Jerusalem
An ancient holy city sacred to three faiths
Few places carry the weight that Jerusalem does. A hilltop city of just over a million, it is holy to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and its compact walled Old City packs the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the gold-domed Dome of the Rock into less than a square kilometer. Few cities have been so fought over, prayed in, and written about, and few hold so much meaning for so many far beyond their own walls.
Jerusalem stands on a high limestone ridge of the Judean Mountains, around seven hundred and sixty metres above sea level, on the watershed between the Mediterranean to the west and the deep rift of the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley to the east. Its dry, stony hills give it cool nights and the occasional winter snow, unusual for the region, and the pale local stone from which the city is built glows golden in the low sun, the reason it is known as Jerusalem of Gold.
Inhabited for some five thousand years, Jerusalem became the capital of the ancient Israelite kingdom under King David around three thousand years ago and the site of the Temple, and it has since been ruled or contested by Babylonians, Romans, Byzantines, Arab caliphates, Crusaders, Ottomans, and the British, among others. Today it is claimed as a capital by both Israelis and Palestinians, its status among the most disputed in the world, even as pilgrims and visitors of every faith continue to stream toward its ancient gates.