History
Jerusalem probably began as a hill fortress on an ancient trade route. In the 14th century B.C., when Palestine was ruled by Egypt, Jerusalem was a Canaanite city-kingdom. (The earliest mention in the Bible of Jerusalem may be Genesis 14:18, which refers to a “Salem” ruled by King Melchizedek. He briefly met with the Hebrew patriarch Abraham.) About 1000 b.c. the Hebrews under King David captured the city and made it their capital. On the ridge of Zion, called Mount Zion, David built his palace, and here his son Solomon later built the Temple.
After the revolt of the 10 northern tribes about 922 B.C., Jerusalem was the capital of Judah (Judea), the southern kingdom. The Babylonians captured and briefly held the city in 597 B.C. They captured it again in 586 B.C. This time they destroyed the city and took its people to Babylon. Jerusalem lay in ruins until the exiles returned in 538 B.C. and rebuilt the city and the Temple. In 168 B.C., when Judah was held by Syria, King Antiochus IV began to persecute the Jews. This led to the revolt under Judas Maccabaeus, and Jerusalem became the capital of independent Judah.
Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 63 B.C., when Pornpey conquered Judah for Rome. Herod the Great, whom the Romans installed as king in 37 B.C., rebuilt much of the city, including the Temple,
In 6 A.D. Judah was made a Roman province. After a Jewish revolt Jerusalem was retaken and laid waste in 70 a.d. by the Roman general Titus. There was another revolt in 132; it too, was put down. The old city was leveled, a new city was built, and Jews were excluded.
About 326 Constantine the Great built the first Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In 638 the city fell to the Arabs in the Muslim conquest. It was taken in 1099 by the Crusaders, who set up a Christian domain called the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The city was recaptured for the Muslims by Saladin in 1187. In 1517 the Ottoman Turks took it. During the Ottoman era, the population was mainly Arab. After the mid-1800's, however, Christian tourists became common, and Jews began returning in ever larger numbers. About 1860 some of them began building the New City.
In 1917 during World War I British troops took Jerusalem from the Turks. After the war the city became the capital of Palestine under British mandate. The Zionist movement brought many Jewish settlers into the land, and there was frequent fighting between Jews and Arabs. In 1947 the United Nations adopted a plan of partition, with Jerusalem an international city lying in the Arab portion of Palestine. The proposal was rejected by the Arabs.
The British withdrew from Palestine in 1948. War followed, with the Arabs losing the New City to the Israelis; the Old City was annexed, with the surrounding Arab territory, by Jordan. Following the Arab-Israeli Six Day War of 1967 the victorious Israelis annexed the rest of Jerusalem, reunifying the city. Barriers dividing the two sectors were demolished, public-service facilities combined, and an Israeli municipal government installed. Access to holy places was guaranteed to persons of all faiths. An ambitious archeological program was undertaken. The Arab-Israeli war of 1973 left Jerusalem still in Israeli control.
Population: 524,500.
