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Top Attractions in Jerusalem

Jason's Tomb

Jason's Tomb is a rock-cut tomb dating to the Maccabean period discovered in the Rehavia neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel. It has been identified as the burial site of Jason, possibly a naval commander, based on the charcoal drawing of two warships discovered in the cave. An inscription states that Jason sailed to the coast of Egypt. Inside the cave are eight burial niches. To make room for additional burials the bones were later removed to the charnel space in front. The building consists of a courtyard and a single Doric column decorating the entrance to the burial chamber, topped with a reconstructed pyramid-shaped roof. Among the carved inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic is one that laments the deceased Jason: "A powerful lament make for Jason, son of P.....(my brother) peace ...... who hast built thyself a tomb, Elder rest in peace."

Talpiot Tomb

The Talpiot Tomb is a rock-cut tomb discovered in 1980 in the East Talpiot neighborhood, five kilometers south of the Old City in East Jerusalem. It contained ten ossuaries, six inscribed with epigraphs, including one interpreted as "Yeshua bar Yehosef" , though the inscription is partially illegible, and its translation and interpretation is widely disputed. The tomb also yielded various human remains and several carvings. The Talpiot discovery was documented in 1994 in "Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries in the Collections of the State of Israel" numbers 701-709, and first discussed in the media in the United Kingdom during March/April 1996. Later that year an article describing the find was published in volume 29 of Atiqot, the journal of the Israel Antiquities Authority. A controversial documentary film, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, was produced in 2007 by director James Cameron and investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici, and was released in conjunction with a book by Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino titled The Jesus Family Tomb. The book and film make the case that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth, members of his extended family, and several other figures from the New Testament—and, by inference, that Jesus had not risen from the dead as the New Testament describes. This conclusion is disputed by many archaeologists, theologians, and linguistic and biblical scholars.

Gates in Jerusalem's Old City Walls

The Old City is a 0.9 square kilometers walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem. Until 1860, when the Jewish neighborhood Mishkenot Sha'ananim was established, this area constituted the entire city of Jerusalem. The Old City is home to several sites of key religious importance: the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims, the Temple Mount and Western Wall for Jews and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians, It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site List in 1981. Traditionally, the Old City has been divided into four uneven quarters, although the current designations were introduced only in the 19th century. Today, the Old City is roughly divided into the Muslim Quarter, Christian Quarter, Armenian Quarter and Jewish Quarter. The Old City's monumental defensive walls and city gates were built in the years 1535-1542 by the Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The current population of the Old City resides mostly in the Muslim and Christian quarters. As of 2007 the total population was 36,965; the breakdown of religious groups in 2006 was 27,500 Muslims ; 5,681 Christians , not including the 790 Armenians ; and 3,089 Jews . Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Old City was captured by Jordan and all its Jewish residents were evicted. During the Six-Day War in 1967, which saw hand-to-hand fighting on the Temple Mount, Israeli forces captured the Old City along with the rest of East Jerusalem, subsequently annexing them as Israeli territory and reuniting them with the western part of the city. Today, the Israeli government controls the entire area, which it considers part of its national capital. However, the Jerusalem Law of 1980, which effectively annexed East Jerusalem to Israel, was declared null and void by United Nations Security Council Resolution 478. East Jerusalem is now regarded by the international community as part of occupied Palestinian territory. In 2010, Jerusalem's oldest fragment of writing was found outside the Old City's walls.

Monolith of Silwan

The Monolith of Silwan, also known as the Tomb of Pharaoh's daughter is a cuboid rock-cut tomb located in Silwan, Jerusalem dating from the period of the Kingdom of Judah; the latter name refers to a 19th-century hypothesis that the tomb was built by Solomon for his Egyptian wife. The structure, a typical Israelite rock-cut tomb, was previously capped by a pyramid structure. It is one of the more complete and distinctive First Temple Period structures. The pyramidal, rock cap was cut into pieces and removed for quarry, during the Roman era leaving a flat roof. The tomb contains a single stone bench, indicating that it was designed for only one burial. Recent research indicates that the bench was the base of a sarcophagus hewn into the original building. The Pharaoh's daughter tradition was first suggested by Louis Félicien de Saulcy, who noted that the bible claims that Solomon built a temple for his Egyptian wife; de Saulcy, excavating the site in the 19th century, suggested that this might be the same building. However, subsequent archaeological investigation has dated the site to the 9th-7th Century BC, making the connection to Solomon impossible. Two letters of a Hebrew inscription survive on the building, the remainder of the inscription having been mutilated beyond recognition, by a hermit in the Byzantine era; Byzantine monks increased the height of the low entrance by removing rock which contained the inscription in order to ease access to the tomb, in which they resided. The tomb was cleaned following the 1967 Six-Day War. Neglected since Ussishkin's survey, trash disposal has in recent years has resulted in an unkempt, unattractive appearance.

Avshalom Cave

Avshalom Cave, also known as Soreq Cave or Stalactites Cave, is a 5,000 m2 cave on the western side of Mt.Yeela, in the Judean hills, in Israel, unique for its dense concentration of stalactites. The cave was discovered accidentally in May 1968, while quarrying with explosives, near Hartuv, 3 km east of Bet Shemesh, Israel. It is 83 m long, 60 m wide, and 15 m high. The cave is named after Avshalom Shoham, an Israeli soldier killed in the War of Attrition. After its discovery, the location of the cave was kept a secret for several years for fear of damage to its natural treasures. The temperature and the humidity in the cave are constant year round, and it is now open to visitors, in the heart of the 67-dunam Avshalom Nature Reserve, declared in 1975. In 2012, a new lighting system was installed to prevent the formation and growth of algae. Some of the stalactites found in the cave are four meters long, and some have been dated as 300,000 years old. Some meet stalagmites to form stone pillars.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Orthodox Christians, is a church within the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan. The site is venerated as Calvary, where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, and also contains the place where Jesus is said to have been buried and resurrected. Within the church are the last four Stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of Jesus Passion. The church has been an important Christian pilgrimage destination since at least the fourth century as the traditional site of the resurrection of Christ. Today it also serves as the headquarters of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, while control of the building is shared between several Christian churches and secular entities in complicated arrangements essentially unchanged for centuries. As such, the church is also home to branches of Oriental Orthodoxy, as well as to Roman Catholicism. Meanwhile, Anglicans and Protestants have no permanent presence in the Church and some have regarded the Garden Tomb, elsewhere in Jerusalem, as the true place of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection.

Golden Gate

The Golden Gate, as it is called in Christian literature, is the oldest of the current gates in Jerusalems Old City Walls. According to Jewish tradition, the Shekhinah used to appear through this gate, and will appear again when the Anointed One comes and a new gate replaces the present one; that is why Jews used to pray for mercy at the former gate at this location. Hence the name Shaar HaRachamim, the Gate of Mercy. In Christian apocryphal texts, the gate was the scene of a meeting between the parents of Mary, so that Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate became a standard subject in cycles depicting the Life of the Virgin. It is also said that Jesus passed through this gate on Palm Sunday. In Arabic, it is known as the Gate of Eternal Life. Some equate it with the Beautiful Gate mentioned in Acts 3.

Siloam tunnel

The Siloam Tunnel, also known as Hezekiahs Tunnel, is a water tunnel that was dug underneath the City of David in Jerusalem in ancient times. Its popular name is due to the most common hypothesis of its origin, namely that it dates from the reign of Hezekiah of Judah and corresponds to the waterworks mentioned in 2 Kings 20:20 in the Bible. According to the Bible, King Hezekiah prepared Jerusalem for an impending siege by the Assyrians, by "blocking the source of the waters of the upper Gihon, and leading them straight down on the west to the City of David" . Support for the dating to Hezekiahs period is derived from the Biblical text that describes construction of a tunnel and to radiocarbon dates of organic matter contained in the original plastering. However, the dates were challenged in 2011 by new excavations that suggested an earlier origin in the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. The tunnel leads from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam. If indeed built under Hezekiah, it dates to a time when Jerusalem was preparing for an impending siege by the Assyrians, led by Sennacherib. Since the Gihon Spring was already protected by a massive tower and was included in the citys defensive wall system, Jerusalem seems to have been supplied with enough water in case of siege even without this tunnel. According to Ahron Horovitz, director of the Megalim Institute, the tunnel can be interpreted as an additional aqueduct designed for keeping the entire outflow of the spring inside the walled area, which included the downstream Pool of Siloam, with the specific purpose of withholding water from any besieging forces. Both the spring itself, and the pool at the end of the tunnel, would have been used by the inhabitants as water sources. Troops positioned outside the walls wouldnt have reached any of it, because even the overflow water released from the Pool of Siloam would have fully disappeared into a karstic system located right outside the southern tip of the city walls. In contrast to that, the previous water system did release all the water not used by the city population into the Kidron Valley to the east, where besieging troops could have taken advantage of it. The curving tunnel is 533 m long, and by using the 30 cm altitude difference between its two ends, which corresponds to a 0.6‰ gradient, the engineers managed to convey the water from the spring to the pool. According to the Siloam inscription, the tunnel was excavated by two teams, one starting at each end of the tunnel and then meeting in the middle. The inscription is partly unreadable at present, and may originally have conveyed more information than this. It is clear from the tunnel itself that several directional errors were made during its construction. Recent scholarship has discredited the idea that the tunnel may have been formed by substantially widening a pre-existing natural karst. How the Israelite engineers have dealt with the difficult feat of making two teams digging from opposite ends meet far underground, is still not fully understood, but some suggest that the two teams were directed from above by sound signals generated by hammering on the solid rock through which the tunnelers were digging.

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as Al-Aqsa and Bayt al-Muqaddas, is the third holiest site in Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem. The site on which the silver domed mosque sits, along with the Dome of the Rock, also referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif, is the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, the place where the Temple stood before being destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey. Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the seventeenth month after the emigration, when God directed him to turn towards the Kaaba. The mosque was originally a small prayer house built by the Rashidun caliph Umar, but was rebuilt and expanded by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and finished by his son al-Walid in 705 CE. After an earthquake in 746, the mosque was completely destroyed and rebuilt by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur in 754, and again rebuilt by his successor al-Mahdi in 780. Another earthquake destroyed most of al-Aqsa in 1033, but two years later the Fatimid caliph Ali az-Zahir built another mosque which has stood to the present day. During the periodic renovations undertaken, the various ruling dynasties of the Islamic Caliphate constructed additions to the mosque and its precincts, such as its dome, facade, its minbar, minarets and the interior structure. When the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099, they used the mosque as a palace and the Dome of the Rock as a church, but its function as a mosque was restored after its recapture by Saladin in 1187. More renovations, repairs and additions were undertaken in the later centuries by the Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, the Supreme Muslim Council, and Jordan. Today, the Old City is under Israeli control, but the mosque remains under the administration of the Jordanian/Palestinian-led Islamic Waqf.

Jerusalem British War Cemetery

Jerusalem British War Cemetery is a British cemetery in Jerusalem for fallen servicemen of the British Commonwealth in the World War I in Palestine. The Jerusalem War Cemetery is located on Mount Scopus next to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem campus and 4.5 km north of the Old City of Jerusalem. It now contains the graves of 2,515 Commonwealth service personnel, a number of whom were removed from at least seven other cemeteries in the area where they could not be maintained. A small Jewish section is near Plot N. Units from Australia, New Zealand, India, Egypt, South Africa and the British West Indies are also represented besides those of the United Kingdom. A small number of German and Turkish dead also are buried at the cemetery. Notable burials include Major Philip Glazebrook, British Conservative Member of Parliament. The cemetery also contains the Jerusalem Memorial to 3,300 Commonwealth service personnel who died on operations in the same war in Egypt and Palestine and have no known grave. Its architect was John James Burnet and the sculptor Gilbert Bayes. It was unveiled on 7 May 1927 by Lord Allenby, who had been British commander-in-chief in the Middle East. The Memorial incorporates a chapel with a mosaic floor that was designed by Robert Anning Bell. Notable commemoratees include New Zealand rugby international Trooper Eric Harper.

Temple Mount

The Temple Mount , also known as the Haram , is one of the most important religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem. It has been used as a religious site for thousands of years. At least four religious traditions are known to have made use of the Temple Mount: Judaism, Greco-Roman paganism, Christianity, and Islam. The present site is dominated by three monumental structures from the early Umayyad period: the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain. Herodian walls and gates with additions dating back to the late Byzantine and early Islamic periods cut through the flanks of the Mount. Currently it can be accessed via eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, with guard posts of Israeli police in the vicinity of each. Jewish and Christian tradition identifies the Temple Mount with Mount Moriah , the supposed location of the binding of Isaac. The Temple Mount was also formerly identified with Mount Zion, but the Jebusite fortress there has been placed in the neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh on the Eastern Hill and the name is now separately associated with Jerusalem's western hill. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, which regards it as the place where God's divine presence is manifested more than any other place. According to the rabbinic sages whose debates produced the Talmud, it was from here the world expanded into its present form and where God gathered the dust used to create the first human, Adam. Since at least the first century CE, the site has been associated in Judaism with the location of Abraham's binding of Isaac. According to the Bible, both Jewish Temples stood at the Temple Mount, though there is no proof for the first temple. However, the identification of Solomon's Temple with the area of the Temple Mount is widespread. According to the Bible the site should function as the center of all national life—a governmental, judicial and religious center. During the Second Temple period it functioned also as an economic center. According to Jewish tradition and scripture, the first temple was built by King Solomon the son of King David in 957 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The second was constructed under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE and destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. In the 2nd century, the site was used for a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus. It was redeveloped following the Arab conquest. Jewish tradition maintains it is here a Third and final Temple will also be built. The location is the holiest site in Judaism and is the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since according to Rabbinical law, some aspect of the divine presence is still present at the site. It was from the Holy of Holies that the High Priest communicated directly with God. Among Sunni Muslims, the Mount is widely considered the third holiest site in Islam. Revered as the Noble Sanctuary, the location of Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, the site is also associated with Jewish biblical prophets who are also venerated in Islam. After the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 637 CE, Umayyad Caliphs commissioned the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock on the site. The Dome was completed in 692 CE, making it one of the oldest extant Islamic structures in the world, after the Kaabah. The Al Aqsa Mosque rests on the far southern side of the Mount, facing Mecca. The Dome of the Rock currently sits in the middle, occupying or close to the area where the Holy Temple previously stood. In light of the dual claims of both Judaism and Islam, it is one of the most contested religious sites in the world. Since the Crusades, the Muslim community of Jerusalem has managed the site as a Waqf, without interruption. As the site is part of the Old City, controlled by Israel since 1967, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority claim sovereignty over it, and it remains a major focal point of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In an attempt to keep the status quo, the Israeli government enforces a controversial ban on prayer by non-Muslims.

St. George's Cathedral

St. George's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Jerusalem, established in 1899. It is the seat of the Bishop of Jerusalem of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. The church was built by the fourth bishop of the diocese, George Francis Popham Blyth. Most missionaries present in Palestine at the time were Evangelical Anglicans, but Blyth was from the Anglo-Catholic party of the Church of England. Finding that his use of St Paul's and Christ Church were limited, he resolved to found his own mission and build his own church. "He bought land in east Jerusalem where he built his cathedral and a missionary college, both called St. George's, making them the headquarters of a mission program independent of the two evangelical societies." In order to fund the construction of the church, Blyth founded the Jerusalem and the East Mission. Under Bishop Samuel Gobat, relations with the Orthodox Church had become strained. Blyth was eager to restore relations with the Patriarch and as an Anglo-Catholic he had a great respect for the Patriarch's office. Because of this he always called St George's a collegiate church rather than a cathedral, saying that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the one and only cathedral church of the city of Jerusalem. For this reason, St. George's contains a pool — a rarity in Anglican churches — which allows baptisms to done through immersion, per Orthodox custom. Herbert Danby became the librarian there in 1919 and was residentiary canon from 1921 to 1936. The Israeli whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has been residing at the cathedral since his release from prison in 2004. St. George's College is located on the grounds and offers continuing theological education for clergy and laity from around the world.
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