The Ultimate Walking Tour of the Old City

First Stop
Jaffa Gate

Before you enter Jaffa Gate, which is the traditional entrance to the city for visitors from the West, check out the stones from many eras that make up the present Old City wall, which was erected by order of the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1538. Some stones have been dressed with carefully cut flat borders surrounding a raised, flat central area (the boss), in the style of King Herod's stonecutters, and probably dating from 2,000 years ago. You will see this style again in the monumental stones of the Western Wall, a retaining wall for the vast artificial platform that Herod constructed to surround the original Jerusalem Temple site with room for the thousands of Jews who made the pilgrimage from all over the ancient world. You will notice other kinds of stones with flat borders and rougher raised bosses. These are in the pre-Herodian style of the Hasmoneans (the Maccabees) who were the last Jewish rulers of Jerusalem until modern times, with the exception of Bar Kochba, who conquered the ruins of the city during the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome in A.D. 132-35. You will also see rough ashlars of the Byzantine era, as well as the virtually undressed stones of Crusader and medieval times. In each of the upper corners of the closed decorative archway to the left of the Jaffa Gate, notice stones carefully carved into a leaf design, which are believed to have come from a long-destroyed Crusader church. The walls of Jerusalem, like the city itself, are composed of stones used again and again, just as many of the legends and traditions of the city reappear and are reassembled by each successive civilization and religion.

Second Stop
Cardo

The restored and renovated section of Roman and Byzantine Jerusalem's main market street is now filled with stylish modern shops.

Third Stop

Hurva Synagogue

This site was home to the Jewish Quarter's main synagogue from the 16th to the mid-20th century, but all you see today are ruins from the most recent incarnation's destruction by the Jordanians in 1948. There are plans in the works to rebuild it exactly as it stood before it was destroyed.

Fourth Stop

Herodian Quarter

The present Jewish Quarter, on a hill opposite the Temple Mount, was the aristocratic residential part of Jerusalem in Herodian times. During the 1970s, intensive archaeological excavations were carried out here while the Jewish Quarter was being rebuilt. The ruins of large mansions were found with facilities for mikvot (ritual baths) and with mosaic floors ornamented by simple geometric designs (in strict keeping with the Mosaic commandment against graven images).

Fifth Stop

In the extensive ruins of this Crusader-era church, once hidden beneath buildings from later times, you can explore the cloister (to the left of the entrance), and the basilica, with a view of the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives framed in the window of the central apse.

Sixth Stop

The Herodian retaining wall for the western side of the Temple Mount was built by Herod the Great more than 2,000 years ago. It's a remnant of the outer courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple, and the holiest place of prayer in Jewish tradition.

Seventh Stop

The Temple Mount (in Arabic, Haram es Sharif) is open for visitors until 3pm. Give yourself ample time to walk around the ceremonial plaza and enjoy the views of the Mount of Olives. Non-Muslims must buy admission tickets (approximately NIS 30/$6.60, well worth the fee) from a small stone kiosk to the right of the Al Aqsa Mosque, which will admit you to both mosques and to the museum (you may be asked to wait outside during noonday prayers). It is permissible to take photographs outdoors on the Temple Mount, but you cannot bring a camera into mosques or shrines.

Eigth Stop

The Spice Market was covered during the time of the Crusaders, who perhaps could not bear the blazing summer sun of the region. It's actually an additional segment of the Cardo, once the great Roman north-south market and ceremonial street. The Roman Cardo, originally broad and colonnaded, evolved over centuries into the present warren of narrow, parallel bazaars (including the Butcher's Bazaar, with its dangling skinned sheep heads and gutters of blood, parallel just to the left) that runs all the way north to the Damascus Gate. El Attarin is now mostly populated by clothing and sneaker shops.

Ninth Stop

Take a Break--Abu Assab Refreshments, a busy Old City landmark, sells fresh orange, grapefruit, and carrot juice, and is the least expensive and best of its kind in town. A good place to stave off dehydration and fill up on vitamins, you can order these juices straight, or in any combination. You can stay downstairs for a quick break, or go upstairs where there is table service. Mike, the British-educated manager, who is often at the downstairs carrot juice counter, will translate the Arabic price list.

Tenth Stop
. Ethiopian Compound and Monastery

It's located on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher's roof with the protruding dome in the center. Through the windows of the dome you will be able to see the Chapel of Saint Helena inside the Holy Sepulcher Church below; you'll even be able to smell the church incense, and at times, hear services and prayers.

The Ethiopians use this roof area each year on the Saturday midnight eve of Easter Sunday for one of the city's most exotic religious processions. The Ethiopian Patriarch, with a great ceremonial African umbrella, circumambulates the dome, followed by monks beating ancient drums -- so large that they must be carried by two men -- and by chanting white-robed pilgrims. The procession then retires to a leopard-skin tent (nowadays made of canvas in a leopard skin pattern) to chant and pray through the night. This very moving ceremony is open to the public, and many Jerusalemites make it a point to attend each year.

The compound is spread across the sprawling segments of the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Note that here on this ancient roof entire trees and gardens grow, among them the olive trees (or offshoots of olive trees) in which Abraham supposedly found the ram he offered in sacrifice after God freed him from the commandment to sacrifice Isaac. Beside the expanse of the roof surrounding the dome, are the living quarters of the tiny, walled, fortresslike monastery. Visitors may not enter this monastery compound, but you can look into the lane at the entrance to the monastery: The low round-walled buildings and trees offer a distinctly African feeling. For centuries, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has been divided among the six oldest factions of Christianity, and in the most recent division, the Ethiopian Church, with roots dating from the 4th century A.D., got the roof. Both Ethiopian monks and a lay community have inhabited this location for centuries (you can often smell the wonderful spicy cooking of the communal kitchen). Note the church bells hanging in the ruined gothic arches of the Crusader-era church structure to the right and above the tiny main street.