Jerusalem through time

The whole story, era by era

1. c. 1800 to 1000 BCE

   Canaanite city-state

   See it on the map

   A stronghold above a spring

   Jerusalem begins as a small walled town on a narrow ridge south of today's Old City, placed there for one reason: the Gihon Spring at its foot.

   Ruled by

   Canaanite kings, for long stretches as vassals of Egypt. The Bible calls the last of them Jebusites.

   Who ruled

   A local king rules a small hill kingdom. In the 1300s BCE the ruler of 'Urusalim', Abdi-Heba, writes to Pharaoh on clay tablets pleading for archers: Egypt is the real power in Canaan. The Bible names the town Jebus and its people Jebusites.

   The land

   The whole city is the ridge now called the City of David: about five hectares (twelve acres), roughly seven soccer fields. Its people build huge stone towers to guard the spring and a wall partway down the slope, long dated to around 1800 BCE (a 2017 carbon-dating study argues the spring tower is much later).

   Faith

   The townspeople worship the gods of Canaan. Later tradition ties the place to Abraham: the Salem of Melchizedek, and Mount Moriah, the hill of the binding of Isaac just to the north.

   Daily life

   Farmers terrace the slopes for olives, vines and grain, and carry water up from the spring. The valleys on three sides are the town's defense; the open northern side is its weak point for the next 3,000 years.

   People

   Perhaps 1,000 to 2,000 people

   The wider picture

   Canaan is a patchwork of small walled city-states, for much of this time with Egypt as overlord. Egypt's armies and traders keep to the coast road; Jerusalem sits off it, up on the ridge road through the hills.

2. c. 1000 to 930 BCE

   Kingdoms of Israel and Judah

   See it on the map

   David's capital, Solomon's Temple

   David takes the stronghold and makes it his capital. Solomon builds the Temple on the summit to the north, and the city stretches up the ridge to meet it.

   Ruled by

   Kings David and Solomon, ruling the united tribes of Israel from Jerusalem.

   Who ruled

   David captures the town around 1000 BCE and rules from it: a capital belonging to no single tribe, on the border between north and south. How large and rich this kingdom really was is one of the liveliest arguments in archaeology.

   The land

   The city grows north along the ridge, across the saddle called the Ophel, to the Temple hill: roughly three times its old size, though still tiny. The line drawn here is a reconstruction; little of the wall has been found.

   Faith

   David brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and Solomon builds the First Temple for it, by the traditional count around 960 BCE. From now on the city is the center of Israel's worship, and the direction of Jewish prayer ever since.

   Daily life

   A royal town of officials, priests, scribes and soldiers, with craftsmen and cedar wood brought from Phoenicia for the building works. The language is Hebrew, written in the old script that looks nothing like today's letters.

   People

   A few thousand people

   The wider picture

   David moves his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem, a city between the northern and southern tribes. For the Temple, the Bible says cedar was floated down the coast from Lebanon to Jaffa and hauled up to Jerusalem.

   וַיִּלְכֹּד דָּוִד אֵת מְצֻדַת צִיּוֹן הִיא עִיר דָּוִד

   And David captured the stronghold of Zion; it is the City of David.

3. 930 to 586 BCE

   Kingdoms of Israel and Judah

   See it on the map

   Capital of the Kingdom of Judah

   The kingdom splits and Jerusalem is left as capital of the smaller southern half. Then, in the late 700s BCE, the city swells across the western hill to several times its size.

   Ruled by

   The kings of Judah, of the house of David, from Rehoboam to Zedekiah.

   Who ruled

   Judah lives in the shadow of empires: Assyria destroys the northern kingdom of Israel around 722 BCE and besieges Jerusalem in 701 under Sennacherib. The city holds. A century later Babylon replaces Assyria, and Judah's revolts against it end in disaster.

   The land

   Refugees from the north are thought to be one reason the city spreads west onto the higher hill, now the Jewish and Armenian Quarters and Mount Zion. King Hezekiah walls it in and cuts a tunnel to bring the spring's water inside. The city now covers some 60 hectares (150 acres).

   Faith

   This is the Jerusalem of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Kings Hezekiah and Josiah center all worship on the one Temple. Two small silver scrolls buried at Ketef Hinnom around 600 BCE carry the Priestly Blessing, the oldest words of the Bible ever found.

   Daily life

   A crowded capital. Clay seals with the names of royal officials, some of them named in the Bible, turn up in the houses on the eastern slope. The Siloam inscription, cut by the tunnel's diggers, records the moment the two teams of workmen met.

   People

   Estimates run from about 8,000 to 25,000 people at its peak

   The wider picture

   Assyria destroys the northern kingdom of Israel around 722 BCE, and refugees are thought to have fled south. In 701 BCE Sennacherib's army comes down the coast, takes Lachish and shuts Hezekiah up in Jerusalem, but does not take it.

   וְהוּא יְחִזְקִיָּהוּ סָתַם אֶת־מוֹצָא מֵימֵי גִיחוֹן הָעֶלְיוֹן וַיַּישְּׁרֵם לְמַטָּה־מַּעְרָבָה לְעִיר דָּוִיד

   It was Hezekiah who stopped up the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and led them straight down to the west side of the City of David.

4. 586 to 539 BCE

   Babylonian conquest

   See it on the map

   Destruction and exile

   Nebuchadnezzar's army takes the city after a long siege, burns the Temple and the houses, pulls down the walls and marches much of the population to Babylon.

   Ruled by

   Babylon. Judah becomes a province governed from Mizpah, north of the ruined city.

   Who ruled

   Judah's last king, Zedekiah, is blinded and taken to Babylon in chains. There is no king, no court and no army. The Babylonian-appointed governor, Gedaliah, sits at Mizpah and is soon assassinated.

   The land

   The city is a burned ruin. Archaeologists find the destruction everywhere on the eastern slope: collapsed houses, ash, and Babylonian arrowheads. The wall lines shown here are broken on purpose.

   Faith

   The Temple is gone. In Babylon the exiles keep their identity through prayer, Shabbat and the written word: many scholars think much of the Hebrew Bible takes shape in these decades. The fast of Tisha B'Av marks the day of the destruction.

   Daily life

   The poorest are left behind to work the vineyards and fields. The Book of Lamentations describes a city of empty streets and silent gates.

   People

   Nearly empty

   The wider picture

   Babylon's army comes down from Syria, takes the fortified towns of Judah one by one and burns Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Thousands, the leadership above all, are marched to Babylon; what is left of the province is run from Mizpah.

   אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד הָעִיר רַבָּתִי עָם

   How lonely she sits, the city that was full of people.

5. 539 to 332 BCE

   Persian Empire

   See it on the map

   The return to Zion

   Cyrus of Persia conquers Babylon and lets the exiles go home. They rebuild the Temple, and a century later Nehemiah rebuilds the walls around a much smaller city.

   Ruled by

   The Persian Empire. Jerusalem is the center of the small province of Yehud, under a governor.

   Who ruled

   Yehud is a minor province of a vast empire, run by governors, some of them Jewish, such as Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, alongside the High Priest. With no king, the priesthood becomes the leadership of the nation.

   The land

   The city shrinks back to the eastern ridge and the Temple hill. Nehemiah, arriving around 445 BCE, repairs the wall in 52 days by the Bible's account. The western hill lies empty.

   Faith

   The Second Temple is dedicated around 516 BCE, seventy years after the first was destroyed. Ezra the scribe reads the Torah aloud to the people in the square, the model for public Torah reading ever since.

   Daily life

   A poor, thinly peopled town. Aramaic, the language of the empire, spreads alongside Hebrew, and the square 'Assyrian' script used for Hebrew today begins to replace the old letters. Small silver coins are stamped 'Yehud'.

   People

   Small: estimates run from a few hundred to a few thousand

   The wider picture

   Under Persia the exiles come home in waves over a century, to a small province called Yehud, hemmed in by Samaria to the north, Ashdod on the coast and the Edomites, who have moved into the south.

   לְכוּ וְנִבְנֶה אֶת־חוֹמַת יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם וְלֹא־נִהְיֶה עוֹד חֶרְפָּה

   Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and be a disgrace no longer.

6. 332 to 141 BCE

   Hellenistic kingdoms

   See it on the map

   Under the Greek kingdoms

   Alexander's conquest brings the Greek world to Jerusalem. A century and a half later a Seleucid king outlaws Jewish practice, and the Maccabees revolt.

   Ruled by

   Alexander the Great, then the Ptolemies of Egypt (301 to 200 BCE), then the Seleucids of Syria.

   Who ruled

   The High Priest runs the city for distant Greek-speaking kings. In 167 BCE Antiochus IV bans Jewish observance and garrisons a fortress, the Akra, over the Temple. Judah Maccabee retakes the Temple in 164 BCE; the garrison holds out until 141.

   The land

   Still a small temple-city on the eastern ridge, slowly spreading back toward the western hill. The Akra's location has been argued over for well over a century; a 2015 excavation proposed the spot marked here, though not all scholars agree.

   Faith

   The Temple is defiled with a pagan altar, then purified and rededicated: the event Hanukkah remembers. The Hebrew Bible is translated into Greek in Egypt, and the first signs appear of the split between those drawn to Greek culture and those opposed.

   Daily life

   Greek becomes the language of government and trade next to Aramaic and Hebrew. Some of the city's elite take Greek names, and a gymnasium is opened, to the outrage of the traditionalists.

   People

   Several thousand people

   The wider picture

   Alexander marches down the coast in 332 BCE on his way to Egypt. His successors fight over the land for a century and the Seleucids of Syria win it in 200 BCE. In 164 BCE the Maccabees, from the village of Modi'in, retake the Temple.

7. 141 to 63 BCE

   Hasmonean kingdom

   See it on the map

   The Hasmonean kingdom

   For about eighty years Jerusalem is again the capital of an independent Jewish state. The city spreads back across the western hill and is walled once more.

   Ruled by

   The Hasmoneans, descendants of the Maccabees, as High Priests and then kings.

   Who ruled

   Simon, the last of the Maccabee brothers, wins full independence by 141 BCE. His descendants take the title of king and conquer much of the land. A civil war between two brothers ends with both appealing to Rome.

   The land

   The western hill fills up again and the 'First Wall' rings the city on roughly the line of Hezekiah's wall. The upper city on the western hill becomes the wealthy quarter.

   Faith

   The Temple stands at the center of national life. The Pharisees and Sadducees emerge as rival schools, arguing over the Oral Law and over who has the right to interpret the Torah.

   Daily life

   Coins carry Hebrew inscriptions in the old script. Ritual baths (mikvaot) appear in homes: a mark of everyday Jewish practice that archaeologists use to recognize Jewish houses.

   People

   Perhaps 30,000 people, by one widely quoted estimate

   The wider picture

   From Jerusalem the Hasmoneans push out in every direction: to the port of Jaffa, south into Idumea, north through Samaria to the Galilee, and across the Jordan.

8. 63 BCE to 70 CE

   Rome

   See it on the map

   Herod's city and the Great Revolt

   Jerusalem at its largest and grandest in the ancient world. Herod rebuilds the Temple on a vast platform. A revolt against Rome ends in 70 CE with the city and the Temple destroyed.

   Ruled by

   Rome: through Herod the Great as client king (37 to 4 BCE), then through Roman governors.

   Who ruled

   Pompey takes the city for Rome in 63 BCE. Herod rules as Rome's king and builds on a huge scale. After him come Roman governors, Pontius Pilate among them, who live at Caesarea and come up for the festivals. The Great Revolt breaks out in 66 CE; Titus takes the city four years later.

   The land

   Three walls now protect the open northern side. The Second Wall's route is not known for certain, and the Third Wall, begun by King Agrippa I around 41 CE, roughly doubles the city to some 180 hectares (450 acres). Herod widens the Temple Mount to the platform that stands today.

   Faith

   The Temple draws pilgrims from across the Jewish world three times a year. Hillel and Shammai teach here. Jesus of Nazareth is crucified outside the walls around the year 30. In 70 CE, by tradition on the Ninth of Av, the Temple burns.

   Daily life

   A city of stone-paved streets, mansions with mosaic floors, markets, hundreds of ritual baths and, in the kitchens, stone vessels kept for reasons of purity. Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek are all heard. At the festivals the population multiplies with pilgrims.

   People

   Estimates run from about 20,000 to 80,000 residents

   The wider picture

   Pompey comes down from Damascus in 63 BCE. Herod builds a great harbor at Caesarea, and pilgrims pour in for the festivals. When Judea revolts, Vespasian and Titus fight south from Acre (then called Ptolemais) through the Galilee, and Titus closes on Jerusalem in 70 CE.

9. 70 to 324 CE

   Rome

   See it on the map

   Ruins, then Aelia Capitolina

   For sixty years Jerusalem is a legion's camp among ruins. Then the emperor Hadrian builds a Roman town on top, with a new name and a street plan the Old City still follows.

   Ruled by

   Rome. A legion camps in the ruins; from the 130s the city is the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina.

   Who ruled

   The Tenth Legion garrisons the site. Around 130 CE Hadrian founds a pagan colony here, one of the sparks of the Bar Kokhba revolt (132 to 136). After crushing it, Rome renames the province Syria Palaestina and bars Jews from the city.

   The land

   The new town is much smaller than Herod's and at first has no wall. Its two main streets, running from the northern gate, are still the main market streets of the Old City. The outline shown is today's wall, which follows roughly the same ground; a wall is built again around 300.

   Faith

   Temples to Roman gods stand in the city, one of them over the place Christians venerate as the tomb of Jesus. Jews may not live here; tradition records that they were allowed in once a year, on the Ninth of Av, to mourn. The center of Jewish life moves to the Galilee.

   Daily life

   A quiet garrison town of soldiers, veterans and traders, speaking Latin and Greek. The name Jerusalem all but drops out of official use for two centuries.

   People

   A small garrison town

   The wider picture

   After the Temple falls the sages regroup at Yavne. The Bar Kokhba revolt ends at Betar in 135 CE, around then Rome renames the province Syria Palaestina, and the center of Jewish life moves north to the Galilee.

   אִם־אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי

   If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.

10. 324 to 638

    Byzantine Empire

    See it on the map

    The Christian holy city

    The empire turns Christian and Jerusalem turns from a backwater into a city of churches, monasteries and pilgrims, as large as it will be until the 1800s.

    Ruled by

    The Christian Roman (Byzantine) Empire, ruled from Constantinople.

    Who ruled

    Constantine takes the East in 324. Jerusalem's bishop rises to become one of the five patriarchs of the Christian world. A Persian army captures the city in 614 with great loss of life; the emperor Heraclius regains it by 630, only eight years before the Muslim conquest.

    The land

    The wall is pushed south again, by tradition under the empress Eudocia in the mid 400s, to take in Mount Zion and the Siloam pool. The mosaic Madaba Map, made in the 500s, shows the walled city with its colonnaded main street.

    Faith

    The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is dedicated in 335. Dozens of churches follow, the huge Nea Church among them in 543. The Temple Mount is left in ruins on purpose. Jews remain barred for most of the period.

    Daily life

    Greek-speaking and prosperous on the pilgrim trade: hostels, relic sellers, monks from every Christian land. The account of a pilgrim from Bordeaux in 333 is the oldest surviving Christian pilgrim's account of the city.

    People

    Tens of thousands at its peak

    The wider picture

    Pilgrims come by sea and by land from all over the Christian empire, many walking up from the ports to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. In 614 a Persian army sweeps down from the north and takes the city.

11. 638 to 1099

    Early Islamic caliphates

    See it on the map

    Al-Quds under the caliphs

    The city surrenders to the Muslim armies. The Umayyads crown the long-empty Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa, and Jerusalem becomes holy to a third faith.

    Ruled by

    The caliphs: Rashidun, then Umayyads (from Damascus), Abbasids (from Baghdad) and Fatimids (from Cairo).

    Who ruled

    Jerusalem surrenders around 638, by tradition to the caliph Umar himself. It is never a capital: from the early 700s the province is run from Ramla on the coastal plain. Power passes from one dynasty to the next. The Seljuk Turks hold the city from the 1070s until 1098, when the Fatimids take it back, a year before the Crusaders arrive.

    The land

    The city keeps its Byzantine shape for four centuries. Then the long southern loop is given up, probably when the walls are rebuilt after an earthquake in 1033, and the wall settles on roughly the line it follows today, leaving Mount Zion and the old ridge outside.

    Faith

    The Dome of the Rock is completed in 691 or 692 and Al-Aqsa Mosque soon after. Jews are allowed to live in the city again for the first time in five centuries. Christians keep their churches, though the caliph al-Hakim has the Holy Sepulchre destroyed in 1009; it is rebuilt by 1048.

    Daily life

    Arabic gradually becomes the language of the street. The geographer al-Muqaddasi, born here in the 900s, praises its markets, its fruit and its clean streets, and grumbles that Christians and Jews have the upper hand.

    People

    Perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 people

    The wider picture

    Muslim armies from Arabia defeat the Byzantines in the south and on the Yarmuk, and Jerusalem surrenders around 638. The province is governed from the coastal plain: from Ramla once it is founded in the early 700s.

12. 1099 to 1187

    Crusader kingdom

    See it on the map

    The Crusader kingdom

    The First Crusade storms the city in July 1099 and kills or drives out its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. For 88 years Jerusalem is the capital of a European kingdom.

    Ruled by

    The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: Frankish kings, crowned from 1131 in the Holy Sepulchre.

    Who ruled

    For the first time in over a thousand years, Jerusalem is a capital. The king's palace is at first in Al-Aqsa and later by the citadel. The military orders, Templars and Hospitallers, hold much of the real power.

    The land

    The walls stay where they were. The emptied city is refilled with settlers, including eastern Christians brought from across the Jordan. Many of the Old City's covered market streets date from these years.

    Faith

    The Dome of the Rock becomes a church and Al-Aqsa the headquarters of the Knights Templar. The Holy Sepulchre is rebuilt in the form it largely has today and consecrated in 1149. Muslims and Jews are barred from living in the city, though some visit.

    Daily life

    French is the language of the rulers. Pilgrims arrive by the shipload, and the Hospitallers nurse the sick in a hospital said to hold a thousand beds or more. The Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela, around 1170, finds a small Jewish community of dyers near the citadel (the manuscripts read either 200 people or four).

    People

    Perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 people

    The wider picture

    The First Crusade comes down the coast from Syria in 1099, turns inland at Ramla and storms Jerusalem. The kingdom lives off the sea: Italian fleets bring pilgrims, settlers and supplies to Acre and Jaffa.

13. 1187 to 1260

    Ayyubid sultanate

    See it on the map

    Saladin's city

    Saladin retakes Jerusalem in October 1187 and lets those who can pay a ransom leave; thousands who cannot are enslaved. His heirs then tear the walls down, and the city lies open for three centuries.

    Ruled by

    Saladin and his family, the Ayyubids, ruling from Cairo and Damascus.

    Who ruled

    Saladin's heirs fight one another. In 1229 one of them hands the city to the emperor Frederick II by treaty, keeping the Haram in Muslim hands. Crusader rule returns, with a break, for fifteen years, until Khwarazmian horsemen sack the city in 1244.

    The land

    Saladin repairs the walls. In 1219 his nephew al-Mu'azzam pulls them down, so that Crusaders could not hold the city if they took it. Much of the population leaves. The lines shown as broken are those ruined walls.

    Faith

    The cross comes down from the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa is a mosque again. Saladin allows Jews to return, and the Holy Sepulchre stays open to Christian pilgrims. The Mughrabi Quarter is founded beside the Western Wall for Muslims from North Africa.

    Daily life

    A half-empty, unwalled town. Jewish immigrants arrive from Ashkelon, from North Africa and, in 1211, a group of rabbis from France and England.

    People

    A few thousand people

    The wider picture

    Saladin destroys the Crusader army at Hattin in July 1187, takes Acre and the coast, and Jerusalem surrenders in October. Richard the Lionheart fights his way down the coast to Jaffa in 1191, comes within a day's march of Jerusalem, and turns back.

14. 1260 to 1516

    Mamluk sultanate

    See it on the map

    The Mamluk centuries

    A quiet provincial town of scholars and pilgrims, without walls. The Mamluks give the streets around the Haram the striped stone schools, hostels and fountains that still line them.

    Ruled by

    The Mamluk sultans of Cairo, through a governor in the city.

    Who ruled

    The Mamluks, a caste of former slave-soldiers ruling from Egypt, stop the Mongols in 1260 and take the land. Jerusalem matters to them for its holiness, not its strategy. Out-of-favor officers are sent here to live out their retirement.

    The land

    The city has no proper wall for the whole period, only the citadel, which is rebuilt in 1310. The built-up area stays inside the old line. An aqueduct is restored to bring water from the pools south of Bethlehem.

    Faith

    Sultans and emirs endow dozens of religious schools and pilgrim hostels around the Haram. Nachmanides arrives in 1267 and re-founds the Jewish community. The Franciscans settle on Mount Zion in the 1330s as guardians of the Catholic holy places.

    Daily life

    A poor town living on religious endowments, soap, and the pilgrim trade. The Jewish community grows after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. The judge Mujir al-Din writes the city's first full history in 1495.

    People

    Perhaps 5,000 to 10,000 people

    The wider picture

    In 1260 the Mamluks march up from Egypt and stop the Mongols at Ain Jalut in the Jezreel Valley. They take Acre, the last great Crusader stronghold, in 1291 and wreck the coastal ports so no fleet can land again. Nachmanides reaches Jerusalem from Acre in 1267.

15. 1516 to 1860

    Ottoman Empire

    See it on the map

    Suleiman's walls

    The Ottomans defeat the Mamluks in 1516 and Jerusalem surrenders without a fight. Between 1537 and 1541 Suleiman the Magnificent builds the walls and gates that define the Old City to this day.

    Ruled by

    The Ottoman sultans in Istanbul, through governors and local notable families.

    Who ruled

    Jerusalem is a district town in the province of Damascus. After Suleiman, Istanbul's attention fades and a few local Arab families run the city. From 1831 to 1840 it is held by Egypt's Muhammad Ali, who opens it to European consuls; Britain's is established in 1838.

    The land

    The wall you can walk today is Suleiman's: about four kilometers around, with seven open gates today, six of them Suleiman's. Mount Zion and the old ridge are left outside. Everyone lives inside, and the gates are locked at night until the late 1800s.

    Faith

    The Western Wall becomes the fixed place of Jewish prayer. The 'Status Quo' of 1852 freezes the division of the Christian holy places between the churches, down to who may clean which step. The Dome of the Rock is given its tiled exterior.

    Daily life

    A crowded, poor town of four loosely defined quarters. Water comes from rain cisterns. By the mid 1800s Jews are the largest of its communities, speaking Ladino, Yiddish and Arabic.

    People

    About 9,000 people in 1800; about 15,000 by 1850

    The wider picture

    Selim I takes Syria in 1516 and comes south through the land on his way to Egypt. Jews expelled from Spain, and their children, settle in Safed, Jerusalem and later Tiberias. In 1799 Napoleon marches up the coast from Egypt, fails to take Acre and never reaches Jerusalem.

16. 1860 to 1917

    Ottoman Empire

    See it on the map

    Out through the gates

    After 3,000 years inside one set of walls or another, the city spills out. Jewish courtyard neighborhoods, Arab family houses and European compounds spread along the roads west and north.

    Ruled by

    The Ottoman Empire, with the European powers competing for influence through consulates, churches and schools.

    Who ruled

    From 1872 Jerusalem is its own district answering directly to Istanbul, and an elected municipality runs its services. Russia, France, Germany, Britain and Austria each build hospices, hospitals and churches; the German Kaiser visits in 1898.

    The land

    Mishkenot Sha'ananim (1860) is the first Jewish neighborhood outside the walls. Dozens follow, among them Nahalat Shiva (1869), Mea Shearim (1874) and Mahane Yehuda (1887), with the German Colony (1873) and Arab neighborhoods north of the walls. Jaffa Road becomes the main street.

    Faith

    A wave of church building: the Russian cathedral, the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion. The Hurva (1864) and Tiferet Yisrael (1872) synagogues rise over the Jewish Quarter. By most estimates Jews are a majority of the population by the 1880s or 1890s.

    Daily life

    The railway from Jaffa arrives in 1892. A clock tower goes up at Jaffa Gate, and the first telegraph, post offices, banks and photographers open. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who settles here in 1881, campaigns to make Hebrew a spoken language again.

    People

    About 20,000 people in 1860; some 70,000 by 1914

    The wider picture

    Steamships bring pilgrims, immigrants and tourists to Jaffa, and from 1892 a railway carries them up to Jerusalem. From 1878 new Jewish farming villages are founded on the plain and in the Galilee.

17. 1917 to 1948

    British Mandate

    See it on the map

    The British Mandate

    General Allenby walks in through Jaffa Gate in December 1917, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule. Jerusalem becomes a capital again, of British Palestine, and a modern city grows in stone.

    Ruled by

    Britain: military rule from December 1917, then the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.

    Who ruled

    The High Commissioner governs from Jerusalem. Jewish and Arab national movements both look to the city, and violence breaks out in 1920, 1929 and 1936 to 1939. In November 1947 the United Nations votes to partition the country and place Jerusalem under international rule. The plan is never carried out.

    The land

    The British make a rule that still shapes the city: every building must be faced in Jerusalem stone. Garden suburbs spread west and south, Rehavia, Talpiot and Beit HaKerem among them, alongside prosperous Arab neighborhoods such as Talbiya, Katamon and Baka.

    Faith

    The Western Wall becomes a flashpoint: disputes over prayer arrangements there lead to the riots of 1929. The Supreme Muslim Council restores the Haram's monuments. Mount Scopus gains the Hebrew University (1925) and Hadassah Hospital (1939).

    Daily life

    English, Hebrew and Arabic are all official languages. Electricity, piped water from the coastal springs, cinemas, cafes, the King David Hotel (1931) and the YMCA tower across the street from it (1933) arrive within a generation.

    People

    62,600 in the 1922 census; about 165,000 by 1946

    The wider picture

    Allenby's army breaks through at Beersheba and Gaza in the autumn of 1917, takes Jaffa in November and enters Jerusalem in December. Under the Mandate, immigrants arrive by sea at Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the new deep-water port of Haifa.

18. 1948 to 1967

    Divided between Israel and Jordan

    See it on the map

    A city cut in two

    The 1948 war ends with a line of walls, barbed wire and minefields through the middle of Jerusalem. For nineteen years the two halves live back to back.

    Ruled by

    Israel in the west, Jordan in the east, including the Old City.

    Who ruled

    Israel declares Jerusalem its capital in December 1949, in practice the western half, and moves the Knesset and ministries there. Jordan annexes the east in 1950, while keeping its capital in Amman. Most of the world recognizes neither claim. One crossing, the Mandelbaum Gate, links the two sides.

    The land

    The armistice line of 1949 runs along the Old City's western wall, with strips of no-man's-land. Mount Scopus is an Israeli enclave in Jordanian territory, supplied by a convoy every two weeks. Cut off on three sides, west Jerusalem can only grow westward: the Knesset, the Israel Museum and a new university campus rise at Givat Ram.

    Faith

    The Jewish Quarter falls in May 1948; its residents are expelled and its synagogues destroyed. Jews cannot reach the Western Wall or the Mount of Olives cemetery for the next nineteen years, despite the armistice terms. Christians from Israel cross at Christmas by special permit.

    Daily life

    Tens of thousands of Arab residents of the western neighborhoods and about two thousand Jewish residents of the Old City and the east lose their homes in the war. The west absorbs waves of new immigrants in hastily built housing. Both halves are dead ends: border towns at the end of the road.

    People

    In 1961: about 167,000 in the west and about 60,000 in the Jordanian city

    The wider picture

    The 1949 armistice lines leave Israel holding the coast, the Galilee and the Negev, Jordan holding the hill country it calls the West Bank, and Egypt holding the Gaza Strip. West Jerusalem hangs at the end of a narrow corridor from the coast; east Jerusalem looks to Amman.

19. 1967 to today

    Israel

    See it on the map

    One city, still argued over

    In June 1967 Israel captures the eastern half and the barriers come down. The city grows to more than a million people: larger than any Jerusalem before it.

    Ruled by

    Israel, which governs the whole city as its capital. Most countries do not recognize its sovereignty over the east.

    Who ruled

    Israel extends its law to east Jerusalem in June 1967 and declares the united city its capital in a 1980 Basic Law. The UN Security Council rejects that law, and Palestinians claim the east as the capital of a future state. The United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2017.

    The land

    The city limits are redrawn in 1967 to about two and a half times the size of the two halves together, and large new neighborhoods are built on the hills all around: Ramot, Gilo, East Talpiot, Pisgat Ze'ev and others. Those beyond the 1949 line are regarded by most of the world as settlements. From 2002 the separation barrier is built along and inside parts of the eastern boundary.

    Faith

    Jews return to the Western Wall, and the Mughrabi Quarter in front of it is demolished to make a prayer plaza. The Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif, stays under the day-to-day management of the Islamic Waqf, with Israel responsible for security: an arrangement that remains one of the most sensitive in the world. The Jewish Quarter is rebuilt.

    Daily life

    A city of roughly 60 percent Jews and 40 percent Arabs, with a large and growing Haredi community. Hebrew and Arabic share the street signs. The light rail has run past the Old City walls since 2011 and the fast train reaches Tel Aviv in about half an hour.

    People

    About 266,000 in 1967; a little over one million today

    The wider picture

    In six days in June 1967 Israel takes the West Bank from Jordan, Gaza and Sinai from Egypt, and the Golan from Syria (Sinai was later returned to Egypt). The 1949 line is still the reference line in most international diplomacy. A fast railway opened from Jerusalem in 2018 and has run through to Tel Aviv since 2019.

    וּרְחֹבוֹת הָעִיר יִמָּלְאוּ יְלָדִים וִילָדוֹת מְשַׂחֲקִים בִּרְחֹבֹתֶיהָ

    And the streets of the city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.