Landscape of Jerusalem
- Hebrew:
- Yerushalayim
- Arabic:
- Bayt al-Muqaddas or Al-Quds
News •
City site
Jerusalem stands on hills at an elevation of 2,575 feet (785 meters). The modern unified city is the largest municipality in Israel or the West Bank and is the heart of an urban agglomeration that spills outside the city limits into adjacent areas of both jurisdictions. At the center of the modern municipality is the Old City, a walled medieval enclosure of less than half a square mile (roughly one square km), from which the entire city has grown.
To the east the city looks down on the Dead Sea and across the Jordan River to the arid mountains of eastern Jordan (the biblical mountains of Moab). To the west it faces the coastal plain and the Mediterranean Sea, about 35 miles (60 km) away.
Climate
Jerusalem has a mixed subtropical semiarid climate with warm dry summers and cool rainy winters. The average annual precipitation is about 24 inches (600 mm), and snowfalls—which in some years do not occur—are generally light. Average daily mean temperatures range from about 85 °F (29 °C) in August to about 54 °F (12 °C) in January. The hot dry desert wind, called sharav in Hebrew (or khamsin, from the Arabic word for “fifty,” as it is said to come some 50 days per year), is fairly common in autumn and spring. Average daily humidity is about 62 percent in the daytime but may drop 30 to 40 percent under sharav conditions. Summer exposure to the sun’s rays in Jerusalem is intense because of the lack of clouds and the low humidity but also because the sun reaches such a high angle (80° above the horizon) at that season.
Jerusalem has no serious air pollution. Its elevation ensures the free mixing of surface air, and, apart from automobile exhaust, pollutant sources are few, for there is little heavy industry.
Plant and animal life
Lying on the watershed between the relatively rainy Hare Yehuda (Hills of Judaea) and the dry Judaean desert, Jerusalem has both Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian vegetation. The various red and brown Mediterranean soils, formed by the different types of limestone chalk covering the hills, support as many as 1,000 plant species. In the spring, masses of wildflowers proliferate on slopes and wastelands.
Jerusalem is exceptionally rich in birdlife, which includes 70 resident species and about 150 winter visitors. Those most commonly seen are the hooded crow, jay, swift (which nests in old walls and buildings), and bulbul. Large flocks of white storks overfly the city. In the winter, starlings and white wagtails roost in the thousands at various points in the metropolitan area. However, goldfinches and linnets, formerly numerous, now rarely appear. Also often observed within the city are the lesser kestrel and the Palestine sunbird. The only venomous snake is the Palestine viper, but this is rarely seen in urban areas. The smooth lizard and common chameleon frequent gardens and the walls of houses.
City layout
The municipal boundaries, extended by Israel in June 1967 and again in 1993, stretch from the closed Atarot Airport in the north to a point almost reaching the West Bank town of Bethlehem in the south and from the ridge of Mount Scopus and the Mount of Olives in the east to Mount Herzl, Ein Karem, and the Hadassah Medical Center of the Hebrew University in the west.
The Old City, which is believed to have been continuously inhabited for almost 5,000 years, forms a walled quadrilateral about 3,000 feet (900 meters) long on each side. It is dominated by the raised platform of the Temple Mount—known in Hebrew as Har Ha-Bayit, the site of the First and Second Temples, and known to Islam as Al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (“The Noble Sanctuary”), a Muslim holy place containing the Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and other structures. The rest of the area within the walls is a typical Middle Eastern city, with its mosques and madrasahs (Muslim religious colleges); its churches, convents, hospices, and residences of high ecclesiastical dignitaries; its synagogues and yeshivas (Talmudic academies); its hidden courtyards and gardens; and its medieval vaulted triple bazaar in the center and labyrinth of smaller souks along David Street, which leads from Jaffa Gate and the old Ottoman Citadel toward the Temple Mount.
The first neighborhoods outside the Old City walls, built from the 1860s onward, were scattered chiefly along the main roads from the west and northwest leading into the city. These early Jewish suburbs were paralleled by non-Jewish expansion prompted by Christian religious or nationalistic motivation. The latter included the Russian Compound on the meydan (old Turkish parade ground), near what is today the commercial heart of west Jerusalem; the German Colony, near what became the railway station; and the American Colony, north of the Damascus Gate. Some early communities, such as Mishkenot Shaʾananim and Yemin Moshe, with its famous windmill landmark, have been reconstructed and resettled or turned into cultural centers. Others include the Bukharan Quarter; Meʾa Sheʿarim, founded by Orthodox Jews from eastern and central Europe, with its scores of small synagogues and yeshivas; and Maḥane Yehuda, with its fruit and vegetable market, inhabited mainly by Jews of North African and Middle Eastern origin. Residential quarters established between World Wars I and II include Reḥavya in the center, Talpiyyot in the south, and Kiryat Moshe and Bet Ha-Kerem in the west. The old campus of the Hebrew University at Mount Scopus, northeast of the Old City, formed for some 20 years (1948–67) an Israeli exclave in the Jordanian sector; it was entirely rebuilt after the Six-Day War. Some Arab districts, such as Talbieh and Katamon (Gonen), whose residents fled during the fighting of 1947–48, are now Jewish neighborhoods, and thousands of houses were built for new Jewish immigrants in districts to the west, newly incorporated into the city. Arab neighborhoods outside the Old City include Sheikh Jarrah, Wadi al-Jōz (al-Jawz), and Bayt Ḥanīnā in the north and villages such as Silwān and Bayt Ṣafāfā in the south.
Since 1967 large new housing developments for Jews have been built on the southern, eastern, and northern edges of the city, both within and beyond the extended city boundary. Their construction on territory claimed by both Israelis and Arabs has given rise to repeated confrontations and controversy. Meanwhile, construction of housing for Arabs within the city has been severely limited, which has resulted in large-scale ribbon development of Arab housing, particularly along the road leading north to Ramallah.
Housing
A great variety of housing exists in the city. There are antiquated buildings constructed of ancient stones in the Old City; 19th-century Jewish neighborhoods, some of which are the city’s most impoverished; modern quarters with tree-lined streets; and government-built housing projects, mainly for new immigrants. The most common basic dwelling unit in the Old City consists of a complex of structures, often on different levels, built around an inner court that is entered through a narrow corridor. Since 1967 the government has taken steps toward redevelopment, and the Jewish quarter in the Old City and many older neighborhoods in the New City have been restored and gentrified for Jewish inhabitants. Average housing density is higher among Arabs (about 1.9 persons per room) than it is among Jews (about 1 person per room).
Architecture
The outstanding characteristic of the architecture of Jerusalem is the coexistence of old and new, sacred and secular, in a variety of styles. The most conspicuous feature is the city wall erected in 1538–40 by the Ottoman sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, largely on the foundations of earlier walls dating chiefly to the period of the Crusades but in some places to Byzantine, Herodian, and even Hasmonean times. The Old City may be entered through any of seven gates in the wall: the New, Damascus, and Herod’s gates to the north, the St. Stephen’s (or Lion’s) Gate to the east, the Dung and Zion gates to the south, and the Jaffa Gate to the west. An eighth gate, the Golden Gate, to the east, remains sealed, however, for it is through this portal that Jewish legend states that the messiah will enter the city. The Jaffa and Damascus gates are still the main entrances. The city wall remains intact and unbroken, save for a gap (immediately next to the Jaffa Gate) that was cut by the Ottoman authorities in 1898 to facilitate the grand entrance of Emperor William II of Germany on the occasion of his visit to the city.
On three sides of the Temple Mount, parts of the original supporting walls still stand. During the centuries when Jews were excluded from the Temple Mount, its Western Wall became Judaism’s holiest shrine. Since 1967 the wall has been further exposed, and a large plaza has been cleared in front of it. The main buildings on the platform are two Islamic structures: the magnificent gold-capped Dome of the Rock, completed in 691–92, and the silver-domed Al-Aqsa Mosque, built in the early 8th century.
The Citadel (with David’s Tower) beside the Jaffa Gate, which acquired its present form in the 16th century, was created over ruins from the Hasmonean and Herodian periods, integrating large parts of Crusader structures and some Mamluk additions. The large number of churches mainly represent two great periods of Christian architecture, the Byzantine and Crusader eras. The former is characterized by two- or three-tiered ornamental or basketlike carved capitals. The Crusader architecture reflects Romanesque styling, which features semicircular arches and barrel vaults. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre incorporates elements of both styles, but its facade and layout are architecturally Romanesque. The best example of the mixed style is the Church of St. Anne (its substructure is Byzantine); others are the Armenian Cathedral of St. James, which combines Romanesque with Middle Eastern elements, and the Tomb of the Virgin, which is Romanesque in its upper part but Byzantine in its lower.
The central part of the triple bazaar, as well as its link with the Cardo (a restored Roman-Byzantine mall), is of Crusader origin. Mamluk constructions of the 13th to the 15th century, as well as coats of arms of Mamluk rulers, are found along David Street and near the Gate of the Chain at the Western Wall. The constructions are characterized by “stalactite” or “honeycomb” (muqarnas) ornamentation and the use of multicolored slabs of stone. Ottoman architecture of the early 16th century continued the Mamluk style and is represented in some structures of the Temple Mount. The rock-cut tombs east and north of the Old City exemplify architecture of the first half of the 1st millennium bce (Tomb of Pharaoh’s Daughter) and the Second Temple period (Tombs of the Kings, Tomb of Absalom, and Tomb of Zechariah). The restored Monastery of the Cross, in the heart of modern west Jerusalem, dates originally to the 5th century.
As Jerusalem spread outside the walls, its architecture came to be characterized chiefly by iron beams and red-tiled roofs. From 1930 there was a radical change, and flat roofs and reinforced concrete faced with naturally dressed stone predominated. The arrival of a number of German Jewish architects, refugees from Nazism, reinforced the trend toward modernism. Among important buildings of the British mandate period are Government House (since 1948 the UN headquarters in the region), the King David Hotel, the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, the Jewish Agency headquarters, and the Young Men’s Christian Association building in west Jerusalem. In the period between 1948 and 1967 much of the residential construction in the Israeli sector took the form of standardized, high-density apartment blocks. Since 1967 design and construction standards have improved. Buildings are seldom taller than eight stories, but since 1967 there has been a growing tendency, despite opposition, for high-rise construction. This is the case with a number of modern hotels at the western entrance to the city, and the construction of office buildings in the city center is following the trend. All buildings, however, must follow a city ordinance—originally issued by Colonel (later Sir) Ronald Storrs, British governor of the city from 1917 to 1926—requiring that all buildings be faced in stone. With only a few exceptions, the ordinance has been enforced continuously since the 1920s. Outstanding modern architecture is represented by the Knesset Building, the Israel Museum, the Jerusalem Theatre, and the Hebrew Union College. More-contemporary trends are represented by the Bank of Israel, the City Hall, and the Supreme Court building. Religious buildings remain a prominent part of the urban scene.
People of Jerusalem
Because Jerusalem is a holy city, uniquely revered by the three major monotheistic religions, its people have traditionally been classified according to religious affiliation. A majority of the city’s residents are either secular or traditional Jews. Muslims are the most homogeneous of the communities, and Christians—who are represented by numerous sects and churches—are the most diversified. Residential segregation is the norm, and Jews and Arabs live almost exclusively in specific districts. Among the Jews there is a further subdivision of residential districts among ultraorthodox, traditional, and secular Jews, and Armenian Christians likewise form their own enclave in the Old City.
Muslims are the most ethnically homogeneous group, being very nearly all Arabs. The Christian community is somewhat more diverse. Although the city has attracted visitors and settlers from throughout the Christian world (and Christians are by far the smallest religious group), Arabs remain the largest ethnic element among the city’s Christians. Jerusalem’s Jewish population is far and away the most ethnically diverse. Jews from every part of the Diaspora have settled in the city, adding to the extant Jewish community. Although the political conflict over the fate of the city and the broader region often has been shrouded in religious overtones, it has largely taken the shape of competing national aspirations—one Jewish Israeli and the other Palestinian Arab—and these two groups form the major political and demographic blocs within the modern city.
Jews
Among the Jews, an important line of division is between Ashkenazim (broadly, Jews of central and eastern European origin), Sephardim (Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin), and Mizrahim (North African or Middle Eastern Jews). Of no less importance is the division between the Orthodox and the more secular-minded segments of the population. Secular, traditional, and ultraorthodox groups each constitute roughly one-third of the Jewish population. Religious controversy plays a large part in local politics, and disputes often erupt over issues such as Sabbath observance or kashruth (dietary law). Some ultraorthodox neighborhoods are barred to traffic on the Sabbath.
Jerusalem is the center of Jewish religious reverence and aspiration. The most sacred spot is the Temple Mount, on which many Orthodox Jews refrain from setting foot for fear of profaning the sanctity of the site where once stood the most sacred Holy of Holies. In addition to the Western Wall—the most important center of prayer and pilgrimage—other holy places include the reputed tomb of King David on Mount Zion, the Mount of Olives with its ancient Jewish cemetery, and the tombs of priestly families in the Valley of Kidron. Old synagogues and study houses in the Old City have been refurbished; particularly worthy of mention is the interconnected group of four synagogues begun in the 16th century by Jews exiled from Spain. Jerusalem is one of the world’s foremost centers of rabbinic learning and contains scores of yeshivas. Notable modern religious structures include the Jerusalem Great Synagogue and the synagogue and associated institutions of the followers of the Rebbe of Belz, a Hasidic rabbi whose court is in Jerusalem.
Muslims
Muslims formed only a minority of the Arab population of Jerusalem in the first decade of the 20th century, but by the early 21st century they outnumbered Christians by an overwhelming margin. Almost all are Sunni Muslims. Jerusalem is revered by Muslims as the third holiest place on earth, and the pilgrimage to Jerusalem (taqdīs) is viewed as an optional complement to the pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj. Unlike the hajj, the pilgrimage to Jerusalem is undertaken individually at any time of the year. Jerusalem was also the starting point of the annual Nābī Mūsā (Prophet Moses) pilgrimage to a Muslim shrine on the road to Jericho, locally held to be the burial place of the biblical prophet. The festival, which was always timed to coincide with Easter celebrations, was at one time the largest mass pilgrimage in Palestine and played an important part of the religious ritual of Jerusalem and the surrounding area. The Nābī Mūsā pilgrimage, which was under the patronage of the Ḥusaynī family, died away in the early 1950s.
Since 1967 Al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf and the Muslim waqfs (religious endowments) have been administered by a Muslim council that does not recognize the sovereignty of Israel over East Jerusalem. The council also assumed responsibility for the sharia courts and other Muslim religious institutions that had previously been under the jurisdiction of the Council of Waqf and Muslim Affairs in Amman, Jordan. Since 1995 the Palestinian Authority (PA) has come to exercise effective control over all Muslim institutions, religious courts, and appointments to religious office in East Jerusalem.
Christians
Christians constitute the smallest but most religiously diverse section of the population. They number some 15,000, of whom about four-fifths are Arabs. Jerusalem is the seat of three resident patriarchs of the Eastern Orthodox churches and of many archbishops and bishops, and almost all the principal historic sects of Christendom are represented in the city in some form. The main groups are Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant. The major denominations, except the Protestants, share control over the Church of the Holy Sepulchre according to a rule—known as the “status quo”—promulgated by the Ottoman sultan in 1852.
The Greek Orthodox Church maintains a patriarchate with jurisdiction over the entire Holy Land. Although the laity and parish clergy are mainly Arab, the patriarch, bishops, and regular clergy are almost all Greek. The patriarchate owns large tracts of valuable real estate both in Jerusalem and elsewhere. The Russian Orthodox Church too owns considerable properties dating to tsarist times. The Roman Catholic Church in Jerusalem, established in 1099 during the First Crusade, was dissolved when the Muslims won the city in 1244. The Franciscan order, which since 1334 has been the “Custodian of the Holy Land,” is charged with the safekeeping of Roman Catholic rights and properties in Jerusalem. The Latin patriarchate was reestablished in 1847. Of the Oriental Orthodox churches, the Armenian is the largest, its patriarchate having been established in the 6th century; other churches include the Coptic and the Ethiopian. At least 1,000 Armenians live in the city, about half of them in a compound in the Armenian quarter around the seat of the patriarchate at the Cathedral of St. James, which constitutes the largest monastic center in the region. Smaller Christian sects with communities and institutions in Jerusalem include the Syrian Orthodox, Greek Catholic (Melchite), and Armenian Catholic churches. The small Protestant community includes Anglicans, Lutherans, and adherents of American Evangelical churches.
Demographic trends
Estimates of Jerusalem’s population during ancient times are variable and unreliable, but it is apparent that throughout the Ottoman period the city’s population remained quite small, growing significantly only since the mid-19th century. Estimates based on Ottoman sources indicate that, although the overall population level fluctuated between the 16th and the early 20th century, the number of Jewish residents as a proportion of the total population grew steadily. Jews had become the largest single religious group by the third quarter of the 19th century, and Christians had surpassed Muslims as a percentage of the population by 1910. Bolstered to a large extent by the influx of Zionist immigrants (which began in the 1880s), the Jewish population continued to grow and had become an absolute majority by the late 19th century. Jewish numerical predominance strengthened during the mandate period. By 1946 the Jewish majority was overwhelming, and in 1948—when the city was divided—a large number of Arabs, particularly Christians, fled the city (though some later returned). Between 1948 and the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel took control of East Jerusalem, the Jewish population continued to grow, albeit slowly, as immigrants settled in the western portion of the city.
Population growth after that time was rapid. Since 1967 the number of residents in the unified city more than doubled, although the Jewish majority fell noticeably, from roughly three-fourths of the overall population to slightly more than two-thirds. This was largely because of a high rate of natural increase among the Arab population (now mostly Muslim), whereas slower Jewish natural increase needed to be reinforced by migration—for which the two largest sources since the late 1980s have been the former Soviet countries and Ethiopia. After 1967 Jews began to return to areas of East Jerusalem that had been wholly Arab since 1948. More recently, however, there has been a small net migration of Jews from Jerusalem to other parts of Israel. The average household size in Jerusalem (lower for Jews and higher for Arabs) is above the Israeli average—reflecting the large families characteristic of the Muslim and Orthodox Jewish populations of the city—but slightly lower than the West Bank average.
