The Old City is a walled, roughly quadrilateral urban zone, each side about 900 metres long, with gates interrupting the walls at defined points. Within its walls live tens of thousands of residents and an even larger number of pilgrims and tourists, visiting its religious and historical landmarks. The Old City is divided into traditional “quarters”—Muslim, Christian, Armenian, and Jewish—that correspond broadly to religious and communal associations though these divisions have fluctuated over time. The Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif / al-Ḥaram ash-Sharīf) occupies a central elevated platform and is a focal point both physically and symbolically. The architecture is a palimpsest: ancient walls, Roman streets, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk, Ottoman additions, overlaid with modern infrastructure and periods of restoration and destruction.

circa 950 BCE

Pre-Israelite Period
The earliest identifiable settlements in the area of the Old City date to the Bronze Age. Archaeological evidence suggests that sites like the City of David (just south of the current Old City walls) were inhabited in the Middle and Late Bronze Age. The “Jebusite” city, prior to Israelite conquest according to biblical tradition, controlled a hill east of the Kidron Valley, which later became central to ancient Jerusalem.

First Temple (Israelite) Period
With the consolidation of the Kingdom of Judah, from around the 10th century BCE onward, the city expanded and the Temple Mount became established as the center of religious ritual under Solomon. Its fortifications increased (notably the Broad Wall, attributed by recent studies to Uzziah, perhaps in the 8th century BCE) showing urban growth beyond the original City of David spur. The First Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar’s Neo-Babylonian forces.

Second Temple Period
After the Babylonian Exile, Persian rule under Cyrus the Great allowed return and rebuilding of the Temple, completed in 516 BCE. Nehemiah, among others, re-walled parts of the city, and over subsequent centuries under Hellenistic, Hasmonean, and particularly Herodian rule, the city—including the Temple Mount platform—was massively expanded, with regrading and retaining walls, piers etc. The Second Temple was later expanded and renovated by Herod. The city experienced growing Roman influence leading up to the First Jewish-Roman War, in which 70 CE saw the destruction of the Second Temple and substantial portions of the city.

Roman Period
Following the destruction in 70 CE, the city was largely depopulated; after the Bar Kochba revolt (132-135 CE), Emperor Hadrian established the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina on the ruins. Jews were expelled from much of the city, and pagan and Roman urban structures were imposed, including a new street grid (Cardo Maximus etc.), forums, and gates. Later in this period Christianity gained legal status under Constantine, and the construction of Christian shrines (including what became the Church of the Holy Sepulchre) began in the 4th century CE under Constantine and his mother Helena.

Byzantine Period
Under the Byzantine Empire (4th-7th centuries CE), Jerusalem became a major Christian pilgrimage centre. Significant churches and hospices were built; the Christian character of much of the Old City was enhanced. The population was largely Christian; Jewish presence was modest. In 614 CE there was a Persian invasion which damaged Christian structures, but restoration followed. By the late Byzantine period, the city walls had shifted; some areas originally part of earlier Judahite city were abandoned.

Muslim Period
Muslim rule (beginning with peaceful takeover of the city by the Rashidun Caliphate in 638 CE) brought new architectural forms and religious institutions. Caliph ʿUmar I repaired the Temple Mount. Under Umayyad rule in 691-692 CE the Dome of the Rock was built by ʿAbd al-Malik, and soon the al-Aqsa Mosque was established. During the Abbasid and Fatimid periods the city’s importance remained, though political power centers shifted. Under Fatimid rule some destruction of Christian sites occurred (for example by Caliph al-Hākim in 1010 CE). Muslim dynasties also invested in madrasas, markets, fountains public works.

Crusader and Ayyubid Periods
The First Crusade captured Jerusalem in 1099 CE, establishing the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Crusader control entailed conversion of mosques into churches, construction of Christian institutions, pilgramage infrastructure, and barring or restricting Muslim and Jewish access in many instances. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was rebuilt and expanded during this time. In 1187 CE Saladin reconquered Jerusalem, restoring many Islamic and Jewish institutions and rights under Ayyubid rule. Under the Ayyubids there was significant building of Islamic architecture: new hospitals, madrasas, improvements to mosque complexes, restoration of city walls where needed.

Ottoman Period
In 1517 Jerusalem came under Ottoman rule, which lasted until the First World War (1917). One of the most enduring legacies is the current walls of the Old City, constructed between 1535 and 1542 by Suleiman the Magnificent. The Ottomans repaired water systems, supported waqf institutions, patronised religious buildings of all faiths, and maintained markets. Urban layout, gates, and many structural elements of the Old City largely derive from this period.

Modern Period
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the area around the walls began to grow; foreign consulates, pilgrimage guesthouses, and new neighbourhoods developed outside the Old City. In the wars of 1948 the Jewish Quarter was largely destroyed and its population removed when Jordan controlled East Jerusalem. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, Israel captured East Jerusalem (including the Old City), and restoration and reconstruction of some sites (Jewish Quarter, Western Wall plaza, etc.) were undertaken. The Old City remains under contested sovereignty, particularly over sacred sites and land ownership, and is central to Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

circa

Although the Old City is divided into four general quarters (Muslim, Christian, Armenian, Jewish), there was formerly (and in fact practice and sources indicate) many more smaller neighbourhoods (harat or har quarters) with overlapping boundaries.

Muslim Quarter occupies the northeastern part of the Old City. It is the largest in area and most populous, bordering Damascus Gate to the north, the Western Wall and Temple Mount to the south, and the Christian and Jewish Quarters to its west and south-west. It contains vibrant markets (souqs), restaurants, inns and lodging for pilgrims. The Temple Mount complex lies along its border and partly within its area.

Christian Quarter lies in the northwest. It is centered on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and associated Christian religious institutions and pilgrim accommodations. Its streets are more organized around the pilgrimage routes, and it contains hospices, churches of multiple Christian denominations, and old marketplaces tied to Christian pilgrimage.

Armenian Quarter is in the southwest corner. Though Armenians are Christian, they have a distinct communal identity, with their own churches (notably St James), monastery, schools, residences, and church lands. The Armenian Quarter occupies about 14 % of the Old City area. It is bordered by Jaffa Gate and Zion Gate. The boundaries of this quarter in current usage derive largely from maps from mid-19th century (British-engineered) but reflect longer historical settlement by Armenians from at least the 4th century CE onward.

Jewish Quarter is in the southern/eastern sector, bordering the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. Historically, it was densely Jewish in population until 1948, when much of it was destroyed or depopulated under Jordanian control. After 1967, extensive restoration was undertaken. The Quarter includes synagogues and Jewish study houses, museums, and residential housing.

There was also historically a Maghrebi Quarter (Moroccan Quarter), located adjacent to the western Wall plaza. It was demolished in 1967 to permit creation of the large Western Wall Plaza. Though no longer extant as a residential quarter, its former existence is part of the Old City’s spatial history.

circa

The Old City and its periphery yield many major archaeological sites that span the historical periods. Several deserve extended mention.

The City of David (just south of the Old City walls) is among the most significant; its excavations have uncovered residential structures, fortifications, water conduits, and ritual installations dating from the Canaanite and Israelite periods, through the First Temple and Second Temple eras. It preserves evidence of Jebusite fortifications, the Stepped Street connecting to the Temple Mount in the Roman period, and other monumental works.

The Broad Wall in the Jewish Quarter is a massive defensive wall, about 7 metres thick and up to 3.3 metres high in preserved sections, recently re-dated from the reign of King Hezekiah to possibly King Uzziah, demonstrating that by the 8th century BCE Jerusalem’s urban footprint had expanded significantly beyond the City of David hill spur.

Another major site is the Cardo Maximus, the Roman-period north-south colonnaded street laid out in Aelia Capitolina, parts of which are preserved in the Jewish Quarter. It formed the main commercial street in Roman and Byzantine Jerusalem, later reused and rebuilt.

Other significant sites include the Western Wall, a surviving part of the retaining walls of the Temple Mount built by Herod during the Second Temple period; the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, early Islamic monuments constructed on the Temple Mount platform; various Crusader and Ayyubid additions and modifications in architecture, madrasas, churches, mosques; and the numerous subterranean remains beneath the Old City (e.g., cisterns, ritual baths, burial vaults).