The Old City

Modern Jerusalem is a sprawling city. Most of the sites of biblical interests are centered in or around the Old City, the city outlined by the city-wall that is so distinctive of Jerusalem today. As Murphy-O'Connor puts so well:

"The walls enclose without dominating, limit but do no define. The impression of strength is an illusion; the city is not a fortress and its walls are not a barrier but a veil. The visitor is drawn forward, challenged, and finally embraced. The city inspires passion, and the expansion and contraction of the walls [over the course of its history] show how it has struggled to accommodate the expectations it has aroused.

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor. The Holy Land, 4th rev. ed. (Oxford Archaeological Guides; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) 11.

Jerusalem seemed always to have been a walled city since biblical times. The present wall is a legacy from Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He intended his walls to honour and protect all the places of popular veneration. Work began in the north in 1537, continued east and west and finished in the south. When construction reached what is now called Mount Zion, the authorities demurred at extending the wall further just to enclose the one building there that belonged to the Franciscans. So they tried to get the Franciscans to pay for the wall to enclose it but they had no money; the church was left outside the wall. Sultan Suliman was so enraged by this failure to honour his intention he had the architects executed.

Access into the Old City was originally provided for via six gates: Zion Gate in the south, Jaffa Gate in the west, New Gate, Damascus Gate, and Herod's Gate in the north, and Jordan Gate in the east. The name Jordan Gate, however, never stuck, and today it is called St Stephen's Gate or Lion's Gate.