The word "unique" will be the protagonist of your trip to Jerusalem . This is a mountainous walled city, with a 5,000-year history and sacred to more than a third of the world’s population. For the Jews, Jerusalem has always been the central hub of devotion and spiritual yearnings. For many other people it is the psychic center of their world.
For more than 2,000 years, Christians have revered Jerusalem as the place where their faith was born. This was the place of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. For the Islamic tradition it is the "farthest place", where Muhammad ascended to heaven. It is the third holiest city for Muslims after Mecca and Medina. A Muslim tradition claims that the great rock on Mount Jerusalem is made of stones from the Garden of Eden.
The focal point of any visit to Jerusalem is the walled Old City , with its four residential neighborhoods (Christian, Jewish, Armenian and Muslim) and the Temple Mount. It is a sensual mix of exotic places, with indescribable sounds and smells. Outside the Old City you will see a modern metropolis of 700,000 inhabitants. It is not as cosmopolitan as Tel Aviv , but it has very good restaurants, concert halls, markets and very high quality shops, as well as picturesque neighborhoods that recall the former simplicity of the place.
The city prides itself on its historical continuity and they have enacted municipal ordinances that force builders to follow the same classic lines in new construction. The bright limestone that makes the buildings look like gold remains the main protagonist.