Jerusalem

Jerusalem is less a destination than a concentration of faith, memory and human longing. Its stones, gates, sacred sites and layered quarters carry meanings that reach far beyond geography.

Jerusalem stands on the ridge of the Judaean Mountains, between the Mediterranean plain and the Dead Sea. The Old City, less than a square kilometre in area, is enclosed by Ottoman walls of the sixteenth century and divided into Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Armenian quarters. Within it lie the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif, crowned by the Dome of the Rock.

By long-standing rule the city is built in pale Jerusalem stone, which turns gold in the evening light. Outside the walls, the Mount of Olives faces the Old City across the Kidron Valley; to the west lie the nineteenth-century neighbourhoods, the Mahane Yehuda market, the Israel Museum with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Yad Vashem. Jerusalem is also the natural base for the Dead Sea and Masada.

Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons, with warm days and cool evenings at around 750 metres. Spring brings Passover and Easter, when pilgrims fill the Old City and the ceremony of the Holy Fire takes place in the Holy Sepulchre on Orthodox Holy Saturday. Autumn holds the Jewish High Holidays and Sukkot, when the city falls silent for Yom Kippur and festive booths appear on balconies across the western neighbourhoods.

Summer is hot and dry but less humid than the coast, and evenings in the hills are usually pleasant. Winter is cool and can be rainy, with occasional snow, and is the quietest season apart from Christmas. Shabbat shapes every week: from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening much of the western city closes and public transport stops, while the Old City’s other quarters keep their own rhythms.

The King David Hotel, opened in 1931, looks across to the Old City walls and remains Jerusalem’s historic grand hotel. Close by, Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem occupies the restored Palace Hotel building of 1929, and The David Citadel Hotel faces the walls near Jaffa Gate. In East Jerusalem, the American Colony Hotel keeps the atmosphere of its nineteenth-century courtyard house, and Orient Jerusalem stands in the German Colony.

LVXVRY books Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem through Hilton for Luxury — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges the programme attaches to the stay. For The King David, The David Citadel, the American Colony and Orient Jerusalem, LVXVRY advises on and arranges the stay directly, together with guided visits to the Old City, the Dead Sea and Masada.