Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world and is considered a holy city to the three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital city; Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there, while Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Neither claim is widely recognised internationally.
At present, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the core issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Under the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Jerusalem was to be "established as a corpus separatum under a special international regime" administered by the United Nations. Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, an armistice agreements were reached in 1949 resulting in the division of Jerusalem into Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem and Jordanian-controlled East Jerusalem. This agreement remained until 1967, when Israel occupied East Jerusalem from Jordan following the Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into the city's municipality, together with additional surrounding territory. One of Israel's Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the country's undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset (Israel's parliament), the residences of the prime minister and president, and the Supreme Court.
Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. According to Eric H. Cline's tally in Jerusalem Besieged. The part of Jerusalem called the City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th millennium BCE, in the shape of encampments of nomadic shepherds. During the Canaanite period (14th century BCE) Jerusalem was named as Urusalim on ancient Egyptian tablets, probably meaning "foundation of [the god] Shalem" after a Canaanite deity. Radiocarbon dating of 103 samples from Iron Age Jerusalem provides evidence for settlement in the 12th–10th centuries BCE, westward expansion and extensive construction by the 9th century BCE, and subsequent fortification and growth until the Babylonian destruction in 586 BCE. In 1538 the city walls were rebuilt for a last time around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. Today those walls define the Old City, which since the 19th century has been divided into four quarters—the Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Since 1860 Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old City's boundaries. In Jerusalem had a population of . In 2022 60% were Jews and almost 40% were Palestinians. In 2020 the population was 951,100, of which Jews comprised 570,100 (59.9%), Muslims 353,800 (37.2%), Christians 16,300 (1.7%) and 10,800 unclassified (1.1%).
According to the Hebrew Bible, King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel, and his son King Solomon commissioned the building of the First Temple. Modern scholars argue that Israelites branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture and developed a distinct monolatrous—and later monotheistic—religion centred on El/Yahweh.Tubb (1998), pp. 13–14.Mark Smith in "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states "Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (c. 1200–1000 BCE). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and Israelites for the Iron I period." (pp. 6–7). Smith, Mark (2002) "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" (Eerdman's) These foundational events assumed central symbolic importance for the Jewish people.Since the 10th century BCE: "Israel was first forged into a unified nation from Jerusalem some 3,000 years ago, when King David seized the crown and united the twelve tribes from this city... For a thousand years Jerusalem was the seat of Jewish sovereignty, the household site of kings, the location of its legislative councils and courts. In exile, the Jewish nation came to be identified with the city that had been the site of its ancient capital. Jews, wherever they were, prayed for its restoration." Roger Friedland, Richard D. Hecht. To Rule Jerusalem, University of California Press, 2000, p. 8. "The centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism is so strong that even secular Jews express their devotion and attachment to the city, and cannot conceive of a modern State of Israel without it.... For Jews Jerusalem is sacred simply because it exists... Though Jerusalem's sacred character goes back three millennia...". Leslie J. Hoppe. The Holy City: Jerusalem in the theology of the Old Testament, Liturgical Press, 2000, p. 6. "Ever since King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago, the city has played a central role in Jewish existence." Mitchell Geoffrey Bard, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Middle East Conflict, Alpha Books, 2002, p. 330. "Jerusalem became the center of the Jewish people some 3,000 years ago" Moshe Maoz, Sari Nusseibeh, Jerusalem: Points of Friction—and Beyond, Brill Academic Publishers, 2000, p. 1. The sobriquet of holy city () was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times.Reinoud Oosting, Brill 2012 pp. 117–18. Isaiah 48:2; 51:1; Nehemiah 11:1, 18; cf. Joel 4:17: Daniel 5:24. The Isaiah section where they occur belong to deutero-Isaiah.Shalom M. Paul, The 'holiness' (qodesh) arises from the temple in its midst, the root q-d-š referring to a sanctuary. The concept is attested in Mesopotamian literature, and the epithet may serve to distinguish Babylon, the city of exiles, from the city of the Temple, to where they are enjoined to return. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible,Isaiah 52:1 πόλις ἡ ἁγία. which Christians adopted as the Old Testament,Joseph T. Lienhard, The Bible, the Church, and Authority: The Canon of the Christian Bible in History and Theology, Liturgical Press, 1995 pp. 65–66: 'The Septuagint is a Jewish translation and was also used in the synagogue. But at the end of the first century C.E. many Jews ceased to use the Septuagint because the early Christians had adopted it as their own translation, and it began to be considered a Christian translation.' was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection there. In Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina.Third-holiest city in Islam:Middle East peace plans by Willard A. Beling: "The Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam after Mecca and Medina". The city was the first standard direction for Muslim prayers, and in Islamic tradition, Muhammad made his Night Journey there in 621, ascending to heaven where he spoke to God, per the Quran. As a result, despite having an area of only , the Old City is home to many sites of seminal religious importance, among them the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound on the Temple Mount with its Western Wall, Dome of the Rock and Qibli (al-Aqsa) Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Etymology and names
Etymology The name Jerusalem is variously etymologised to mean 'foundation of the god Shalem',Meir Ben-Dov, Historical Atlas of Jerusalem, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002, p. 23. from the Semitic root yry which can mean 'to found, to lay a cornerstone' and is used that way at least twice in the Hebrew Bible, in Job and Genesis. The god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city.G. Johannes Bottereck, Helmer Ringgren, Heinz-Josef Fabry, (eds.) Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, tr. David E. Green, vol. XV, pp. 48–49 William B. Eeerdmanns Co. Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge UK 2006, pp. 45–46
Shalim or Shalem was the name of the god of dusk in the Canaanite religion, whose name is based on the same root S-L-M from which the Hebrew word for "peace" is derived (Shalom in Hebrew, cognate with Arabic Salam).Ringgren, H., Die Religionen des Alten Orients (Göttingen, 1979), 212. The name thus offered itself to etymologisations such as "The City of Peace", "Abode of Peace", "Dwelling of Peace" ("founded in safety"),Marten H. Wouldstra, The Book of Joshua, William B. Eerdmanns Co. Grand Rapids, Michigan (1981) 1995, p. 169 n.2 or "Vision of Peace" in some Christian authors.
The ending -ayim indicates the dual, thus leading to the suggestion that the name Yerushalayim refers to the fact that the city initially sat on two hills. (see )
Ancient Egyptian sources The Execration Texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (c. 19th century BCE), which refer to a city called rwšꜣlmm or ꜣwšꜣmm, variously transcribed as Rušalimum, or Urušalimum,Sethe, Kurt (1926) "Die Ächtung feindlicher Fürsten, Völker und Dinge auf altägyptischen Tongefäßscherben des Mittleren Reiches nach den Originalen im Berliner Museum herausgegeben und erklärt" in Abhandlungen der Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1926 issue, philosophisch-historische Klasse, number 5, page 53 may indicate Jerusalem.G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren (eds.) Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, (tr. David E. Green) William B. Eerdmann, Grand Rapids Michigan, Cambridge, UK 1990, Vol. VI, p. 348 Alternatively, the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba (1330s BCE), which reference an Úrušalim, may be the earliest mention of the city.
Hebrew Bible and Jewish sources The form Yerushalem () or Yerushalayim () first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua.The History of Jerusalem in the Bible, Zondervan, September 9, 2019. Accessed June 7, 2026. "Two events in the life of Abraham place him in close proximity to Jerusalem. Melchizedek, the king of Salem (Gen 14:18; cf. Ps 76:2), met Abram after his rescue of Lot. Later Abraham took his son Isaac to one of the mountains in the 'region of Moriah' to sacrifice him (Gen 22:2), the same place where Solomon built the temple (2 Chron 3:1). Jerusalem next appears in the stories of the conquest under Joshua. When the king of Jerusalem, Adoni-Zedek, heard of the Gibeonites’ treaty with Joshua, he realized that his major line of communication with the coast, and hence to Egypt, was in jeopardy. He assembled a coalition of four other Amorite kings and attacked Gibeon but was defeated by Joshua." Jerusalem is mentioned 669 times in the Hebrew Bible, while the term Zion appears 154 times as either a symbolic mention of Jerusalem or as a reference to the entire Land of Israel.Rivkin, Mendel. "Why is Jerusalem not Mentioned in the Torah?", Chabad-Lubavich of Louisians, May 7, 2021. Accessed June 7, 2026. "Although Yerushalayim is mentioned 669 times in Tanach (823 if you include references to Zion), the Torah (Pentateuch) does not mention either of them."