International > Israel

The Old City, Jerusalem

The Old City is a 0.9 square kilometers walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem. this area constituted the entire city of Jerusalem.
The Old City is home to several sites of key religious importance the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims, the Temple Mount and Western Wall for Jews and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians, It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site List in 1981.

The Old City has been divided into four uneven quarters, although the current designations were introduced only in the 19th century. Today, the Old City is roughly divided into the Muslim Quarter, Christian Quarter, Armenian Quarter and Jewish Quarter.

Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Old City was captured by Jordan and all its Jewish residents were evicted. During the Six Day War in 1967, which saw hand-to-hand fighting on the Temple Mount, Israeli forces captured the Old City along with the rest of East Jerusalem, subsequently annexing them as Israeli territory and reuniting them with the western part of the city.
Today, the Israeli government controls the entire area, which it considers part of its national capital.

The current walls of the Old City were built in 1535-42 by the Ottoman Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The walls stretch for approximately 4.5 km and rise to a height of between (16.4-49 ft), with a thickness of (10 feet) at the base of the wall.
Altogether, the Old City walls contain 35 towers, most of which (15) are in the more exposed northern wall. Suleiman's wall had six gates, to which a seventh, the New Gate, was added in 1887; several other, older gates, have been walled up over the centuries. The Golden Gate was at first rebuilt and left open by Suleiman's architects, only to be walled up a short while later.

There are 4 quaters-

  • Muslim Quarter

  • Christian Quarter

  • Armenian Quarter

  • Jewish Quarter

Write your comment now