5 Best Sights in Jerusalem, Israel

This small museum is dedicated to the memory of the six million European Jews annihilated by the Nazis in the Second World War. Among the artifacts salvaged from the Holocaust are items that the Nazis forced Jews to make out of sacred Torah scrolls. One Jewish tailor fashioned a vest for his Nazi "customer" out of the inscribed parchment, but with grim humor he chose sections that contained the worst of the biblical curses. Plaques commemorate many of the 5,000 European Jewish communities destroyed from 1939 to 1945.

The large, round Roman Catholic church, with its distinctive cone-shaped roof, ornamented turrets, and landmark clock tower, is a Jerusalem landmark. It was built on land bought by the German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II when he visited Jerusalem in 1898. The German Benedictines dedicated the echoing main church, with its Byzantine-style apse and mosaic floors, in 1910. The lower-level crypt houses a cenotaph with a carved-stone figure of Mary in repose (dormitio), reflecting the tradition that she fell into eternal sleep. Among the adjacent little chapels is one donated by the Ivory Coast, with wooden figures and motifs inlaid with ivory. The premises include a bookstore and a coffee shop. A visit takes about 25 minutes.

A few minutes from the Jaffa Gate is the deep Hinnom Valley, which offers fine views of Mount Zion and the Old City walls. The area achieved notoriety in the 7th century BC during the long reign of the Israelite king Menasseh (697–640 BC). He was not merely an idolater, the Bible relates, but supported a cult of child sacrifice by fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. Over time, the biblical Hebrew name of the valley—Gei Ben Hinnom, contracted to Gehennom or Gehenna—became a synonym for a hellish place of burning, in both Hebrew and New Testament Greek.

In the late 1970s, Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkai discovered a series of Old Testament–period rock tombs at the bend in the valley, below the fortresslike St. Andrew's Scots Church. The most spectacular finds were two tiny rolled strips of silver, designed to be worn as amulets around the neck. The painstaking opening of the little cylinders revealed the biblical "priestly benediction" (Nos. 6), inscribed in the ancient Hebrew script. This 7th-century-BC sample, beginning "The Lord bless you and keep you," is the oldest biblical passage ever found. The tombs are an open site, accessed through the Menachem Begin Heritage Center during its visiting hours.

Tradition has enshrined this spare, 14th-century second-story room as the location of the New Testament "upper room," where Jesus and his disciples celebrated the ceremonial Passover meal that would become known in popular parlance as the Last Supper (Mark 14). At that time, archaeologists tell us, the site was inside the city walls. Formally known as the Cenacle or the Coenaculum (dining room), the room is also associated with a second New Testament tradition (Acts 2) as the place where the disciples gathered on Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus's death, and were "filled with the Holy Spirit."

A little incongruously, the chamber has the trappings of a mosque as well: restored stained-glass Arabic inscriptions in the Gothic windows, an ornate mihrab (an alcove indicating the Muslim direction of prayer, toward Mecca), and two Arabic plaques in the wall. The Muslims were not concerned with the site's Christian traditions but with the supposed Tomb of King David—the "Prophet" David in their belief—on the level below. Allow 10 minutes to fully soak in the atmosphere.

According to the Hebrew Bible, King David, the great Israelite king of the 10th century BC, was buried in "the City of David"—the Bible's dynastic name for his capital, Jerusalem. Archaeologists have identified and excavated that site, on a low ridge to the east; but medieval Jewish pilgrims erroneously placed the ancient city on this hill, where they sought—and supposedly found—the royal tomb. Its authenticity may be questionable, but a millennium of tears and prayers has sanctified the place.

The tomb is capped by a cenotaph, a massive stone marker draped with a velvet cloth embroidered with symbols and Hebrew texts traditionally associated with David. Ultra-Orthodox religious authorities have divided the shrine, already cramped, into two tiny prayer areas to separate men and women. Modest dress is required, and men must cover their heads. There's no photography on the Sabbath and Jewish religious holidays.