Mount Zion has been holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims for hundreds of years. The people who live and work here represent the cultural diversity of the area and of Jerusalem as a whole. This online communal guide features local people telling the story of Mount Zion from their perspective. Click on the different sites on the map and read or watch videos to get to know Mt. Zion through local eyes.
Mount Zion has been holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims for hundreds of years. The people who live and work here represent the cultural diversity of the area and of Jerusalem as a whole. This online communal guide features local people telling the story of Mount Zion from their perspective. Click on the different sites on site list and read or watch videos to get to know Mt. Zion through local eyes.
Turn your mobile screen to see a landscape view of the interactive map of Mt. Zion
The southwestern gate of the Old City Wall that was built by the Ottomans in the 16th century. In Arabic the gate is called Bab a-Nabi Daoud (David’s Gate), after nearby David’s Tomb. The gatehouse is built in the form of an L in order to delay potential enemies from breaking through the city gates. On the outside of the gate are bullet marks from the War of Independence and the Six-Day War, when battles were fought near the gate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf7lEeOeGgc?rel=0
According to Armenian tradition, Jesus was imprisoned here after being captured by the Romans and before being taken to trial by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate. Today, Armenian monks live in the monastery, who pray in the church every day. In addition, there are tombs of Armenian Patriarchs, decorated with stone tombstones and colored Armenian ceramics, in the courtyard. Adjacent to the monastery is the Armenian community cemetery, which features a monument to the Armenian martyrs who fought in the Allied army during the First World War at its center.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsfHi1I4We0?rel=0
The Dormition Church marks the place the Virgin Mary died, hence the name of the Church (Dormir = Sleep). A community of German-speaking Benedictine monks live in the monastery. The church is built on the remains of earlier churches – from the Crusader and Byzantine periods. The remains can be seen in the church to this day.
The church is open Monday to Saturday between 9:00 and 17:30. Sunday between 11:30 and 17:30
Free entrance. There is a cafeteria and pay toilets on-sites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFbXYIHZlQo?rel=0
Franciscan monks live in the Custodia Terrae Sanctae – the Order of the Guardians of the Holy Places in the Holy Land. The monks host groups and serve Catholic believers who wish to hold a mass in the church as close as possible to the Room of the Last Supper (Cenacle). The name of the monastery, Ad Cœnaculum (before the banquet room), hints at its proximity to the Room of the Last Supper.
The monastery is open for visits by appointment.
An event and arts complex, managed by Arik Felzig. Entrance by appointment.
The synagogue was founded immediately after the War of Independence by a community of Jerusalemite Sephardi Jews, adjacent to David’s Tomb. There is a Beit Midrash that operates in the synagogue on weekdays and every Thursday there is a "Shirat HaBakashot,” where songs and prayers are sung.
Opening Hours: Sunday – Thursday 8:00 – 12:00 / 14:30 – 17:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFbXYIHZlQo?rel=0
According to Christian tradition, Jesus held his last meal with his twelve disciples on the eve of Passover. The room is also the place where Jesus was revealed to His disciples, fifty days after the crucifixion, in which the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Jesus. This event is celebrated every year on the Pentecost holiday. In the 16th century the place became a mosque that was preserved and maintained by the Dajani family. In 1948 it was transferred to the State of Israel.
The Room of the Last Supper is part of the sacred compound for Jews, Christians and Muslims, and includes the Room of the Last Supper and David’s Tomb.
Opening hours: 7am – 6pm daily, except for Yom Kippur. free admission
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJOa32SZtrs?rel=0
According to Jewish and Christian tradition from the Middle Ages, King David is buried in a cave under the building, together with all the kings of Judea. During the Byzantine period it was a church, and in the Middle Ages the Tomb was converted into a mosque run by the Dajani family. During the War of Independence, the site was transferred into the control of the State of Israel, and since then it has taken on a distinctly traditional Jewish character. David’s Tomb is part of a sacred compound for Christian and Muslim Jews, and sits underneath the Room of the Last Supper.
Opening hours: 24:00 – 21:00 (the next day) every day. Saturday night is open 24 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDc6qUiyMF0?rel=0
According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet David is buried here, under a large tombstone. In the Middle Ages the site became a mosque. In the 16th century, the Dajani family received responsibility for the administration of the Waqf from the Ottoman Sultan, and opened a hostel for pilgrims and a Sufi Zawiya, or prayer boot. The family built their homes around the compound and established a cemetery near the grave. In 1948 the site was transferred to the State of Israel.
Maqam Nebi Daoud is actually a sanctuary for Jews, Christians and Muslims, and includes David's Tomb and the Last Supper Room.
Opening hours: 24:00 – 21:00 (the next day) every day. Saturday night is open 24 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=copO3Wr4PDg?rel=0
The President's Room is located on the roof of the David's Tomb and the Room of the Last Supper compound. S.Z. Kahana, the Director General of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in the 1950s, and the Custodian of Mount Zion, placed this room at the disposal of the first President of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, but it was Yitzhak Ben Zvi, the second president of the State of Israel, who used the room more frequently. He came on holidays to greet the Jewish pilgrims.
Opening hours: Monday: 10: 00-14: 00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEwFlA84wpk?rel=0
The Chamber of the Holocaust was established in the 1950s in memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and was one of the first places in the country to commemorate the Holocaust (before the establishment of Yad Vashem). The ashes of saints from Europe were brought to the site in the jars that remain there until today. There are memorial monuments to communities that were lost in the Holocaust, Torah scrolls that were saved from Europe, and other items.
Opening hours: Sunday – Thursday 10:00 – 15:30 Entrance fee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2wJl9tKtck?rel=0
The Dajani Family Cemetery, whose members guarded the holy place and lived on Mount Zion until 1948. Many Jerusalem elite are buried in the cemetery.
According to Christian tradition, on this site the house the High Priest Kifa stood. Here Jesus was questioned by the Sanhedrin, on the last night of his life, before he was sentenced by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate. The name of the church – Peter in the Gallicantu – refers to the story from the New Testament where Jesus predicted that his disciple Petrus would deny him three times before the cockcrow, and so it did.
In the church courtyard there is a large model of Jerusalem in the Byzantine period and archaeological remains from different periods.
Opening hours: Monday – Saturday: 8:30 – 17:00 Entrance fee
The cemetery of the Catholic community in Jerusalem. Oskar Schindler, who was given the honor of "Righteous Among the Nations," is buried there. The site also contains a monument to the Polish soldiers who fought in the Anders Army during World War II, as well as the gravestones of their families who died in Jerusalem during the war.
Opening Hours: Monday – Saturday: 9:00 – 12:00
For further information on the Catholic cemetery
A cemetery that was used to bury the poor Jews of Jerusalem over the past few hundred years, until 1948. In the cemetery, Torah scrolls and holy books were also brought to Geniza burial (burial of Jewish holy documents). Many of the buried did not have enough money to build a stone tombstone, so most of the tombs were placed with rough stones and no inscriptions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzX3cnQAFvM?rel=0
The building was built by the Dajani family as part of the Dajani neighborhood built around David's Tomb. In the 1960s, Pauline Rose, together with her husband Albert, moved into the house, who held interfaith activities there. In 2006, the Jerusalem Intercultural Center moved into the building. The Jerusalem Intercultural Center is an organization that aims to make Jerusalem a city adapted to all its residents.
A seminar for Greek Orthodox novice priests who study religious studies in addition to general studies. In the 1930s, the building served as the Ministry of Education for a time.
Events and conferences in the Diaspora Yeshiva.
For more details and reservations: 02-6456833
One of the residential buildings built by the Dajani family around David’s Tomb. After the establishment of the State of Israel, the artist David Palombo moved into the house, together with his wife Jonah, and operated a studio and a gallery there. In 1966, David Palombo was killed in an accident on the road leading to his home. His widow lives in the building to this day. The windows and the door of the house are decorated with impressive iron bars, made by the artist himself.
An institute for Christian studies for young Catholics and Protestants speaking German. The place is managed by the Dormition Abbey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAV2CII4kVE?rel=0
An American-Protestant college for the study of the Holy Land and the Bible, whose students come from the United States. The college was founded in 1966 by Douglas Young. The College is one of the first permanent buildings outside the walls of Jerusalem in the modern era. In this structure Bishop Samuel Govat established a boys' school in 1853.
The cemetery was purchased by Bishop Samuel Gobat in the middle of the 19th century, after other Christian communities refused to bury Protestants in their cemeteries.
The cemetery includes scholars and clerics who greatly influenced modern Jerusalem, including architect Conrad Schick, Johann Ludwig Schneller, archaeologists James Leslie Starkey (who uncovered Lachish) and Flinders Petrie (founder of Land of Israel archeology), the first Protestant bishops in Jerusalem, residents of the American Colony, German casualties from World War I, British soldiers and policemen, and more.
Admission with permission from the Dean of the Anglican Church.
High School Yeshiva, operated by the Diaspora yeshiva.
The cable car that connected Mount Zion with the western part of the city during and after the War of Independence. The cable car was kept secret until after the Six Day War.
The Diaspora Yeshiva was established in the 1960s by the late Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein. The Yeshiva was originally designated for newly religious young people from all over the world. Today, students from the world over study there, from all different Jewish streams. The Yeshiva is also known for the musicians who performed there and who continue to perform. Musical performances are held there on occasion, under the auspices of the Yeshiva.
There is an environmental sculpture in the Garden called "Three Points of View for Dialogue" consisting of three frames that overlook Hinnom Valley and Silwan. From each frame a small path leads to a point where all three paths meet. The garden was named after Cardinal Albert Decourtray, who served as Archbishop of Lyon, and worked a great deal to combat anti-Semitism.
