Jerusalem

Jerusalem (The Holy City part II)

The actual access and visiting hours are dictated by each religion and denomination. All visitors are required to dress modestly and to show sensitivity to the respective customs. Every site resonates with the events of thousands of years past: the Westen Wall and homes of the Second Temple, Gethsemane, the Via Dolorosa and the Holy Sepulchre - Al Aksa and the Dome of the Rock. Not only the sites within the walls of the Old City, but the names of the mountains and valleys themselves echo the awesome past, bringing it to life. Believers of each faith nurture a personal "Jerusalem of the Spirit". A visit to Jerusalem is an unforgettable experience.

Home

Universal Values - Universal Treasures
Jerusalem displays its artifact of the past and the treasures of the modern age in various and sundry ways, from archeaological parks to outdoor sculptures by renowned artists - from Calder's "stabile" to Marc Chagall's tapastries at the Knesset and his famous stained-glass windows at the Hadassah Medical Center. Equally alive and accessible are the relics and experiences offered by the city's museums, large and small, presenting everything from the 3000 year history of the city to modern art.
Spiritually and physically, the visitor to Jerusalem goes up; climbing the pine-cloaked Judean Hills to the city which is holy to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Whether approaching from the sprawl of the coastal plain in the west, or the Judean wilderness to the east and the south, the contrast is tangible and dramatic. Even the air becomes sharper and purer.
From every direction, one immediately senses the city is different from any other. Spread over mountains and valleys whose names go back to time immemorial, the ancient and the modern quarters exist side by side. In the tradition of the ages, every building in the city is faced in the limestone quarried from the surrounding hills, stone of warm golden hues and tones which give expression to the name "Jerusalem of Gold".

Eclectic and Cosmopolitan
A visual inventory of the varieties of attire on the street gives quick testimony to the city's pluralism: Teenagers in the universal uniform of T-shirts and jeans swinging past the cassocks of habits of religious orders...head coverings and long sleeves on observant Jewish and Moslem women alike...casually dressed cafe sitters ...men in the traditional black coats and hats of their sects.
Such contrats and variety are manifested throughout the city in many ways from Christmas choirs to rock concerts, to shopping in open air bazaars or air conditioned malls. Walk through archeological sites or delight in museum treasure houses. Dine on anything from falafel or roasted lamb to pizza or gourmet delicacies And, in a city where four hundered year old structures are considered young, the new is positively at the cutting edge of modern architecture.