led to Jordan.

 

 

 

Zion Gate

Zion Gate is called in Arabic Bab en Nabi Daoud, gate of the prophet David, because of the traditional tomb of David nearby. The bullet marks are largely from 1948, in the battle for the Jewish Quarter that was unsuccessful in holding the area under the Palmach forces.

 

 

 

 

Dung Gate

The gate is the closest to the Western Wall. It was originally much smaller, but wasenlarged in 1952. After its recapture by Israel, architect Shlomo Aronson was commissioned to renovate this gate. Different theories account for the naming of this gate, including one which puts it back to Omar's conquest of Jerusalem in 638 A.D. when trash was cleared out of the city through this gate. It is also known as the Gate of the Moors because of the North African immigrants who lived in a neighborhood next to the gate in the 16th century.

Golden Gate

This sealed gate on the eastern side was built approximately 640 A.D. either by the last of the Byzantine rulers or by the first of the Arab conquerers.  Tradition that equates this gate with the one mentioned in Ezekiel's prophecy (ch. 44). Jewish tradition believes this is the gate through which the Messiah will enter Jerusalem. Ottoman Sultan Suleiman sealed off the Golden Gate in 1541to prevent the Messiah's entrance. The Muslims also built a cemetery in front of the gate, in the belief that the precursor to the Messiah, Elijah, would not be able to pass through.

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The Western Wall

The Western Wall in the midst of the Old City in Jerusalem is the section of the Western supporting wall of the Temple Mount which has remained intact since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. The Western Wall is the closest the Jews can get to the Temple Mount and since there is no longer a temple this outer retaining wall is the next best thing. Known in recent centuries as the "Wailing Wall," it was built by Herod the Great. The Western Wall was built in 20 BC during his expansion of the Temple enclosure, and is part of a retaining wall that enclosed the western part of Temple Mount. According to the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus, construction of the walls took 11 years, during which time it rained in Jerusalem only at night so as not to interfere with the workers' progress. The plaza was created as an area for prayer when Israel captured the Old City in 1967.  At times thousands of people gather here for prayer.

Gihon Spring

The City of David was built on a hill of hard limestone, in which underground water created karstic caves. The Gihon Spring, the only source of water of the city, emerges in the Kidron Valley, east of the City of David. It is mentioned many times in the Bible, e.g., its location in the valley east of the city (II Chronicles 33:14); the anointing of Solomon as King of Israel (I Kings 1:35, 45). It made the founding of the City of David possible, and sustained its existence for thousands of years. The Hebrew name of the spring is derived from the verb meaning "to gush forth," reflecting the flow of the spring, which is not steady, but intermittent, its frequency varying with the seasons of the year and annual precipitation. It is a siphon-type karst spring fed by groundwater that accumulates in a subterranean cave. Each time that space fills to the brim, it empties at once through cracks in the rock and is siphoned to the surface. This natural feature made it necessary to accumulate water in a pool, to be available at times when the spring was not "gushing forth."

The spring emerged in a cave on the eastern slope of the City of David above the Kidron Valley, and from there water flowed into the valley, watering the terraced, agricultural plots on the slope of the City of David. This area is called in the Bible the "King's Garden" (II Kings 25:4; Jeremiah 52:7; Nehemiah 3:15). Today, the bed of the Kidron Valley is filled with 15 m. of erosion and debris, which have accumulated over the millennia. During the Second Temple period, a vault was built over the spring, to which one could descend via a long staircase. Water flowed from the spring along Hezekiah's Tunnel to the Siloam Pool, (John 9:7) which is located in the low, southern part of the Tyropoeon Valley, west of the City of David.

Three waterworks, fed by the Gihon Spring, were carved into the rock beneath the City of David in antiquity and they are the most complex and advanced of any known from Biblical cities. The systems were planned in different periods, served varied purposes and functioned in distinct ways. All three water systems were in operation simultaneously in the First Temple period, and each contributed to the efficiency of the city's water supply. They also attest to the efforts of the kings of ancient Jerusalem to guarantee the water supply in time of siege.

In times of war and siege, the City of David's water supply was vulnerable, since the Gihon spring in the Kidron Valley was outside the city walls. The Warren Shaft System is the earliest subterranean water system and, filled with accumulated debris, it was discovered by C. Warren in 1867 and named after him. The entrance to the Warren's Shaft System is located in the middle of the eastern slope of the City of David, within the ancient city's walls. It consisted of a subterranean, rock-cut tunnel with a shaft at its end. At the entrance, the tunnel slopes steeply downward in a stepped passage. This portion is covered by a well-constructed vault from the Second Temple period, which prevented soil and rocks from falling into the system. Farther down, the tunnel becomes less steep. At first, it extends in a northeasterly direction, then angles sharply to the southeast. The total length of the tunnel is 41 m. and it descends 13 m.; its width is 2.5-3.0 m. and its height varies from 1.5 m. at the entrance to a maximum of 5 m. At its easternmost end is a narrow, irregularly shaped vertical shaft some 2 m. wide and 12.5 m. deep, which leads to the waters of the Gihon Spring; going down the tunnel to the shaft, water could be drawn with a container fastened to a rope. Thus, in time of siege it was possible to safely draw water from the spring without venturing outside the walls. The narrow vertical shaft at the end of the system was impenetrable from the outside.

Pool of Silome

In the time of Jesus, the Pool of Siloam was the site where Christ healed the blind man by having him cake mud and saliva in his eyes and then wash his eyes in the pool (John 9: 1-7). In the 400’s AD, a church was built above a pool attached to Hezekiah’s tunnel to commemorate the miracle of Jesus and the blind man. Until recently, this was considered the traditional site for the Pool of Siloam during the time of Christ.