King David Hotel, Jerusalem

Advantages: Ancient and vibrant, a city that lives simultaneously in and beyond time
Disadvantages: Prone to acts of war and other forms of madness

...hopefully for a way to achieve peace. Since King David seized "Salem" from the Jebusites around 1000 B.C.E., it has been destroyed, occupied, and rebuilt many times over. Imperial dominance has been exerted over Jerusalem by the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Turks, Christian Crusaders, and most recently the British. The spectacular walls of the Old City, constructed by the Ottomans in the 16th century C.E./A.D., are but the latest in a long series of defensive barriers built to protect ancient Jerusalem against would-be conquerors--unless, of course, you count the barbed wire that divided the city between 1948 and 1967. The Israeli military cemetery on Mount Herzl and pre-1967 Jordanian implacements on Ammunition Hill bring the city's saga of defense and conquest right down to the present. Jerusalemites often maintain firmly that... Read review

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Advantages: History, Scenery, Religion, The Old City
Disadvantages: Its the city they all want

...Well I’ve just returned from Jerusalem, Israel after spending a year out studying ancient Hebrew texts, law and philosophy, most of which have been written around 1700 years ago. That’s the beauty of Jerusalem, the history, you can’t get away from it, it’s the place to remove your ‘self’ away from the materialistic life of western life and delve into something more spiritual and un-worldly, possibly even heavenly. Don’t get me wrong the city and Israel is very sophisticated, easily the most technologically advanced county in the Middle East and probably most of Eastern Europe. That’s Israel greatest export - brainpower. All buildings in Jerusalem are made from Jerusalem stone, the same type of stone as the Western Wall, the last remnant of the 2nd Jewish Temple destroyed in 70AD by the Romans, but behind each apartment or complex you... Read review

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Advantages: Amazing, beautiful
Disadvantages: Dangerous

...Jerusalem is the kind of city it is impossible to visit 'blind'. Everyone knows her glancingly. Her name invokes impressions, differing impressions, in people across the globe, and her role in Western Civilisations cannot be underplayed. I was fortunate enough, and I do use 'fortunate' guardedly, to have spent a few months working in Jerusalem a few years back. The city I often now see on my television screen isn't always the happy, hearty, lively Jerusalem I remember, a city probably with more spirit than I have even felt from a city, but sometimes it is exactly the Jerusalem I remember, the fear, the hate and the entrenched beliefs. Jerusalem is a divided city. Jerusalem has been a divided city for hundreds of years, centuries even. Palestinian East Jerusalem as distinct from Israeli West Jerusalem, The Old City as distinct from... Read review

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