THE OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM

Cited in all three major Abrahamic holy books, Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities. Inside the modern city, a walled area called the Old City is home to one of the world’s densest concentration of holy sites. Christians believe The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. Jews pray at their holiest site, the Western Wall or Wailing Wall, part of an ancient stone retaining wall of Temple Mount on which their holiest temple once stood. The Temple Mount is known to Muslims as Haram Al Sharif, the noble sanctuary. Islam’s third-holiest site, Al Aqsa Mosque (the place where Prophet Mohammed, Peace be upon him, arrived from Makkah during his night journey) is adjacent to the Dome of the Rock (a shrine, from whence he ascended to heaven). The Old City became a Unesco World Heritage Site list in 1981.