Middle East - Anthony Ham [218]
American Express (Map; 624 0830; 18 Shlomzion HaMalka St) Cashes travellers cheques (note that the Tel Aviv office doesn’t do this) and replaces lost ones.
Post
Main post office (Map; 624 4745; 23 Jaffa Rd 7am-7pm Sun-Thu, 7am-noon Fri)
Tourist Information
Alternative Information Centre (Map; 624 1159; www.alternativenews.org; 2nd fl, 4 Shlomzion HaMalka St; 9.30am-8pm) A good point of contact for countrywide NGOs, this political group also produces information on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Christian Information Centre (Map; 627 2692; Omar Ibn al-Khattab Sq; 8.30am-noon Mon-Sat) Opposite the entrance to the Citadel; provides information on the city’s Catholic sites, maps for walking tours, and can arrange tickets to Jerusalem and Bethlehem Christmas church services.
Jaffa Gate Tourist Office (Map; 627 1422; www.tourism.gov.il; Jaffa Gate; 8.30am-5pm Sun-Thu) Offers free maps and can arrange informal meetings with Christian, Orthodox Jewish and Muslim families.
Travel Agencies
ISSTA New City (Map; 625 7257; 31 HaNevi’im St); Zion Sq (Map 621 1888; 4 Herbert Samuel St, Zion Sq) Organises inexpensive flight tickets.
Mazada Tours (Map; 623 5777; mazada.co.il; Pearl Hotel Bldg, 15 Jaffa Rd) Operates tours and buses to Cairo and Jordan, and tours throughout Israel, Egypt and, on request, Syria. Also has a branch in Tel Aviv (Click here).
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SIGHTS
Old City
Bounded by 16th-century stone ramparts, the magical, mysterious Old City is divided into Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian Quarters, each with a distinct and intoxicating character. Home to some of the world’s most important Christian, Jewish and Muslim sites, it’s also home to hundreds of Jews and Arabs, to labyrinths of enticing bazaars, to good food, to Muftis, monks and moneylenders, and to a good bit of history, legend and controversy.
WALLS & GATES
The sturdy Old City walls are the legacy of Süleyman the Magnificent who built them between 1537 and 1542, though they’ve since been extensively renovated. The Ramparts Walk (Map; adult/child 16/8NIS; 9am-4.30pm Sat-Thu) is a 1km jaunt along the top – beginning at the top of the stairs just inside Jaffa Gate, and heading on to Lion’s Gate (also called St Stephen’s Gate), via New, Damascus and Herod’s Gates, and from Jaffa Gate south to Dung Gate (also called Gate of the Moors), via Zion Gate.
The Jaffa Gate (Map), so named because it was the beginning of the old road to Jaffa, is now the main entrance to the Old City from the New City. Moving clockwise, the 1887 New Gate (Map) was built by Sultan Abdul Hamid and also gives access to/from the New City. Down the hill, Damascus Gate (Map), the most attractive and crowded of all the city gates, opens into bustling Arab East Jerusalem. Here, you’ll see vendors selling their wares as they have for centuries, and armed Israeli soldiers peeping out from atop Süleyman’s magnificent gateway. Herod’s Gate (Map)also faces Arab East Jerusalem, and it was near here in 1099 that the Crusaders first breached Jerusalem’s walls.
Lion’s Gate (Map), facing the Mount of Olives, has also been called St Stephen’s Gate after the first Christian martyr, who was stoned to death nearby. It was from here that Israeli fighters took the Old City in the 1967 Six Day War. Zion Gate (Map) became known as the Gate of the Jewish Quarter in late medieval times and is still pocked with reminders of the fierce fighting here in Israel’s 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
JEWISH QUARTER
Largely residential, the wheelchair-friendly Jewish Quarter was almost entirely flattened during 1948 fighting, and was reconstructed following its recapture by Israel in 1967. Consequently, there are few historic monuments above ground level, but excavations have unearthed a number of archaeological sites. One not to miss is theCardo (Map; 8am-6pm Sun-Thu, 8am-4pm Fri), the main north–south street of Roman and Byzantine Jerusalem, part of