Sights of Jerusalem. Top 20 Shrines

Jerusalem is right­ly called one of the most impor­tant cities in the world. He absorbed all the stages of the for­ma­tion of civ­i­liza­tion and brought to our days the mem­o­ry of the pow­er­ful rulers of the past. Walk­ing along its streets, you will immerse your­self in the his­to­ry of numer­ous peo­ples. It is here that the cra­dle of all reli­gions of the world is locat­ed. Hun­dreds of thou­sands of believ­ers annu­al­ly vis­it Jerusalem for the West­ern Wall and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pray in the Church of the Holy Sep­ul­cher, as well as walk the route of Christ to Cal­vary. The sights of Jerusalem, includ­ing the Old City, are on the UNESCO World Her­itage List. The intri­ca­cies of numer­ous archi­tec­tur­al styles will not leave indif­fer­ent even sea­soned tourists. The mod­ern look of Jerusalem has been formed in recent decades and also deserves atten­tion. This list of his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ments will help you decide which places to vis­it first.

Bible Zoo

Let’s start our tour with an attrac­tion that you did­n’t quite expect to see on this list. This is the Bib­li­cal Zoo in the west­ern part of Jerusalem, which appeared in 1940. But not just ani­mals live here, but pre­cise­ly those ani­mals that are men­tioned in the Holy Scrip­tures. The Jerusalem Bib­li­cal Zoo is also famous for sup­port­ing and breed­ing over 250 endan­gered species of ani­mals. The area of ​​the park is con­stant­ly grow­ing and cur­rent­ly cov­ers about 30 hectares. Be sure to walk along the two lev­els of the zoo between which the tourist train runs.

Israeli Museum

The Israeli Muse­um of Jerusalem includes a com­plex of build­ings in the Givat Ram quar­ter. This is a unique place on a glob­al scale, giv­en the muse­um’s area of ​​​​80,000 square meters and an exhi­bi­tion of half a mil­lion dif­fer­ent exhibits. The Israel Muse­um was found­ed in 1965 and has con­tin­ued to grow and add new arti­facts ever since. Some exhi­bi­tions are held in the open air, a sig­nif­i­cant part is ded­i­cat­ed to the fine arts. You will be sur­prised to meet here the paint­ings of Cha­gall, Picas­so and a num­ber of oth­er out­stand­ing world painters.

Damascus Gate

The Dam­as­cus Gate of Jerusalem is one of the most his­tor­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant in the world. This land­mark of Jerusalem is locat­ed in the north­east of the city. The first build­ing on this site appeared in the first cen­tu­ry BC, but the cur­rent ver­sion appeared much lat­er on the site of Hadri­an’s Gate. The gate is har­mo­nious­ly built between the two tow­ers and opens the pas­sage to the Mus­lim quar­ter of the city. To cre­ate max­i­mum con­ve­nience for numer­ous tourists and pil­grims, an appro­pri­ate infra­struc­ture was cre­at­ed and even steps were built.

Wall of Tears

The Wail­ing Wall is one of the most impor­tant sights of Jerusalem and the most sacred mon­u­ments of the Jews. The wall, about 500 m long, is locat­ed on the slope of the Tem­ple Mount and is sur­round­ed by numer­ous build­ings. But the 55-meter-long cen­tral part that attracts pil­grims is known as the West­ern Wall. His­tor­i­cal­ly, it was built for defen­sive pur­pos­es, so don’t be sur­prised by the mas­sive stone blocks in the mason­ry, each of which weighs up to 6 tons. The most notable is the West­ern Stone, which weighs over 500 tons. His­tor­i­cal­ly, there has been a tra­di­tion of lay­ing notes in the cracks of the wall. It is believed that if you write a request on a note and pray, then it will cer­tain­ly come true. The Wail­ing Wall is one of the most famous walls in the world accord­ing to Life­Globe.

Garden of Gethsemane

It was here that Jesus spent his last night before his exe­cu­tion. This gar­den is locat­ed at the foot of the Mount of Olives in the Kidron Val­ley. It is rel­a­tive­ly small in size and is only 50 m long. A num­ber of rare trees and plants are con­cen­trat­ed here, includ­ing ancient olive groves. Accord­ing to sci­en­tists, they are among the old­est trees on Earth. One of the first olive trees was plant­ed over 1000 years ago. Despite the fact that there is still con­tro­ver­sy regard­ing the place of Jesus’ overnight stay before his arrest, most his­to­ri­ans lean towards the Gar­den of Geth­se­mane.

Lands of Akeldam

In the scrip­tures, the lands of Akel­dam were pur­chased with the mon­ey that Judas received by betray­ing Jesus. Today, on the ter­ri­to­ry of this land­mark of Jerusalem, the tem­ple of the Great Onufry was built, which is very pop­u­lar among pil­grims. Akel­dama is locat­ed in the south­east of the city. Near the tem­ple built in the rock, there are many bur­ial nich­es where believ­ers were buried for cen­turies. Today, the ter­ri­to­ry of the buri­als is destroyed, but a tour of the lands of Akel­dam will be inter­est­ing in his­tor­i­cal terms.

Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Dur­ing a tour of Jerusalem, it is worth includ­ing the Church of the Holy Sep­ul­cher in your list, which is a must-see due to its most impor­tant his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance. Fol­low­ing the scrip­ture, the tem­ple was erect­ed on the site of the cru­ci­fix­ion of Jesus. It is here that the cer­e­mo­ny of light­ing the sacred fire takes place every East­er. The struc­ture of the tem­ple includes Gol­go­tha ​​and a num­ber of oth­er Tem­ples. Due to the large num­ber of reli­gious con­ces­sions, a spe­cif­ic time was set for each of them. Due to fre­quent con­flicts between believ­ers, a rit­u­al of open­ing doors was intro­duced, when the keys are in one con­ces­sion, and the right to open doors in anoth­er.

Dome of the Rock

There are also Mus­lim attrac­tions in Jerusalem, among which the most promi­nent is the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Tem­ple Mount. The Dome of the Rock is con­sid­ered one of the sym­bols of Jerusalem, which can be seen from any­where in the city. A 20-meter gild­ed dome crowns the moun­tain in the place where the prophet ascend­ed to par­adise.

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Anoth­er impor­tant his­tor­i­cal shrine of the Mus­lim world is the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Tem­ple Mount. The build­ing of impres­sive size can accom­mo­date up to 5,000 believ­ers. Dur­ing its his­to­ry, the mosque was destroyed sev­er­al times, but then stopped again. The cur­rent tem­ple appeared in 1035, and since then it has been open dai­ly for believ­ers and tourists.

Lions Gate

The sights of Jerusalem include a num­ber of ancient gates, but one of the most impor­tant can be called the Lion Gate in the walls of the old city. Accord­ing to the scrip­ture, before his exe­cu­tion, Jesus entered the old city of Jerusalem through this gate. Today, one of the tra­di­tion­al Chris­t­ian routes starts from here, repeat­ing the Path of Jesus from prison to the place of cru­ci­fix­ion.

Golden Gate

The Gold­en Gate is con­sid­ered one of the old­est in Jerusalem. This is a rare exam­ple of a gate that includes two entrances. The first entrance rep­re­sents Repen­tance, and the sec­ond — mer­cy. Since the end of the 7th cen­tu­ry, there has been a tra­di­tion of open­ing these gates on the feast of Passover and the day of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. But after the cap­ture of the city by the Turks, the gates were walled up and remain closed to this day.

Mount Zion

A very sig­nif­i­cant land­mark of Jerusalem, which is vis­it­ed by pil­grims from all over the world. Mount Zion is locat­ed in the south­west­ern part of the city, where, accord­ing to the chron­i­cles, the first church was built. It was here that many leg­endary events took place, includ­ing the Last Sup­per, the descent of the Holy Spir­it and the Assump­tion of the Vir­gin Mary. The shrine at the top of the tem­ple unites all world reli­gions and was built on the ruins of an ancient mosque. Today, on top of Mount Zion, there is a small muse­um that will tell you about all the his­tor­i­cal mile­stones of this place. It is best to book a tour with a pro­fes­sion­al guide who can explain all the details in detail.

Mount of David

Mount David also belongs to the sacred sights of Jerusalem, which are part of the nation­al park. For lovers of his­to­ry, the ruins of the ancient city, on the basis of which the present Jerusalem was formed, will be of inter­est here. Par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ing are the under­ground labyrinths and archae­o­log­i­cal sites. Dur­ing a spe­cial tour you will be able to walk through a series of tun­nels and learn more about the his­to­ry of these places.

Tomb of the Virgin

The tomb of the Vir­gin belongs to the Chris­t­ian shrines of the city. This is where the Vir­gin Mary was buried. You will find the Tomb of the Vir­gin on the West­ern slope of the Mount of Olives in the bib­li­cal Kidron Val­ley. For cen­turies, tem­ples exist­ed here, which were peri­od­i­cal­ly destroyed and rebuilt. Today, the Tomb of the Vir­gin belongs to the admin­is­tra­tion of the Ortho­dox Church of Jerusalem.

Basilica of Saint Anne

Basil­i­ca of St. Anne Accord­ing to the scrip­ture, it is locat­ed on the site of the house of the Vir­gin Mary, the moth­er of Jesus. The tem­ple is locat­ed in the Mus­lim area of ​​the city and was built dur­ing the reign of the cru­saders in the sev­enth cen­tu­ry. After their depar­ture, the basil­i­ca changed own­ers sev­er­al times, but in the 19th cen­tu­ry it was final­ly trans­ferred to the Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty.

Church of All Nations

The Church of All Nations is locat­ed in the Gar­den of Geth­se­mane, where Jesus spent the night before his arrest. The church is an archi­tec­tur­al land­mark of Jerusalem, cre­at­ed in 1924 by the archi­tect Bar­luzzi. Fundrais­ing for the con­struc­tion has gained real mass char­ac­ter. It was attend­ed by Catholic parish­ioners from more than 10 coun­tries. It is for this rea­son that the church was named that way. The cur­rent ver­sion of the church was erect­ed on the ruins of the foun­da­tion of the cru­sad­er shrine.

Temple “Our Father”

Tem­ple “Our Father” is locat­ed on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus prayed before the apos­tles and said the prayer Our Father. And although this has nev­er been proven, numer­ous believ­ers include the tem­ple in their list of pil­grim­ages. His­to­ry buffs will be inter­est­ed in the archi­tec­tur­al com­plex itself, con­sist­ing of a monastery and a num­ber of oth­er build­ings from the 19th-20th cen­tu­ry. As with most oth­er mon­u­ments in Jerusalem, Our Father Church appeared on the site of ancient ruins.

Knesset

The mod­ern sights of Jerusalem should cer­tain­ly include the Israeli par­lia­ment called the Knes­set. The build­ing for the par­lia­ment appeared in the 1960s thanks to a dona­tion from the British phil­an­thropist Roth­schild. In view of the state’s lack of mon­ey for such a large-scale con­struc­tion, he decid­ed to donate sig­nif­i­cant funds, and as a result, one of the most impor­tant build­ings in Israel appeared.

Ben Yehuda Street

Ben Yehu­da Street in Jerusalem is one of the most pop­u­lar walk­ing attrac­tions for both tourists and locals. The street in the new city is famous for its numer­ous restau­rants, fash­ion bou­tiques and sou­venir shops where you can buy cos­met­ics based on Dead Sea salts. It has every­thing that is inter­est­ing for a tourist, includ­ing numer­ous street musi­cians and deli­cious food.

Rockefeller Archaeological Museum

The Rock­e­feller Archae­o­log­i­cal Muse­um was orig­i­nal­ly a muse­um of Pales­tine, but then was renamed in hon­or of the famous phil­an­thropist who invest­ed a lot in the devel­op­ment of Israel. The Archae­o­log­i­cal Muse­um’s col­lec­tion pro­vides vis­i­tors with a glimpse of more than 2 mil­lion years, allow­ing them to learn much about the his­to­ry of the region and mod­ern Israel.