About Jerusalem
From the sky, Jerusalem is a mass of white stone dwellings, spread over hilltops, with the walled Old City as a center point. Despite the city's buildings all being made from the same stone, (this is according to a planning law), the diversity from area to area is huge, with each neighborhood being its own little world. Within a matter of kilometers you can switch from the history and intensity of the Old City, to the cosmopolitan buzz of downtown, from the hubbub of a souk to the peacefulness of a panoramic look-out point, from hearing Arabic on Salah Al-Din Street to Hebrew in Malha Mall, from the religiosity of
Mea Shearim to the dance club culture of Talpiot.
Old City
The walled Old...
Interesting Facts About Jerusalem:
2. Fun Fact: There are two (non-working ) windmills in Jerusalem.
3. Random fact: Jerusalem has 776,000 residents. The Jerusalem Theater sells 600,000 tickets to its cultural events every year.
4. Weird fact: You can see houses made out of tin in the central Jerusalem neighborhood of Nachlaot. They were built in the early 20th-century when building materials were scarce.
5: Interesting fact: The Mount of Olives cemetery is the oldest continually used cemetery in the world.
6. Fun fact: In 1962, dinosaur tracks were discovered at Moshav Beit Zayit on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Archaeologists have since uncovered 200 dinosaur prints in the area.
7. Random fact: The Jerusalem YMCA and the Empire State Building were both designed by the same architect, Arthur Lewis Harman.
8. Interesting fact: If you know your Bible and a bit of history, you'll find it easy to get around Jerusalem--street names are grouped in one neighborhood by names of the 12 tribes (Dan, Gad, Shimon etc) in another area by medieval Jewish scholars (Ramban, Ben Maimon, Ibn Givrol, Alfassi etc) and in yet another neighborhood by events related to Israel's War of Independence (Hagdud Haivri, Palmach, HaMapilim etc)
9. Weird fact: In the Old City you can find an institute dedicated to making everything necessary for the rebuilding of the Temple. (The Temple Institute)
10. Random fact: Jerusalem's Old City has eight gates. The most significant of them , the Golden Gate or Shaar Harachamim in Hebrew (built around 648) , has been sealed since the 16th century. It's the gate in the eastern wall through which Jews believe the Messiah will enter Jerusalem.
11. Interesting fact: Where else in the world would you find a synagogue and a Catholic chapel sharing a building? On Hillel Street in central Jerusalem, the Italian Synagogue is one floor up from a beautiful German Catholic chapel built in the 1860s.
12. Random fact: There's a replica of Philadelphia's Liberty Bell in a park in the tony Talbieh area of Jerusalem.
More Jerusalem descriptions
Frommer's
Things to Do
Nothing compares to your first sight of the Southern Wall of the Temple of the Mount, with crowds of swaying believers praying before its ancient stones. This temple wall, dating...
Jerusalem weather
5 day forecast
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MAY 29
- clear
- 95°F
- 75°F
MAY 30
- scattered clouds
- 96°F
- 68°F
MAY 31
- clear
- 86°F
- 64°F
JUN 1
- clear
- 84°F
- 64°F
JUN 2
- clear
- 86°F
- 64°F
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