7 ideal things to do in Jerusalem

The short list, pulled out of the long essay. No opening hours, because they change and I would only get them wrong — just what is worth your morning, roughly when to turn up, and where I have wasted time so you don’t have to.

By Ščenza

Last checked May 22, 2025

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the first hour
Christian Quarter, Old CityAs soon as the doors are unlocked; a different hour on Sundays
Doors are unlocked each morning by a member of one of two Muslim families who have held the key since at least the twelfth century — an arrangement that exists because six Christian denominations share this building under the Status Quo, a property agreement so exact that a ladder left on a windowsill has not been moved for centuries. Arrive early and you can reach the Stone of Unction, the Calvary chapel and the Aedicule without queueing. By mid-morning you move through it at the pace of whoever is in front of you. I have queued ninety minutes here in the wrong shoes and learned only that I should have set an alarm.
Walk down the Mount of Olives
Start at the observation point on top; finish in the Kidron ValleyEarly morning, before the heat and before the coaches
From the top the entire Old City lies below you, and the walk down passes a Jewish cemetery of some 150,000 graves, the teardrop-shaped church of Dominus Flevit, and finally the Church of All Nations at the bottom, built by Antonio Barluzzi in the early 1920s around the bedrock where Jesus is said to have prayed. The lane is steep and the paving is uneven in places. I did it in trainers with no grip left, slid most of the last stretch, and would still tell you to walk down it rather than up.
Tower of David Museum
Immediately inside Jaffa GateYour first morning; save the tower climb for last
This citadel has been rebuilt by Hasmoneans, Herod, Crusaders, Mamluks and Ottomans in turn, and the museum inside it reopened after a long renovation with ten galleries, the moat and the Ottoman Kishla detention block. Do it on day one: it is the only place that lays four thousand years out in an order a visitor can actually hold in their head. Then climb Phasael tower for the full circle of city and spend a while working out which dome is which. I got that wrong twice and needed a local to sort me out.
The Shrine of the Book and the Second Temple model, Israel Museum
Givat Ram, west of the Old CityHalf a day; longer if the archaeology wing gets its hooks in
A white dome over an underground chamber holds the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in caves around Qumran between 1947 and 1956 and rotated in and out of display because light destroys them. Outside stands a model of the whole city as it was before the Romans levelled it in 70 CE. Walking the model first and then walking the real Old City is the most useful hour available in Jerusalem. I did it in the wrong order, naturally, and spent three days quietly confused about which hill was which.
Yad Vashem
Mount Herzl, western JerusalemHalf a day, on a day with nothing scheduled after it
Moshe Safdie's building, opened in 2005, is a triangular concrete prism driven straight through the hillside, and you walk its full length in a zigzag before you are let out at the far end onto a view of the Jerusalem hills. The Hall of Names holds around 2.8 million pages of testimony. The Children's Memorial is a room of mirrors and candles with names read aloud. There is no admission charge. Do not book anything for the afternoon afterwards — I did, once, and sat through it without hearing a word of it.
Mahane Yehuda Market on a Friday morning
West Jerusalem, off Jaffa RoadFriday before noon; then come back after dark
Two hundred and fifty vendors, something like 200,000 people a week, and Friday morning is the peak of the whole system: the entire city shopping at once, then a bugle, then the shutters coming down for Shabbat. Return after dark and those same shutters are painted portraits by Solomon Souza and the alleys have filled with bars. Two markets, one lane, twelve hours apart. I once turned up for halva in the middle of a Friday afternoon and had the schedule explained to me by four separate people, none of whom I had asked.
The Western Wall plaza on Friday at sundown
Jewish Quarter, Old CityFriday, arriving before sunset
Kabbalat Shabbat at the wall means singing, circles of dancing, and whole families arriving at once, and the plaza is open to anyone who dresses for it — shoulders and knees covered, paper kippot handed out at the entrance to the men's section, and a mechitza dividing the prayer area itself. Put the phone away completely from sundown; this is not a place to be photographing. Stand at the back of the plaza rather than pressing forward. You see more from there, which is true of a great many things and which I keep having to relearn.

The long version

Jerusalem: the city of stone, light, and contested ground

Jerusalem is, for the visitor, two things at once: an extraordinary historical city of stone and light, and a place of unresolved political conflict that no honest writer can ignore. A guide that tries to do both.

Read the full essay →