Carta's Illustrated History of Jerusalem

Five thousand years ago a few families settled on a low hill in pres-day Israel that would in time be known as Jerusalem, City of David. Interest in Jerusalem’s history, status, buildings and everyday life has never waned since King David made it his capital city three thousand years ago. Pilgrims, crusaders, and others visited the city, recording their impressions in writings and later in drawings, surpassing in number that of any other of the world’s ancient cities. With the birth of modern archaeology, systematic research into the city’s history began in the nineteenth century, with countless excavations carried out in the city and in its environs for one hundred years. With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and particularly with the Old City coming under Jewish control in 1967, this activity greatly intensified. Suddenly the thirst for knowledge of a generation of Israeli scholars who know the Old City solely from literature and observation from afar aroused a wave of archaeological activity unknown anywhere else in the world.

This volume presents a visual, pictorial history from the most ancient records to the most up-to-date excavations. The narrative is accompanied by hundreds of specially prepared drawings, maps, and photographs that illuminate every aspect of human settlement from topography, water sources, and agriculture to security, architecture and historical sites from the Temples of Solomon, Nehemiah, and Herod to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Dome of the Rock.