Holy Land Travel Special: Jerusalem

Faced with religious heritage in every nook and cranny, Time Out tries to resist the fervour of the Holy City

Jerusalem Old Town

From high up on the Mount of Olives, above the Garden of Gethsemane, there’s a panoramic view of the old city below. Bathed in a radiant early-morning light, the gold-plated dome of Jerusalem’s most iconic sight, the Dome of the Rock, winks seductively. It’s hard to believe that this serene-looking city has been fought over so bitterly for more than 3,000 years, and that today machine-guns and security checks are part of everyday life.

Rich in history, it’s seen the Romans, Byzantines, Caliphs and Crusaders. And though it’s mentioned in the Old Testament no fewer than 660 times, Jerusalem has spent less than four centuries as a Christian city.

Other cities have pop songs named after them, but Jerusalem has hymns and its very own medical disorder. The Jerusalem syndrome is a mental phenomenon involving religious delusions triggered by a visit to the Holy City, and about 50 people a year are diagnosed with it .
The city is divided into three sections – the walled old city with its four quarters (Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian), the Israeli New City of West Jerusalem, and Arab East Jerusalem.

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It is the walled city, with its maze of tiny streets, that captivates most visitors. The Western (wailing) Wall on the edge of the d dTemple Mount is where Jewish and Arabic cultures collide. It is sacred to Jews as the location of Solomon’s famous temple for the Ark of the Covenant. It is also the site of the world’s second oldest and most recognised mosque, the Dome of the Rock.

One of the best times to visit the Western Wall is during Shabbat when Jews of all persuasions come to celebrate the Sabbath. The huge square erupts into traditional Jewish song and dance when the Sabbath is officially over at sunset.

From the Western Wall, it is a short walk to the Via Dolorosa or the 14 Stations of the Cross. This was the route that the condemned Jesus took from his trial to his crucifixion site. It winds though the narrow streets of the Muslim quarter, where Arab traders haggle furiously with all and sundry, before ending up in the Christian quarter at one of Christianity’s holiest sites. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built in AD326 on the site where many believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. Not everyone agrees. That old rogue George Bernard Shaw visited in the 1930s and advised the erecting of signs at such places saying ‘Do not trouble to stop here – it isn’t genuine.’

Jerusalem’s nightlife is not as wild as Tel Aviv’s, but for a holy city it’s not half bad. Most of the bars and cafés in the Old City close around sundown, and then Israelis and Westerners tend to head for the New City. Visit on Saturday night after Shabbat is over, when the bold and beautiful of Jerusalem dispense with their prayer books, hitch up their skirts and party till dawn. The area around Yoel Solomon, Jaffa Road, Rivlin Street and Zion Square is where the Holy City rocks.

If you do get struck down with Jerusalem syndrome, help is on hand at the Syndrome Bar on Hillel Street. Here, sufferers can recover with a cold Maccabee beer and listen to the therapeutic sound of jazz and blues. If, after a few riffs and couple of brews, you still think that you are John the Baptist, you probably need something stronger.

No trip to Jerusalem is complete without a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum (www.yadvashem.org). The new $50 million museum, located on a quiet hill in a pine forest, powerfully chronicles the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis on the Jews. The Children’s Memorial, where a haunting voice reads out the names and ages of the victims, is a tribute to the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust.

For information contact the Israel Government Tourist Office (020 299 1111/ www.thinkisrael.com).

Getting there
EL AL flies up to three times daily to Tel Aviv (airport for Jerusalem) and BA twice` daily.

Where to stay
Superstar Holidays (020 7121 1500/www.superstar.co.uk) offers a three-night break at the four-star Dan Panorama including return flights with EL AL and transfers from £506.

Security
Scanners have been installed at the main entrance to the Western Wall, and non-Muslims cannot enter the Dome of the Rock or the Al-Aqsa mosques. Other than that, little has changed in Jerusalem since the start of the Intifada in September 2000. Few visitors venture into the West Bank other than on escorted tours to Bethlehem and Jericho, and most of these appear to be pilgrim groups.

Chris Coplans