Leave to visit the Haram esh-Sherîf must be obtained from the Turkish authorities through the visitor’s consulate (see above). He is then escorted by a Turkish soldier and usually by a cavass of the consulate also. The cavass receives 8–10 fr., or 4–5 fr. from each member of a party, which covers all fees and outlays. On Fridays and during the Moslem festival of Nebi-Mûsâ (Wed. of Holy Week to Easter Mon.) the mosque is closed to strangers.
Key to Plan of Jerusalem. Banks, see above.—Bazaars, Old (Sûks) and New, F 5; E 5.—Churches. Christ Church (English), E 6; Church of the Redeemer (German Prot.), E 5; Holy Sepulchre, E 4; St. Anne’s, H 3; St. George’s (English), with Bishop’s House, a little to the N. of E 1; St. Mary’s, K 3; St. Mary Magdalen’s, K 4; St. Paul’s (Arab.-Prot.), C 1, 2.— Consulates, see above.—Monasteries. Abraham’s (Greek), Pl. 19, E 4, 5; Abyssinian, Pl. 14, E 4; Armenian Catholic, Pl. 15, F 4; Coptic, Pl. 16, E 4; Gethsemane, Pl. 20, E 5; Greek (Great), D E 4, 5; Panagia (Greek), Pl. 21, E 4; Panagia Melæna (Gr.), Pl. 22, E 5; St. Basil (Gr.), Pl. 23, D 4; St. Caralombos (Gr.), Pl. 24, E 4; St. Catharine (Gr.), Pl. 25, E 4; St. Demetrius (Gr.), Pl. 26, D 5; St. George’s (Coptic), Pl. 17, D 5; St. George’s (Greek), Pl. 27 & 28, D 4 & E 7; St. John the Baptist’s (Gr.), Pl. 29, E 5; St. John Euthymius (Gr.), Pl. 30, E 4; St. Michael’s (Gr.), Pl. 31, D 4; St. Nicholas (Gr.), Pl. 32, D 4; St. Salvator’s (Latin), Pl. 36, D 4; St. Stephen’s (Dominican), E 1; St. Theodore’s (Greek), Pl. 33, D 4.—Mosques. El-Aksâ, H 5, 6; Kubbet es-Sakhra (Dome of the Rock), H 4, 5; Sîdni Omar, Pl. 37, E 5.—Synagogues (indicated by the letter ‘S’ on the Plan), many, E, F 5–7.
Jerusalem (Hebrew Yerushalayim, Gr. and Lat. Hierosolyma, Arabic El-Kuds) lies in 31°46′ N. lat. and 35°13′ E. long., on an arid limestone plateau (cold in winter) which rises in the form of a peninsula from the Kidron Valley (Wâdi Sitti Maryam, ‘Mary’s Valley’), on the E., and from the Valley of Hinnom (Wâdi er-Rabâbi), on the S. side. The narrow E. height (2441 ft.), the ancient Temple Hill, is separated from the W. hill, that of the old Upper Town (2550 ft.), by a depression, now very slight, called Tyropoeon (‘dung valley’) by Josephus, the Jewish historian. Still higher is the N.W. angle of the present town (2591 ft.).
The population is estimated at 70,000, of whom 45,000 are Jews, living mostly on alms bestowed by the charitable institutions of their European co-religionists; of the 15,000 Christians nearly half are Syrians of the Greek orthodox faith; the Moslems number about 10,000. In spring, especially at the time of the Greek Easter, the town is flooded with pilgrims, the majority being Russians. As a centre of the three chief religions of the world, Jerusalem has quite a religious atmosphere and is historically a city of overwhelming interest, but its tranquillity is sadly marred by the dissensions and jealousies of its numerous religious communities. Careful and patient study alone will reveal to the traveller something of the departed glory of the venerable capital of the Jewish empire.
History. From the tablets of Tell el-Amarna (p. [456]) it appears that Urusalim was the capital of a small principality dependent on Egypt about 1400 B.C. When the Israelites under David conquered the town in the 11th cent. (2 Sam. v. 6–10) it was the chief stronghold of the Jebusites, a Canaanitish tribe. David made it his residence and built a castle known as the City of David. His son Solomon, with the aid of Phœnician artificers, afterwards built his palace and the Temple of Jehovah on Mt. Zion (the E. hill). On the bi-partition of the kingdom after his death Jerusalem became the capital of Judah. The kingdom of Israel in N. Palestine was subjugated by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., and in 597 Jerusalem, under Jehoiachin, shared a like fate at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. In 586 the revolt under Zedekiah led to the destruction of the city. On the return of the Jews from captivity in 538 the city and Temple were gradually rebuilt, and the new town-wall was completed in 444. On the death of Alexander the Great in 323 Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Ptolemies (p. [433]) and often suffered severely from conflicts with the Diadochi of Syria. The last royal dynasty, that of the Maccabees (167–63), was overthrown by the Romans when Pompey conquered the city. As the residence of Herod the Great (37–4 B.C., according to the accepted chronology), in the last year of whose reign Christ was born, Jerusalem prospered anew. A new palace in the Roman style was erected at the N.W. angle of the upper town, and the rebuilding of the Temple was begun. But a revolt of the Zealots, or Jewish national party, led to embittered struggles with the Romans in 67 A.D., with the result that Jerusalem was stormed by Titus in 70, the Temple burned down, and the city was completely destroyed as Carthage had once been. Another rising of the Jews under Trajan (117) extended as far as the Cyrenaica (comp. p. [413]) in N. Africa. On the ruins of the city, on a site almost coinciding with that enclosed by the present city-walls, Emp. Hadrian erected the new pagan colony of Ælia Capitolina, from which, after the last revolt, that of Bar Cochba (132–5), Jews were excluded.
The modern history of Christian Jerusalem begins with the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Emp. Constantine (about 326–36). Pilgrims soon flocked to the holy places, and in 570 there were already hospices with 3000 beds for their use. In 614 the Persians under Chosroes II. (p. [485]) sacked the city, but when it was captured by caliph Omar in 637 it was treated with clemency, being regarded as a sacred place by Moslems as well as by Christians. In 691 began the erection of the famous Dome of the Rock, on the sacred rock (p. [477]), the site of the ancient Jewish Temple, the greatest sanctuary of Islam after the Kaaba of Mecca. Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Egyptian Fatimites in 969, but was wrested from them by the Seljuks in 1077. It was chiefly the maltreatment of the Christian pilgrims by the Seljuks that gave rise to the First Crusade. In 1099 the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem, which under Godfrey de Bouillon (d. 1100) became the capital of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. The city was retaken by Saladin in 1187, but in 1229 was voluntarily ceded by Melik el-Kâmil to Emp. Frederick II. Lastly, in 1244, it was stormed by the Kharezmians, and has been under Moslem rule ever since.
Books. Among the best of the numerous works on Jerusalem are Barclay’s ‘City of the Great King’, Besant & Palmer’s ‘Jerusalem, the City of Herod and Saladin’ (5th ed., London, 1908), Warren’s ‘Underground Jerusalem’ (London, 1876), and Wilson & Warren’s ‘Recovery of Jerusalem’ (London, 1871). Miss A. Goodrich-Freer’s ‘Inner Jerusalem’ (1904), Laurence Hutton’s ‘Literary Landmarks of Jerusalem’, and C. R. Conder’s ‘The City of Jerusalem’ (London, 1909) also may be mentioned.
The *Old Town is enclosed by a *Wall of the 13–14th cent., restored by Suleiman the Great (p. [542]) in 1537–41; it is 40 ft. high and about 2½ M. long. The two main streets lead to the W. from the Jaffa Gate (Pl. D, 5, 6; Arabic Bâb el-Khalîl), and N. from the handsome Damascus Gate (Pl. D, 5, 6; Bâb el-Amûd) respectively. They divide the town into four quarters, to the N.W. the Greek-Frank, S.W. the Armenian, S.E. the Jewish, and N.E. the Moslem. The streets are crooked, often vaulted over, and, in the Jewish quarter especially, very dirty. All the houses have rain-water cisterns, besides which there are several reservoirs.
The Jaffa Suburb, situated to the N.W., is the most important, in style the most European. It is the chief seat of the European or ‘Frank’ inhabitants and contains the consulates, several churches, and the extensive Russian Buildings (Pl. A-C, 2, 3).—Outside the Gate of Zion (Pl. E, 7, 8; Bâb en-Nebi Dâûd, ‘gate of the prophet David’), but originally within the town-walls, lies the so-called Zion Suburb. It contains the Christian cemeteries, the German Benedictine monastery Dormitio Sanctae Mariae (Pl. E, 8; ‘death-sleep of Mary’), with the new Church of St. Mary, and the now Mohammedan buildings of En-Nebi Dâûd (Pl. E, 8; with ‘David’s Tomb’ and the ‘Room of the Last Supper’). Near the railway-station (p. [470]) is the substantial German Temple Colony (comp. p. [468]).