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72-454: The Aga Rashid villa , as it was originally known after the man who built and owned it, was raised in the early 1860s outside the Old City walls. It was typical of the urban Ottoman architecture of the time, with vaulted ceilings, thick walls and a large central hall flanked by side rooms. It was surrounded by a spacious garden. Over the years, rooms were added and the house was extended at

144-528: A Righteous Gentile who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews in the Holocaust , is buried. Notable burials in the Protestant cemetery on Mt. Zion include a number of prominent individuals from the 19th and 20th centuries. These include explorers and archaeologists such as: Flinders Petrie , Charles Frederick Tyrwhitt Drake , James Duncan, Clarence Stanley Fisher , Charles Lambert and James Leslie Starkey ;

216-713: A building belonging to the Kathros priestly family, which was found nearby. In 1968, the Trumpeting Place inscription was found at the southwest corner of Temple Mount, and is believed to mark the site where the priests used to declare the advent of Shabbat and other Jewish holidays. In the 1970s, while excavating the remains of the Nea Church (the New Church of the Theotokos) , a Greek inscription

288-641: A load of 250 kilograms was designed for this purpose. The cable car was only used at night and lowered into the valley during the day to escape detection; it is still in place at what is now the Mount Zion Hotel. The ride from the Israeli position at the St. John Eye Hospital to Mount Zion took two minutes. Between 1948 and 1967, when the Old City was under Jordanian rule , Israelis were forbidden access to

360-768: A ram's head around 200 meters south of the Temple Mount . The Israel Antiquities Authority said it was consistent with jewelry from the early Hellenistic period (3rd or early 2nd century BCE). Adding that it was the first time somebody finds a golden earring from the Hellenistic times in Jerusalem. Many structures dated to the Herodian period were discovered in the Jewish Quarter during archaeological excavations carried out between 1967 and 1983. Among them

432-617: A series of museums and outdoor parks, which tourists can visit by descending two or three stories beneath the level of the current city. Its population was 3,240 in 2020. There was previously a small Mughrabi Quarter in the Old City. Within a week of the Six-Day War 's end, the quarter was largely destroyed in order to give visitors better access to the Western Wall by creating the Western Wall Plaza . The parts of

504-527: A seventh, the New Gate, was added in 1887; several other, older gates, have been walled up over the centuries. The Golden Gate was at first rebuilt and left open by Suleiman's architects, only to be walled up a short while later. The New Gate was opened in the wall surrounding the Christian Quarter during the 19th century. Two secondary gates were reopened in recent times on the southeastern side of

576-565: Is a hill in Jerusalem , located just outside the walls of the Old City to the south. The term Mount Zion has been used in the Hebrew Bible first for the City of David ( 2 Samuel 5:7 , 1 Chronicles 11:5 ; 1 Kings 8:1 , 2 Chronicles 5:2 ) and later for the Temple Mount , but its meaning has shifted and it is now used as the name of ancient Jerusalem's Western Hill. In a wider sense,

648-730: Is a 0.9-square-kilometre (0.35 sq mi) walled area in East Jerusalem . In a tradition that may have begun with an 1840s British map of the city , the Old City is divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter , the Christian Quarter , the Armenian Quarter , and the Jewish Quarter . A fifth area, the Temple Mount , known to Muslims as Al-Aqsa or Haram al-Sharif , is home to

720-702: Is also the final resting place for a number of soldiers who fought in the First World War, as well as members of the Palestinian Police who served under the British mandate . Several persons buried here were killed in the bombing of the King David Hotel on the morning of 22 July 1946. In 1874, an Englishman, Henry Maudsley, discovered a large segment of rock scarp and numerous ancient dressed stones on Mount Zion that were believed to be

792-653: 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 Western Wall – Damascus Gate route in the west. During the British Mandate, Sir Ronald Storrs embarked on a project to rehabilitate the Cotton Market, which was badly neglected under

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864-546: Is the word for Zion in Arabic and Syriac . A valley called Wâdi Sahyûn ( wadi being the Arabic for "valley") seemingly preserves the name and is located approximately one and three-quarter miles (2.8 km) from the Old City of Jerusalem 's Jaffa Gate . The phrase Har Tzion , lit. "Mount Zion", appears nine times in the Tanakh . The name Mount Zion referred successively to three locations, as Jerusalemites preserved

936-473: Is what today is called Mount Zion. In the second half of the First Temple period, the city expanded westward and its defensive walls were extended to include the entire Western Hill behind them. Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the city almost completely around 586 BCE , severing the continuity of historical memory. A long period of rebuilding followed, ending with Jerusalem's second total destruction at

1008-513: The 1929 Palestine riots . Thousands of Jews, Christians and Arabs prayed for his recovery. When he was able to return to work, he opened a new clinic on the first floor of Beit Ticho and continued to take patients there until his retirement in 1950. Trachoma was widespread in Jerusalem at the time, and he often treated hundreds of patients per day. The Tichos hosted local and British government officials in their home, as well as artists, writers, academics and intellectuals. Anna Ticho bequeathed

1080-475: The 1948 Arab–Israeli War . During the 1967 Six-Day War , Israel occupied East Jerusalem; since then, the entire city has been under Israeli control. Israel unilaterally asserted in its 1980 Jerusalem Law that the whole of Jerusalem was Israel's capital. In international law, East Jerusalem is defined as territory occupied by Israel . In 1967, the Old City contained 17,000 Muslims, 6,000 Christians (including Armenians) and no Jews. The current population of

1152-645: The Book of Psalms , and the First Book of Maccabees (c. 2nd century BCE; 1 Maccabees 4:36–38 ) seems to refer to the top of the hill, generally known as the Temple Mount . The last shift of the name Mount Zion was to the Western Hill, which is more dominant than the Eastern Hill and seemed to first-century CE Jerusalemites the worthier location for the by-then lost palace of King David. The Western Hill

1224-639: The Church in Jerusalem, "a poor, but just and powerful man" would rise to be a protector and ally to the Christians of Jerusalem. Sophronius believed that `Umar, a great warrior who led an austere life, was a fulfillment of this prophecy. In the account by the Patriarch of Alexandria , Eutychius , it is said that `Umar paid a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and sat in its courtyard. When

1296-573: The City of David "from the City of David, which is Zion (1 Kings 8:1–2; 2 Chron. 5:2)". 2 Samuel 5:7 also reads, "David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David," which identifies Mount Tzion as part of the City of David, and not an area outside today's Old City of Jerusalem. Rashi identifies the location as the source of "joy" mentioned in the Psalm as the Temple Courtyard ,

1368-542: The Damascus Gate in the east, where it borders the Muslim Quarter . The quarter contains the Church of the Holy Sepulchre , viewed by many as Christianity's holiest place. Its population was 3,870 in 2020. The Armenian Quarter ( Armenian : Հայկական Թաղամաս , Haygagan T'aġamas, Arabic : حارة الأرمن , Ḩārat al-Arman) is the smallest of the four quarters of the Old City. Although the Armenians are Christian,

1440-819: The Dome of the Rock , the Al-Aqsa Mosque , and was once the site of the Jewish Temple . The Old City's current walls and city gates were built by the Ottoman Empire from 1535 to 1542 under Suleiman the Magnificent . The Old City is home to several sites of key importance and holiness to the three major Abrahamic religions : the Temple Mount and the Western Wall for Judaism , the Church of

1512-552: 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. According to the Hebrew Bible , before King David 's conquest of Jerusalem in the 11th century BCE the city was home to the Jebusites . The Bible describes

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1584-557: The Mughrabi Quarter , was demolished following the Six-Day War . This 19th-century cartographic partition into four quarters represented the historical development of the city that had previously been divided into many more harat ( Arabic : حارَة , romanized :  Hārat : "quarters", "neighborhoods", "districts" or "areas", see wikt:حارة ); the Christian and Jewish areas of the city had grown considerably over

1656-794: The Persian King Cyrus the Great invited the Jews of Babylon to return to Judah to rebuild the Temple. Construction of the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE, during the reign of Darius the Great , 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple. In about 440 BCE, the city was rebuilt on a smaller scale during the Persian period, when, according to the Bible, Nehemiah led

1728-649: The Shuafat Refugee Camp , where many were shifted, leaving most of the properties empty of inhabitants. In 1968, after the Six Day War, Israel confiscated 12%, including the Jewish quarter and contiguous areas, of the Old City for public use. Some 80% of this confiscated infrastructure consisted of properties not owned by Jews. After reconstruction the parts of the quarter destroyed prior to 1967, these properties were then offered for sale exclusively to

1800-533: The Six-Day War of 1967. A few days later, Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of the adjacent Moroccan Quarter , forcibly relocating all of its inhabitants, in order to facilitate public access to the Western Wall. 195 properties – synagogues, yeshivas, and apartments – were registered as Jewish and fell under the control of Jordan's Custodian of Enemy Property . Most were occupied by Palestinian refugees expelled by Israeli forces from West Jerusalem and its contiguous villages until UNRWA and Jordan constructed

1872-476: The Temple Mount . The quarter has a rich history, with several long periods of Jewish presence covering much of the time since the eighth century BCE. In 1948, its population of about 2,000 Jews was besieged, and forced to leave en masse. The quarter was completely bombed during the Battle for Jerusalem . The Jewish quarter remained under Jordanian control until its recapture by Israeli paratroopers in

1944-669: The Western Christian army of the First Crusade and it remained in their hands until recaptured by the Arab Muslims , led by Saladin , on October 2, 1187. He summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the city. In 1219, the walls of the city were razed by Sultan Al-Mu'azzam of Damascus ; in 1229, by treaty with Egypt , Jerusalem came into the hands of Frederick II of Germany . In 1239 he began to rebuild

2016-546: The "stronghold of Zion" that was conquered by King David , then renamed and partially rebuilt by him as the "City of David", where he erected his palace . Once the First Temple was erected at the top of the Eastern Hill, the name "Mount Zion" migrated there too. After the conquest of the Jebusite city, its built-up area expanded northward towards the uppermost part of the same, Eastern Hill. This highest part became

2088-698: The Armenian Monastery of St. Saviour , King David's Tomb and the Room of the Last Supper . Most historians and archeologists today do not regard "David's Tomb" there to be the actual burial place of King David . The Chamber of the Holocaust ( Martef HaShoah ), the precursor of Yad Vashem , is also located on Mount Zion. Another place of interest is the Catholic cemetery where Oskar Schindler ,

2160-554: The Armenian Quarter is distinct from the Christian Quarter . Despite the small size and population of this quarter, the Armenians and their Patriarchate remain staunchly independent and form a vigorous presence in the Old City. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the four quarters of the city came under Jordanian control. According to a 2007 study, the quarter housed 2,424 people (6.55% of Old City's total). Its population

2232-682: The Emperor Hadrian around 130, under the name Aelia Capitolina. In the Byzantine period Jerusalem was extended southwards and again enclosed by city walls. Muslims occupied Byzantine Jerusalem in the 7th century (637 CE) under the second caliph, ` Umar Ibn al-Khattab who annexed it to the Islamic Arab Empire . He granted its inhabitants an assurance treaty. After the siege of Jerusalem, Sophronius welcomed `Umar, allegedly because, according to biblical prophecies known to

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2304-1047: The Essenes on Mount Zion , the gate of Herod's royal palace south of the citadel , and the vague remains of what 19th-century explorers identified as the Gate of the Funerals (Bab al-Jana'iz) or of al-Buraq (Bab al-Buraq) south of the Golden Gate ). Until 1887, each gate was closed before sunset and opened at sunrise. These gates have been known by a variety of names used in different historical periods and by different communities. Gates 1. Jaffa 2. Zion 3. Dung 4. Golden 5. Lions 6. Herod 7. Damascus 8. New ( Double, Single, Tanners ' ) Al-Mawazin 31°46′36″N 35°14′03″E  /  31.77667°N 35.23417°E  / 31.77667; 35.23417 Mount Zion Mount Zion ( Hebrew : הַר צִיּוֹן , Har Ṣīyyōn ; Arabic : جبل صهيون , Jabal Sahyoun )

2376-529: The Holy Sepulchre for Christianity , and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Islam . The Old City, along with its walls, was added to the World Heritage Site list of UNESCO in 1981. In spite of its name, the Old City of Jerusalem's current layout is different from that of ancient times. Most archeologists believe that the City of David , an archaeological site on a rocky spur south of

2448-467: The Israeli and Jewish public. The prior owners mostly refused compensation, often because their properties were part of Islamic or family waqfs , which cannot be put up for sale. As of 2005 , the population stood at 2,348. Many large educational institutions have taken up residence. Before being rebuilt, the quarter was carefully excavated under the supervision of Hebrew University archaeologist Nahman Avigad . The archaeological remains are on display in

2520-404: The Jewish holy places. Mount Zion was a designated no-man's land between Israel and Jordan. Mount Zion was the closest accessible site to the ancient Jewish Temple . Until East Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War , Israelis would climb to the rooftop of David's Tomb to pray. The winding road leading up to Mount Zion is known as Pope's Way ( Derekh Ha'apifyor ). In his Epistle to

2592-530: The Jews who returned from the Babylonian Exile. An additional, so-called Second Wall, was built by King Herod the Great , who also expanded the Temple Mount and rebuilt the Temple. In 41–44 CE, Agrippa , king of Judea , started building the so-called "Third Wall" around the northern suburbs. The entire city was totally destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. The northern part of the city was rebuilt by

2664-403: The Muslim Quarter. Its population was 21,850 in 2020. The Christian Quarter ( Arabic : حارة النصارى , Ḩārat an-Naşāra) is situated in the northwestern corner of the Old City, extending from the New Gate in the north, along the western wall of the Old City as far as the Jaffa Gate , along the Jaffa Gate – Western Wall route in the south, bordering the Jewish and Armenian Quarters, as far as

2736-416: The Old City resides mostly in the Muslim quarter. In 2007, the total population was 36,965; there were 27,500 Muslims (growing to over 30,000 by 2013); 5,681 non-Armenian Christians, 790 Armenians (who decreased in number to about 500 by 2013); and 3,089 Jews (with almost 3,000 plus some 1,500 yeshiva students by 2013). By 2020, Old City's population dropped to 31,120. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War ,

2808-463: 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,

2880-400: The Ottoman Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The walls stretch for approximately 4.5 km (2.8 miles), and rise to a height of between 5 and 15 metres (16.4–49 ft), with a thickness of 3 metres (10 feet) at the base of the wall. Altogether, the Old City walls contain 35 towers, of which 15 are concentrated in the more exposed northern wall. Suleiman's wall had six gates, to which

2952-438: The Romans, Paul noted: “Happy is he whose conscience does not condemn him in that which he allows” (Romans 14:22) It was paved in honor of the historic visit to Jerusalem of Pope Paul VI in 1964. The Tanakh reference to Har Tzion (Mount Tzion) that identifies its location is derived from the Psalm 48 composed by the sons of Korah , i.e. Levites, as "the northern side of the city of the great king", which Radak interprets as

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3024-539: The Temple Mount, was the original settlement core of Jerusalem during the Bronze and Iron Ages . At times, the ancient city spread to the east and north, covering Mount Zion and the Temple Mount. The Old City as defined by the walls of Suleiman is thus shifted a bit northwards compared to earlier periods of the city's history, and smaller than it had been in its peak, during the late Second Temple period . The Old City's current layout has been documented in significant detail, notably in old maps of Jerusalem over

3096-500: The Turks. He describes it as a public latrine with piles of debris up to five feet high. With the help of the Pro-Jerusalem Society , vaults, roofing and walls were restored, and looms were brought in to provide employment. Like the other three quarters of the Old City, until the riots of 1929 the Muslim quarter had a mixed population of Muslims, Christians, and also Jews. Today, there are "many Israeli settler homes" and "several yeshivas ", including Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim , in

3168-462: The architect Conrad Schick ; and pioneers in the fields of medicine, education, religion, diplomacy and social services such as James Edward Hanauer , Ernest Masterman, John Nicholayson , Paul Palmer, Max Sandreczky , Johann Ludwig Schneller, Horatio G. Spafford , author of the hymn It Is Well With My Soul . Also buried in the cemetery are G. Douglas Young, founder of Jerusalem University College , and his wife Georgina (Snook) Young. The cemetery

3240-445: The area of the Israelite Tower , probably including parts of a gate where numerous projectiles were found, attesting to the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Another part of the late 8th-century BCE fortification discovered was dubbed the "broad wall" , after the way it was described in the Book of Nehemiah , built to defend Jerusalem against the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem of 701 BCE. In 2015, archaeologists uncovered

3312-421: The city as heavily fortified with a strong city wall , a fact confirmed by archaeology. The Bible names the city ruled by King David as the City of David , in Hebrew Ir David, which was identified southeast of the Old City walls, outside the Dung Gate . In the Bible, David's son, King Solomon , extended the city walls to include the Temple and Temple Mount. After the partition of the United Kingdom of Israel ,

3384-401: The city from a spring outside its walls. He made at least two major preparations that would help Jerusalem to resist conquest: the construction of the Siloam Tunnel , and construction of the Broad Wall . The First Temple period ended around 586 BCE, as Nebuchadnezzar's Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered Judah and Jerusalem , and laid waste to Solomon's Temple and the city. In 538 BCE,

3456-406: The city walls as a result of archaeological work. In 1980, Jordan proposed that the Old City be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . It was added to the List in 1981. In 1982, Jordan requested that it be added to the List of World Heritage in Danger . The United States government opposed the request, noting that the Jordanian government had no standing to make such a nomination and that

3528-429: The consent of the Israeli government would be required since it effectively controlled Jerusalem. In 2011, UNESCO issued a statement reiterating its view that East Jerusalem is "part of the occupied Palestinian territory , and that the status of Jerusalem must be resolved in permanent status negotiations." Among the Israelite period finds in the Old City are two portions of the 8th and 7th century BCE city walls, in

3600-457: The era of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem for instance, Jerusalem had four gates, one on each side. The current walls were built by Suleiman the Magnificent , who provided them with six gates; several older gates, which had been walled up before the arrival of the Ottomans, were left as they were. As to the previously sealed Golden Gate, Suleiman at first opened and rebuilt it, but then walled it up again as well. The number of operational gates

3672-428: The front and back. Among its first occupants was the family of the antiquities dealer Moses Wilhelm Shapira , whose daughter Myriam Harry described growing up there in her memoir, "La petite flle de Jerusalem." The family lived there between 1873 and 1883. In 1924, Dr. Abraham Albert Ticho, an ophthalmologist, and his wife, Anna Ticho , an artist, bought the house. Dr. Ticho was stabbed and seriously wounded during

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3744-436: The hands of the Romans in 70 CE. Josephus , the first-century CE historian who knew the city as it was before this second catastrophic event, identified Mount Zion as being the Western Hill, separated from the lower, Eastern Hill, by what he calls the " Tyropoeon Valley ". It must however be said that Josephus never used the name "Mount Zion" in any of his writings, but described the "Citadel" of King David as being situated on

3816-407: The higher and longer hill, thus pointing at the Western Hill as what the Bible calls Mount Zion. At the end of the Roman period, a synagogue was built at the entrance of the structure known as David's Tomb, probably based on the belief that David brought the Ark of the Covenant here from Beit Shemesh and Kiryat Ye'arim before the construction of the Temple. During the 1948 war , Mount Zion

3888-440: The house and its contents, including her husband's Judaica collections and library, to the Israel Museum . 31°47′02″N 35°13′10″E  /  31.78396°N 35.21957°E  / 31.78396; 35.21957 Old City (Jerusalem) The Old City of Jerusalem ( Hebrew : הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה , romanized :  Ha'ír Ha'atiká ; Arabic : المدينة القديمة , romanized :  al-Madīna al-Qadīma )

3960-418: The importance of the Nea complex at the time. The Old City is currently divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter and the Jewish Quarter. Matthew Teller writes that this four-quarter convention may have originated in the 1841 British Royal Engineers map of Jerusalem , or at least Reverend George Williams ' subsequent labelling of it. A fifth quarter,

4032-435: The last 1,500 years. Until the mid-19th century, the entire city of Jerusalem, with the exception of David's Tomb complex , was enclosed within the Old City walls. The departure from the walls began in the 19th century, when the city's municipal borders were expanded to include Arab villages such as Silwan and new Jewish neighborhoods such as Mishkenot Sha'ananim . The Old City came under Jordanian control following

4104-524: The location of atonement offerings in the northern part of the Temple complex . In the New Testament, Mount Zion is used metaphorically to refer to the heavenly Jerusalem, God's holy, eternal city. Christians are said to have "come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven" (Hebrews 12:22–23, cf. Revelation 14:1). Important sites on Mount Zion are Dormition Abbey ,

4176-417: The name is similar in Arabic and may be connected to the root ṣiyya ("dry land") or the Arabic šanā ("protect" or "citadel"). It might also be related to the Arabic root ṣahî ("ascend to the top") or ṣuhhay ("tower" or "the top of the mountain"). A non-Semitic relationship to the Hurrian word šeya ("river" or "brook") has also been suggested. Sahyun ( Arabic : صهيون , Ṣahyūn or Ṣihyūn )

4248-400: The preceding centuries. Despite the names, there was no governing principle of ethnic segregation: 30 percent of the houses in the Muslim quarter were rented out to Jews, and 70 percent of the Armenian quarter. Below is a table of the historically recorded quarters of the city, from 1495 up until the modern system: The Muslim Quarter ( Arabic : حارَة المُسلِمين , Hārat al-Muslimīn)

4320-415: The quarter that were not destroyed are now part of the Jewish Quarter. Simultaneously with the demolition, a new regulation was set into place by which the only access point for non-Muslims to the Temple Mount is through the Gate of the Moors , which is reached via the so-called Mughrabi Bridge . During different periods, the city walls followed different outlines and had a varying number of gates. During

4392-420: The remnants of an impressive fort, built by Greeks in the center of old Jerusalem. It is believed that it is the remnants of the Acra fortress . The team also found coins that date from the time of Antiochus IV to the time of Antiochus VII . In addition, they found Greek arrowheads, slingshots, ballistic stones and amphorae . In 2018, archaeologists discovered a 4-centimeter-long filigree gold earring with

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4464-427: The site of Solomon's Temple . The identification of the pre-Israelite (Jebusite) and Israelite towns on the Eastern Hill is based on the existence of only one perennial water source in the area, the Gihon Spring , and on archaeological excavations revealing sections of the Bronze Age and Iron Age city walls and water systems. The "Mount Zion" mentioned in the later parts of the Book of Isaiah ( Isaiah 60:14 ), in

4536-426: The southern tribes remained in Jerusalem, with the city becoming the capital of the Kingdom of Judah . Jerusalem was largely extended westwards after the Neo-Assyrian destruction of the northern Kingdom of Israel and the resulting influx of refugees. King Hezekiah had been preparing for an Assyrian invasion by fortifying the walls of the capital, building towers, and constructing a tunnel to bring fresh water to

4608-429: The term Zion is also used for the entire Land of Israel . The etymology of the word Zion is uncertain. Mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Samuel (2 Samuel 5:7) as the name of the Jebusite fortress conquered by King David , its origin likely predates the Israelites . If Semitic , it may be associated with the Hebrew root ṣiyyôn ("castle"). Though not spoken in Jerusalem until 1,700 years later,

4680-400: The time for prayer arrived, however, he left the church and prayed outside the compound, in order to avoid having future generations of Muslims use his prayer there as a pretext for converting the church into a mosque. Eutychius adds that `Umar also wrote a decree which he handed to the Patriarch, in which he prohibited Muslims gathering in prayer at the site. In 1099, Jerusalem was captured by

4752-422: The time-honoured name, but shifted the location they venerated as the focal point of biblical Jerusalem to the site considered most appropriate in their own time. At first, Mount Zion was the name given to the Jebusite fortified city on the lower part of ancient Jerusalem's Eastern Hill, also known as the City of David . According to the Book of Samuel , Mount Zion was the site of the Jebusite fortress called

4824-400: The walls, but they were demolished again by Da'ud , the emir of Kerak . In 1243, Jerusalem came again under the control of the Christians, and the walls were repaired. The Khwarazmian Turks took the city in 1244 and Sultan Malik al-Muazzam razed the walls, rendering it again defenseless and dealing a heavy blow to the city's status. The current walls of the Old City were built in 1535–42 by

4896-411: Was 2,160 in 2020. The Jewish Quarter ( Hebrew : הרובע היהודי , HaRova HaYehudi , known colloquially to residents as HaRova , Arabic : حارة اليهود , Ḩārat al-Yahūd ) lies in the southeastern sector of the walled city, and stretches from the Zion Gate in the south, bordering the Armenian Quarter on the west, along the Cardo to Chain Street in the north and extends east to the Western Wall and

4968-504: Was brought back to seven after the addition of the New Gate in 1887; a smaller one, popularly known as the Tanners' Gate , has been opened for visitors after being discovered and unsealed during excavations in the 1990s. The sealed historic gates comprise four that are at least partially preserved (the double Golden Gate in the eastern wall, and the Single, Triple, and Double Gates in the southern wall), with several other gates discovered by archaeologists of which only traces remain (the Gate of

5040-405: Was conquered by the Harel Brigade on May 18, 1948, and became the only part of the Old City to stay in Israeli hands until the armistice. At first it was linked to the Jewish neighborhood of Yemin Moshe across the Valley of Hinnom via a narrow tunnel, but eventually an alternative was needed to evacuate the wounded and transport supplies to soldiers on Mount Zion. A cable car capable of carrying

5112-437: Was found. It reads: "This work too was donated by our most pious Emperor Flavius Justinian , through the provision and care of Constantine, most saintly priest and abbot, in the 13th year of the indiction ." A second dedicatory inscription bearing the names of Emperor Justinian and of the same abbot of the Nea Church was discovered in 2017 among the ruins of a pilgrim hostel about a kilometre north of Damascus Gate, which proves

5184-570: Was unearthed a palatial mansion from the Herodian period, believed to be the residence of Annas the High Priest . In its vicinity, a depiction of the Temple menorah was discovered, carved while its model still stood in the Temple, engraved in a plastered wall. The palace has been destroyed during the final days of the Roman siege of 70 CE , suffering the same fate as the so-called Burnt House ,

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