You can get lost in the 3,000-year-old ochre city—among rock domes, walls, synagogues—and still find yourself in total awe of new Jerusalem.
It’s the perfect natural setting to observe wonder, Israel’s capital, in the presence of millennia of history and archeology, relatively untouched, unalloyed, even, by specks of unimposing modernity.
The first in everyone’s, at the least, two-day itinerary is usually blocked by a single-square-kilometer pilgrimage into The Old City of Jerusalem, paved in cobblestones and home to the Kotel (The Western Wall), the last little remains of the Jewish Temple built by King Herod, the most important Jewish prayer site in the world.
If not to mourn the loss of such grand temple, millions of visitors from around the world commune with God by sealing off an invocation into its cracks: some in search for an answered prayer, some in the search for peace.
(Pro tip 1: Those who are facing Mount Olive can bypass hordes of tourists and explore the side of the wall—and the notes people left there—with less traffic. Pro tip 2: Thou shall not wear shorts!)
Beneath the Western Wall are tunnels that go back in time, giving profound insights into various periods in the history of Jerusalem.
If underground passageways while wading through water, flashlight in hand, is your thing, try Siloam Tunnel, carved during the reign of King Hezekiah, under the City of David, which tells the story of Jerusalem during the reigns of the Bible’s many kings: Solomon, Hezekiah and David himself. Many treasures have been found in this archeological chest: clay, iron, bronze, ancient-shark teeth!
Spur south a series of the Old City’s aromatic and spicy alleyways are all-sensory sundry stalls that make up the famous bustling market (shuk), where one can score real bargains to take home from the holy city: A keepsake, a delicacy.
This alternate-side morphs at sun down into a circuit awash with lights, live music, and tourists boozing to an eclectic shuk nightlife, a cosmopolitan society of transients that equally thrive in Betzalel Street.
The Old City’s modern and upscale charms come in the guise of hotels, promenades, restaurants and shopping malls.
Gastronomes can sometimes be torn between traditional Israeli cuisine and contemporary-plus-fusion, with incredible, award-sweeping wine and beer pairings courtesy of local farms, wineries and breweries around Jerusalem.
Must try Malabi, a beverage-dessert rolled in one, made from rosewater, milk, cornstarch and sugar, and sold in the city’s many middle-eastern kiosks. Come lunchtime, the midtown comes selling Ashtanur, the authentic local pitta bread, best eaten around shawarma or falafel.
Summertime Jerusalem is known for its Friday-noon parties, as well as festivals as nods to film, puppetry, beer, wine that make anyone with artistic and alcoholic stripes feel right at home.
The ancient city also houses the world’s leading art and archaeology museums where the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, among other treasures, can be found: The Israel Museum.
This and one of the largest aquariums in the middle east can be found in Jerusalem, 7,000-sqm tank house of 40 marine species fishing in millions of liters of water.
