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Old City, Jerusalem, Israel
GPS: 31.775493816367, 35.229712587955
Explore ancient Jerusalem, a unique historical, spiritual and religious centre. As one of the oldest cities on earth it is a major sacred place for Holy Land Pilgrimage, and is dedicated to the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Old City of Jerusalem has a rich history that covers 4,000 years. It was first built by the Jebusites, a biblical people in the 3rd millennium BC. It was King David, the second monarch of Israel and regularly mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh), who conquered the city around the year -1000. He installed the Ark of the Covenant in Solomon’s Temple church, a chest in which the biblical texts written by the hand of God were stipulated. This place of worship and cradle of monotheism attracted the first pilgrims to explore ancient Jerusalem. The city was subsequently the object of numerous covetousness, military sieges and plundering by neighbouring kingdoms or empires, not to mention the recurrent damage caused by earthquakes. It came under the domination of various civilizations (Hellenistic, Assyrian, Roman, Ottoman…) and successive fortifications were erected to protect it from invaders.
The Old City still has many vestiges cherished by the faithful who explore ancient Jerusalem during their Holy Land Pilgrimage, such as the famous Wailing Wall (also called Western Wall, Kotel, Kosel or Buraq Wall). Made up of huge stone blocks over 20 metres high, this monument now serves as a large open-air synagogue in the Jewish religion. In the time of David and Solomon (10th century BC), they correspond to the western wall of a first cultic temple (Solomon’s Temple) destroyed by the Babylonians during the siege of the city by Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BC. A second temple and a sanctuary, dedicated to Judaism, were built on the foundations of the first building by Herod the Great (king of Judea) in the 1st century BC. This massive structure, known as the Temple in Jerusalem, is one of the largest structures built at that time. It became a major pilgrimage site for the Jews. In the year 70, the wealth and structures adorning the Temple Mount were decimated by the Roman army. This attack was led by the future emperor Titus who seized the city of Jerusalem during the First Jewish-Roman War (after which the Jewish community was forced into exile). From the 4th century onwards, millions of Christian pilgrims travelled to explore ancient Jerusalem, to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to glorify the death and resurrection of Christ (Jesus of Nazareth). In the 7th century, the symbolic sanctuary of the Temple Mount (also called Haram al-Sharif in Arabic) was the site of the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Chain (Qubbat al-Silsilah), all of which can be visited on a Holy Land Pilgrimage.
Located in the heart of the Jerusalem Holy City and covering a small square kilometre, the Old City is traditionally divided into four quarters: Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian (Armenia being one of the first countries in the world to officially convert to Christianity in the early 4th century AD). Also known as the Golden City Jerusalem or the Eternal City Jerusalem, this small geographical area concentrates hundreds of historical and religious remains including several museums, churches, mosques and synagogues in a sacred atmosphere where those on a Holy Land Pilgrimage can explore ancient Jeruselam.