Jerusalem
Neighborhoods
Jerusalem consists of three main areas. The city's great holy and historic sites are found in the walled Old City, home to the Muslim Dome of the Rock, the Christian Church of the Sepulchre, and the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple. To the west lies the modern, predominantly Jewish city of Jerusalem, also called the New City, the political and administrative capital of Israel. To the east of the Old City lies East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city, which was cut off from the rest of Jerusalem between Israeli independence in 1948 and the Six Day War in 1967. The former dividing line, known as the Green Line, is now called HaShalom Road. Besides hotels and restaurants, East Jerusalem, whose main streets are Nablus Road and Salah ad-Din Street, is home to many retailers and other small businesses. Further east is the Mount of Olives. To the north lie Mount Scopus, the main campus of Hebrew University, and Hadassah Hospital.
The heart of the New City is the triangle formed by King George V Street, Jaffa Road, and Ben Yehuda Street, the site of numerous hotels, restaurants, and cafes, and the popular gathering place Zion Square. Just to the north lies Mea She'arim ("One Hundred Gates"), home to Jerusalem's ultra-orthodox community (or, as they are known in Israel, "Haredim"), whose distinctive appearance and way of life evokes the vanished world of their Eastern European forebears in the days before World War II (1939–45).
| City Fact Comparison | ||||
| Indicator | Jerusalem | Cairo | Rome | Beijing |
| (Israel) | (Egypt) | (Italy) | (China) | |
| Population of urban area1 | 3,738,500 | 10,772,000 | 2,688,000 | 12,033,000 |
| Date the city was founded | c. 1453 BC | AD 969 | 753 BC | 723 BC |
| Daily costs to visit the city2 | ||||
| Hotel (single occupancy) | $184 | $193 | $172 | $129 |
| Meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) | $76 | $56 | $59 | $62 |
| Incidentals (laundry, dry cleaning, etc.) | $19 | $14 | $15 | $16 |
| Total daily costs | $279 | $173 | $246 | $207 |
| Major Newspapers3 | ||||
| Number of newspapers serving the city | 14 | 13 | 20 | 11 |
| Largest newspaper | Al-Quds | Akhbar El Yom/Al Akhbar | La Repubblica | Renmin Ribao |
| Circulation of largest newspaper | 40,000 | 1,159,339 | 754,930 | 3,000,000 |
| Date largest newspaper was established | 1932 | 1944 | 1976 | 1948 |
| 1United Nations population estimates for the year 2000. | ||||
| 2The maximum amount the U.S. Government reimburses its employees for business travel. The lodging portion of the allowance is based on the cost for a single room at a moderately-priced hotel. The meal portion is based on the costs of an average breakfast, lunch, and dinner including taxes, service charges, and customary tips. Incidental travel expenses include such things as laundry and dry cleaning. | ||||
| 3David Maddux, ed. Editor&Publisher International Year Book. New York: The Editor&Publisher Company, 1999. | ||||
The district of Giv'at Ram to the west is home to several notable landmarks, including the Israel Museum, the Knesset (parliament building), and the Supreme Court. In an area further to the west are Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial and museum; the tomb of Israel's founding father Theodore Herzl (1860–1904); the famous Chagall stained-glass windows of the Hadassah Medical Center; and Ein Kerem, a former Arab village that was the birthplace of John the Baptist (fl. c. 27).
Among the city's residential districts outside the downtown area are Yemin Moshe (the first settlement developed outside the city walls in the nineteenth century), Talbiye, Rehavia, Bet ha-Kerem, and the "German Colony," built by the German Templars in the nineteenth century. Arab neighborhoods outside the Old City include ash-Shaykh Jarrah, Wadi al-Joz, Bayt Hanina, Bayt Safafa, and the American Colony.
