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Jerusalem Ramparts Walk

Sunday, December 14, 2008

The towering surrounding walls of the Old City an impressive union of medieval and Middle Eastern architectural features, is among Jerusalem's most striking features. The walls were commissioned by Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who invested heavily in the development of Jerusalem during the 16th century. The wall roughly follows the outline of the ramparts surrounding ancient Roman Jerusalem.The Old City is home to several sites of key religious importance: the Temple Mount and its Western Wall for Jews, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians, and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims. The Old City has a total of 11 gates, but only seven are open : Jaffa, Zion, Dung, Lions’ [St. Stephen's], Herod’s, Damascus [Shechem] and the New).Visitors wishing to find an elevated view of Jerusalem will be pleased to discover one of the Old City's nearly-hidden treasures: the Ramparts Walk. Accessible either from behind the Tower of David across from Jaffa Gate or from Damascus Gate, the Ramparts Walk winds along the top of the walls, affording stunning views of Yemin Moshe and west Jerusalem, several major Old City Christian churches including the Church of the Dormition, a rare glimpse inside the cloistered Armenian Quarter, the Valley of Hinnom, the Judean Desert and more. The Damascus Gate section allows rampart walkers to observe the bustle of the Arab market, the verdant splendor of the Garden of Gethsemane and its churches, the ancient graveyard on the Mount of Olives and splendid Moslem homes inside the Moslem Quarter. The Jaffa Gate path ends near the Dung Gate, and the Damascus Gate path ends at St. Stephen's Gate. The section of wall along the Temple Mount is, for obvious reasons, off limits to tourists. Photos by Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye

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