City of David Tour Jerusalem

The City of David Tour starts as we take in the view of Jerusalem from Mount Scopus. From here we can look down on an ancient Jewish cemetery and beyond the Old City walls to Temple Mount, the site of the Dome of the Rock. On the slope of Mount Scopus, we view the Garden of Gethsemane and the adjacent Church of All Nations with its stunning mosaic façade.

The City of David Tour pauses at the Kidron Valley’s ancient Jewish burial tombs then we rejoin the bus and continue on to the Old City. The Jerusalem tour takes us through the Zion Gate into the Old City’s Armenian Quarter where the tour guide will tell us about this unique community and its history. From here the tour continues into the Jewish Quarter to see the excavated 1500-year-old Byzantine-era Cardo, once the main thoroughfare of Jerusalem.

Later the Crusaders build shops along this route where modern stores now fill the historic spaces. The highlight of any Jewish Jerusalem tour is the Western Wall; the last surviving part of the Second Temple that was destroyed in 70AD. Jews come from across the globe to pray at the Western Wall (Kotel) and place a prayer note between the wall’s ancient stones.

We leave the Old City via the Dung Gate and enter the City of David to tour underground Jerusalem. This excavated city is believed to have been the original settlement in Jerusalem dating back 3,000 years. Ingenious subterranean tunnels were carved out of the rock to bring water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam at the City of David. We pause at the Spring of Gihon before concluding the tour. In case a visit to one or more of the Spanish synagogues is not possible, we will visit the Hurva Synagogue instead.