The old city of Jerusalem

 

To say that there is nothing in the world quite like it would be an understatement. Nowhere else can even hold a candle to the historical and spiritual significance of Jerusalem whose name and power is embedded in the consciousness of billions.

 

No visit to Israel can be complete without witnessing the portion of Jerusalem known as the Old City, one of the most diverse, complex, and holy contested places on Earth. Jerusalem holds key importance in the prayers and traditions of the world’s three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, each of which left its own mark on the architecture, demographics, and personal importance of the Old City. For an area so comparatively small in size, the Old City has borne witness to countless conquests over the last millennia along with the rise and fall of empires and religions, destruction, rebirth, triumph alongside disaster, preservation alongside evolution.

 

Our tour of the Old City is a blend of the historical and modern and showcases the grandeur of the past while making sure to not overlook the everyday lives of the people who reside within its walls today. We will visit the must-see sites such as the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but we will also discover the modern, small moments of humanity that represent the Old City in the present day, such as the small coffee shops only locals would know.

 

At the beginning of the tour we will visit either the Mount of Olives or the rooftops of the Old City itself for a stunning panoramic view that will give us a perspective of the space we are about to explore. The tour will include visits to all four quarters of the Old City: Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Armenian, each unique from the other in its content and feel. To best get a taste of what we’ll see, I invite you to watch this amazing video, filmed by my dear friend David Zacharie, which successfully captures the essence of the Old City and the interplay between its stones and its humans