Orientation
JERUSALEM
Considering that whole civilizations have devoted their energies to claiming Jerusalem, it’s a surprisingly small city. You will inevitably get lost trying to find your way around the Old City, but it’s so densely packed that you will also (eventually) find your way again. The lack of street signs—and, even worse, the many names each street has acquired over the last few millennia—make this the hardest part of Jerusalem to navigate. Outside, everything has been built up in the last 100 years to follow a more logical grid. Jaffa Rd. and Ben-Yehuda St. are the main streets in West Jerusalem, while East Jerusalem is centered on Nablus Rd. and Salah ad-Din.
OLD CITY
In all of Israel, it is the Old City that best exhibits the different cultures and events that have molded the Holy Land into its present form. This is why visitors pass through the Old City walls, but it’s also why they then spend days—years, some say—wandering around side streets begging passersby for directions. Most streets have multiple names, turn into a variety of streets, and run in all kinds of directions. Worse, the many different wars and territorial expansions that have ravaged this uneven square kilometer make the neighborhood’s grid about as comprehensible as artifacts from the First Temple Period.
You should still try, of course, to find your way around, and Let’s Go is here to help. There are two main gates, Jaffa Gate and Damascus Gate, each of which leads into the Old City’s two busiest quarters: the Christian Quarter and the Muslim Quarter respectively. The Old City consists of these and two other quarters—a quieter and more spacious Jewish Quarter and a very small Armenian Quarter—which together serve as useful subdivisions of the Old City. To most residents, however, these names are hopelessly general. Souq Khan az-Zait and al-Wad, two of the area’s main streets, both begin at Damascus Gate. David Street, which runs through the Christian and Jewish Quarters, is the thoroughfare immediately accessible from Jaffa Gate. If you hang right after Jaffa Gate, you wind up at Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate Road, the principal (perhaps only) street in the Armenian Quarter.
All right, now quit reading and get walking. You’ll get lost, no matter how hard you try not to, but in that moment of sheer confusion you may just begin to understand the endlessly perplexing place around you.
WEST JERUSALEM
Sprawling across an area larger than the rest of Jerusalem put together, the western part of the city is big by any standard. Luckily, it rarely becomes a tangle of alleys like the Old City, and a number of major roads pass through, making it easily navigable. West Jerusalem is best approached as three main regions, each of which contain smaller, well-defined neighborhoods.zion square
Sitting northwest of the Old City, Zion Sq. is the indisputable center of West Jerusalem. Running diagonally through it is Jaffa Road, the main thoroughfare that connects the Central Bus Station to Jaffa Gate and the Old City. Heading out of Zion Sq. is Ben-Yehuda Street, a packed pedestrian road filled with shops and food stalls. Heading southeast along Jaffa Rd. from Zion Sq., other popular streets are the parallel Rivlin Street and Feingold Garden, both of which are lined with restaurants and bars. Jaffa Rd. forks soon after it passes through the main square; the part that remains Jaffa Rd. runs along the Old City walls before it hits Jaffa Gate, while Shlomtsiyon HaMalka splits off to the south until it converges with five other streets in a large intersection marking the end of the Zion Sq. area.eastern portion
South of the Zion Sq. area is the city’s eastern portion, which encompasses the small neighborhoods of Yemin Moshe, Mamilla, and Talbieh. East of the large Shlomtsiyon HaMalka intersection is Mamilla Avenue, a pedestrian street that serves as the Israeli Fifth Ave., complete with designer boutiques. It heads east, eventually hitting Jaffa Gate. Heading away from the intersection are Agron Street and King David Street. Agron runs along Independence Park for about 1km until it reaches a junction with four other roads. A right here will take you onto King George Street, which in turn goes north, eventually intersecting with Jaffa Rd. just northwest of Zion Sq. King David St., on the other hand, runs south along the top of a valley to its east. This valley, bounded by Mamilla to the north and the Old City to its east, is home to Yemin Moshe, one of the first Jewish settlements outside of the Old City and the site of the Artists’ Colony.west jerusalem outskirts
Next to the foot of Yemin Moshe, King David St. meets a large crossroads which marks the end of the eastern area and the beginning of the southern half of West Jerusalem’s outskirts—an area that encompasses many of the neighborhoods outside of Jerusalem, including Mahane Yehuda, Mea She’arim, the German Colony, Ein Kerem, and Givat Ram. Heading west from this junction is Jabotinsky Street, which borders the top of a rectangular residential neighborhood knownas Talbieh. If you bear left instead and remain on King David St., you head south, past Talbieh. Going right at the two subsequent forks takes you onto Emek Refa’im, the main thoroughfare of the German Colony, which is a tranquil neighborhood packed with upscale cafes and restaurants. There’s not much in this area that isn’t on Emek Refa’im.
The outskirts also includes a portion of the city north of Zion Sq. Past the intersection of Jaffa Rd. and King George St. is Davidka Square, which marks the beginning of Mahane Yehuda. This neighborhood’s main draw is its shuk, which is contained by Jaffa Rd. and the parallel Agrippas Street. The two major streets connecting those roads, Mahane Yehuda Street and Etz Haim Street, are home to most of the market. Past Mahane Yehuda along Jaffa Rd. is the Central Bus Station, and below it is Givat Ram, a large green area running the length of the city and containing the country’s main political institutions. Finally, running east from Davidka Sq. is HaNevi’im Street, which reaches the Old City wall. Highly religious Mea She’arim is in this area as well.
EAST JERUSALEM
There are two major streets in East Jerusalem, Nablus Road and Salah ad-Din. Easy enough, right? They both begin at Sultan Suleiman, the street that encircles the edge of the Old City. Even on these main streets, not all buildings have numbers, which does makes life a little tougher, but fear not: Central East Jerusalem, the area closer to the Old City, is not that big, and it’s hard to get lost for more than about 5min., unless, that is, you’re particularly gifted. Once you get into Sheikh Jarrah, things may get a bit more complex. Keep Nablus Rd. as a compass; where it ends, Shimon HaTsadik (the restaurant row), is on the left, and most of the hotels, consulates, and health services are on the right on Har HaZeitim Rd. and where Nablus Rd. reappears. The American Colony Hotel, midway down Nablus, is a major landmark and is just a bit past the beginning of Sheikh Jarrah, though the unofficial line separating Sheikh Jarrah from the central part of East Jerusalem is blurry. Here, we’ve decided that Sheikh Jarrah begins with St. George’s Church and the guesthouse attached to it. Now go forth and explore.