COMING SOON
Jerusalem is amazing. Full stop. I think that it is the single most amazing place that I have ever been. It certainly gives Petra a run for its money. While Petra is all about the glory of the desert and the abandoned monuments, Jerusalem is very much a living city. There is nowhere I've been that can compare to it. And I got to spend most of a week there. Yes!
I should make clear that the location I describe is the Old City of Jerusalem. The New City is to the west and is fairly unimpressive and modern. It is also filled with Orthodox Jews. Surprisingly they mostly occupy the bad neighborhoods, so if you see large quantities of them you should probably watch out. There were reports of them throwing stones at local girls and yelling abuse at anyone who wears what they consider to be immodest clothing. They usually ignore foreigners, but not always, and they hate western dress and manners. Fortunately that puts them a step up over the radicals on the other side of the city who hate everything about foreigners and have no hesitation in showing it. Several people from my hostel had been seriously injured by stones when they entered the Palestinian section of Jerusalem, only a short distance from the city walls. The point is: Inside the Old City = Safe (more or less). Outside = Potentially Dangerous. The Israeli side is safer, but I'd stay within a mile or so of the Old City at all times, unless you know exactly where you're going. The bus station that took me to Jordan had more security than a military bunker.
This is the first view that you get when you come in from Jaffa Gate. It is part of the structure known as the Tower of David. According to my (Jewish) taxi driver Israelis aren't supposed to come in here unless they have some sort of business. I'm not sure what's up with that. Certainly it isn't a traffic thing since there are Arabs and whatnot making deliveries in here all the time. Most everything sold in the city has to come through one of these gates.
The streets of Jerusalem are the real draw. Walking through here it feels like nothing has changed in thousands of years. They are made of stone and constructed ad hoc wherever they happened to be going at the time.
The hills can rise and fall quite sharply. To those expecting a flat city as seen in Assassin's Creed and every biblical movie ever are in for a surprise. There isn't a stretch of more than a few hundred feet that could be considered level ground. Everywhere is stairs and even when you've been there a week the place is a maze. I loved it.
This is where I stayed, the Citadel Hostel. It looks worse than it is. The location can't be beat. It's right in the heart of the Old City, and it only cost me about $14 a night. You absolutely cannot beat that in a city such as this.
The inside may be kinda run down, but it feels like some kind of cool cave carved out of the rock. The bedrooms are cramped and filled with as many people as they can hold. The showers are filthy and leaky. Make sure you bring your own towel. They do have equipment for cooking, but none of the materials. I'm not saying any of this to disparage the place. I know how hard it must be to keep a place running when the design is so outdated and inefficient. There isn't room to improve on it, and it would probably cost extraordinary amounts of cash to fix even the most basic of problems. And as I said: you can't beat the price.
One of the first places that I visited was the Holy Sephulcre. This is the main Christian church in Jerusalem, and as such it is the source of conflict between the many different sects of Christianity who occupy the city. Something about this land breeds fanaticism and Christianity is not immune to it. The Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests are the two most contentious sects, and the church in Bethlehem is the location of several brawls involving the two orders. I suspect that the Israeili police patrolling the streets would be less tolerant of that in Jerusalem than the Palestinian ones are in Bethlehem. The entrance itself is singularly unimpressive. It is a nice design, but it is built into the other buildings and doesn't really stand out. I imagine that this was important for a Christian population living among Muslims and trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. It certainly wasn't an intentionally humble decision, because the inside makes quite clear how glorious they thought a church of God should be. The plain exterior combined with a stunning interior is very much a feature of Byzantine churches, and shows a definite Greek influence in its construction.
The first thing that you see when you go into the church is this stone. Hordes of people are touching it at any given time. Some even lean down and kiss it, removing any desire for me to touch it. It's kinda like the Blarney Stone in Ireland although it's probably blasphemous to mention that. This is the Stone of Anointing upon which Jesus' body was supposedly prepared for burial. This is the first of many questionable "facts" about the church. It is first attested in the Middle Ages, and how they authenticated it I don't know. It probably appeared in a miraculous vision to a priest who just happened to own it at the time. Forgive me for being cynical, but so much of what people say about this city is patently untrue, and this Church more than anything.
He also maintained (not unreasonably) that many of the "ancient holy sites" peddled to tourists are in fact fake since nothing much remains of pre-Medieval Jerusalem and nobody knows where the sites really are. He reasoning was often quite different though. For example he held that the Weeping Wall couldn't possibly be the real Temple Mount since Jesus has said that there would be "not one stone left upon another." I'm sure that kind of talk in the middle of the Holy Land won him all kinds of friends.
The Mount of Olives is just to the west of the Old City. It really dominates the skyline. Those squares on the hill are in fact tombs. Most of them are Jewish (I think) which is kinda surprising for a hill in occupied Palestine. For once you leave Jerusalem on this side you are outside of Israeli territory. One of the more disturbed people at my hostel was a Christian fanatic who'd been living there for about six months. He knew his way around the place which was the only reason why I talked to him. But he was a repository for other information as well. For example: did you know that the reason the Jews put their tombs on the Mount of Olives is because they secretly know that Jesus was the messiah and he came from that direction? So they want to be the first to join in the resurrection. I didn't have the nerve to ask any Jews what they thought of that fascinating theological insight, but I did notice that the people who'd been living there a while tended to give the guy a wide berth.
At the bottom of the Mount of Olives I ran into some problems. Four of them in fact. I was looking at the rather ancient tombs at the bottom of the hill and they were staring at me threateningly the whole time. They spoke quite good English and asked several pointed questions about who I was and where I came from, though I'm sure it was obvious. I tried to pull off British since that seemed mildly better than American (at least they support Palestinian independence) but I don't think that anything mattered to them except that I was a foreigner. I have no doubt that if I had gone any further from the road I'd have ended up with head injuries from having rocks thrown at me. This was the same area where several of the people staying at my hostel had been attacked so I skedaddled. Discretion is the better part of valour and all that. Or better yet I didn't retreat, I simply advanced to the rear in the good old-fashioned British way. Wouldn't want anyone thinking that I ran away from a bunch of twelve-year-old boys.
The funny thing about the Mount of Olives is how close and yet how far it is from the city. It's really only a few hundred feet from the walls, but in terms of safety it was immensely worse. This was the only part of my trip where I'm convinced that I was truly in danger. The tourist office on the way up offered protection, but only for groups of people and only before a certain time. I failed on both counts. But being so close I went anyway. It was after all only a brief trip up a straight road where I would be able to see for a few hundred feet in any direction at any time. That part wasn't the mistake, but where I went to get back certainly was.
The view from the top was extraordinary. You could see for miles. Which makes me wonder how smart David was to build his city on that hill instead of this one? The temple mount has a terrible view since it's blocked by the Mount of Olives to the east and can't see much better in the west. The Mount of Olives is bigger, taller, and easier to defend. When the Romans took the city this was where they placed their catapults and ballistas. They could see everything that went on in the city.
Getting back to the city was tough. I had been rather unnerved by the kids at the bottom of the hill so I decided to try and find a safer route back. I had heard there were two ways up: one safe and one not. Since the way I took was guarded by a hoard of preteens it must clearly be the unsafe one.Whoops. I ended up going through some extremely seedy streets where everyone stared at me. It looked like Jordan, only with less friendly people. Even on the Mount there were unpleasant hucksters. One twelve-year-old forced a palm into my pocket (for Palm Sunday which was months away) and then demanded money. When I took out my change to give him something ('cause I just wanted him to leave me alone) he reached into my hand and nabbed what he felt he deserved. Then an older man who I assume was his dad came over and demanded to know if I had had my picture taken with his camel, the idea being that if I had I owed him much money. In Jordan and in the Arab Quarter this type of fleecing would be hidden behind a phony smile, but here they were scowling angrily as they tried to take my money. This is the border between Israel and Palestine. While other parts of Palestine are safer (although often not by much) this area is filled with anger and hatred. Which is why walking right through the middle of it was not a good idea. But I made it safely which is what mattered.
This is the building that is known as David's Tower. Like most places in Jerusalem it is misnamed. In this case the tower was actually a medieval one, which should have been obvious since the Romans tore down the city walls when they conquered it.
I never got to go in, but I did get to run along the city walls. Which was a great deal of fun. It is something that anyone who visits must do. I really wished that I had someone there with me so that I could have recorded myself running along the walls like Altaïr.
That game is seriously deceptive though. The skyline has nowhere near as many tall buildings and is dominated by steep hills more than level ground. The layout of the streets has been simplified as well, and made wider. Also, not every rooftop has a guard and when you throw knives at them the police are a lot faster to nab you. Hiding in a cart of hay also proves to be of little use, even on those rare times when you can find one.
The best views of the city are found from the walls and from the roofs of various buildings. Unfortunately, finding the buildings which let you up isn't always easy. Usually local children will help you if you pay them, but they are also known to make up directions when they don't understand what you're asking. Adults will be more ambitious and generally force you to buy something before giving out directions. But the walls themselves are easy to get up. You have to pay for them, but the entrance is right near Jaffa gate.
I should make clear that the location I describe is the Old City of Jerusalem. The New City is to the west and is fairly unimpressive and modern. It is also filled with Orthodox Jews. Surprisingly they mostly occupy the bad neighborhoods, so if you see large quantities of them you should probably watch out. There were reports of them throwing stones at local girls and yelling abuse at anyone who wears what they consider to be immodest clothing. They usually ignore foreigners, but not always, and they hate western dress and manners. Fortunately that puts them a step up over the radicals on the other side of the city who hate everything about foreigners and have no hesitation in showing it. Several people from my hostel had been seriously injured by stones when they entered the Palestinian section of Jerusalem, only a short distance from the city walls. The point is: Inside the Old City = Safe (more or less). Outside = Potentially Dangerous. The Israeli side is safer, but I'd stay within a mile or so of the Old City at all times, unless you know exactly where you're going. The bus station that took me to Jordan had more security than a military bunker.
The Church of the Holy Sephulcre
The Weeping Wall
The Mount of Olives
The Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock
The City Walls
Pictured: Me
That game is seriously deceptive though. The skyline has nowhere near as many tall buildings and is dominated by steep hills more than level ground. The layout of the streets has been simplified as well, and made wider. Also, not every rooftop has a guard and when you throw knives at them the police are a lot faster to nab you. Hiding in a cart of hay also proves to be of little use, even on those rare times when you can find one.
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