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Jerusalem — New City Photo Gallery

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Jerusalem Overview

Introduction

Model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period
Model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period

For many visitors, Jerusalem is defined by the walls, gates, churches, synagogues, and archaeological remains of the Old City. Yet most of Jerusalem today lies outside the Old City walls. Beginning in the nineteenth century and expanding dramatically after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the New City developed into a large modern urban center of residential neighborhoods, commercial districts, universities, museums, and national institutions.

This gallery focuses on a select group of sites that illustrate Jerusalem’s role as the center of Israel’s national life. In the government district are the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and the Supreme Court, representing two of the principal institutions of the modern state. Nearby, the Knesset Menorah uses scenes from Jewish history and tradition to connect the modern State of Israel with the much longer history of the Jewish people. Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s Knesset, government, president, and Supreme Court.

The surrounding area is also one of Jerusalem’s major centers of culture, history, and education. The Israel Museum preserves archaeological discoveries from throughout the Holy Land, while its Shrine of the Book houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and presents the remarkable story of their discovery and preservation. Other nearby national and cultural institutions reinforce the importance of this part of Jerusalem as a center for preserving and interpreting the country’s archaeological, historical, and cultural heritage.

Farther west, Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, preserves the memory of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust and documents the experiences of individuals and communities destroyed by Nazi persecution. Together, the government buildings, museums, memorials, and monuments presented in this gallery offer a different perspective on Jerusalem—one concerned not primarily with the ancient city, but with the institutions, history, memory, and national identity of modern Israel.

Slide Presentation Major Events

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Major Events at Jerusalem

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Jerusalem - Knesset

The Knesset is Israel’s parliament and the seat of its legislative branch of government. The 120-member body meets in this building in Jerusalem’s government district, where laws are debated and enacted and the work of the government is overseen. The present Knesset building was dedicated in 1966 and has since become one of the principal symbols of the modern State of Israel.

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A view of the southwest corner of the Knesset. The building was designed by architect Joseph Klarwein and constructed of Jerusalem stone, giving the modern governmental complex a visual connection with the traditional architecture of the city. The Knesset has occupied this site since the building’s dedication in 1966.

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Jerusalem - Supreme Court Building

The Supreme Court of Israel stands near the Knesset in Jerusalem’s government district. Completed in 1992, the building was designed by Israeli architects Ram Karmi and Ada Karmi-Melamede. Its architecture combines modern forms with Jerusalem stone and incorporates courtyards, passageways, changing levels, and carefully controlled natural light.

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Jerusalem - Supreme Court Bridge

A pedestrian bridge spans the roadway near the Supreme Court, linking the court complex with the area of the Knesset and its Visitor Center. From the bridge, visitors can also look across portions of Jerusalem’s modern government district and the expanding New City.

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Jerusalem - New City

Looking toward Jerusalem’s New City from the pedestrian bridge near the Supreme Court. Modern Jerusalem extends far beyond the walls of the Old City and includes government offices, universities, museums, residential neighborhoods, commercial districts, and continuing urban development. This view illustrates the contrast between the ancient city familiar to many visitors and the much larger modern capital surrounding it.

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Jerusalem - Visitor Center

The Knesset Visitor Center serves visitors to Israel’s parliament. Guided visits to the Knesset introduce the building, the work of the 120-member legislature, and the development of Israel’s parliamentary system. The center stands near the pedestrian bridge connecting this part of Jerusalem’s government district.

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Jerusalem - Knesset Menorah

The monumental bronze Knesset Menorah stands in the garden opposite the Knesset. Created by Jewish-British sculptor Benno Elkan, the seven-branched menorah was presented to Israel by members of the British Parliament and others in Britain in 1956. Its branches and panels contain numerous sculpted scenes and figures representing events, individuals, ideas, and traditions from Jewish history.

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Jerusalem - Knesset - Menorah

The Knesset Menorah, with Israel’s parliament building visible in the background. The placement brings together two powerful symbols: the menorah, an ancient emblem associated with the Temple and Jewish history, and the Knesset, representing the institutions of the modern State of Israel. The bronze monument was created by sculptor Benno Elkan and presented to Israel in 1956.

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Jerusalem - Menorah

A plaque beside the Knesset Menorah explains the history of the monument. Sculptor Benno Elkan conceived the idea in the 1940s and developed the work as a visual representation of Jewish history and tradition. The completed menorah was presented to the State of Israel in 1956 and was later moved to its present location opposite the Knesset. This enlarged view of the plaque provides a closer look at its English account of the Menorah’s history.

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Israel Museum

The Israel Museum in Jerusalem is the country’s largest cultural institution and one of the world’s leading museums of archaeology and biblical history. Opened in 1965, its extensive collections preserve artifacts spanning thousands of years of the region’s history. Among its best-known holdings are the Dead Sea Scrolls, displayed in the Shrine of the Book, as well as archaeological discoveries from many of the sites featured throughout this photo collection.

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Israel Museum - The Chorazin Synagogue

Architectural elements from the ancient synagogue at Chorazin, a Jewish village overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Constructed primarily of the dark basalt characteristic of the region, the synagogue dates principally to the Roman and Byzantine periods. Chorazin is especially significant to Christians because Jesus condemned the city, together with Capernaum and Bethsaida, for failing to repent despite the miracles performed there (Matt. 11:20–24; Luke 10:13–15).

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Israel Museum - The Orthostat Temple of Hazor

Basalt standing stones and other cultic objects from the Orthostat Temple at Hazor, one of the great Canaanite cities of the Bronze Age. The temple takes its modern name from the large upright stone slabs, or orthostats, used in its construction. The objects displayed here illustrate the religious practices of Canaanite Hazor before the city’s destruction and the later Israelite occupation of the site.

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Israel Museum - Assyrian Relief

A reproduction of the famous Assyrian reliefs depicting the conquest of Lachish by the army of King Sennacherib in 701 BC. The original stone panels decorated Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh and portray the Assyrian assault, captives, and booty taken from the Judean city. The campaign is also described in the Bible, which recounts Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah during the reign of King Hezekiah (2 Kgs. 18–19; Isa. 36–37).

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Israel Museum - Temple Mount First-century Inscription

The Theodotos Inscription, discovered in Jerusalem near the Temple Mount, provides important evidence for synagogues in the city during the Second Temple period. Written in Greek and generally dated to the first century AD, the inscription identifies Theodotos as a priest and synagogue leader and states that the synagogue was built for the reading of the Law and the teaching of the commandments. It also mentions accommodations for visitors from abroad, providing a remarkable glimpse into Jewish religious and community life in Jerusalem around the time of Jesus.

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Israel Museum - Pontius Pilate Inscription

The Pontius Pilate Inscription, discovered at Caesarea Maritima in 1961, provides archaeological evidence for the Roman governor who presided over the trial of Jesus. The Latin inscription preserves Pilate’s name and his title, “Prefect of Judea,” and originally commemorated a building dedicated during the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Pilate governed Judea from approximately AD 26 to 36, with Caesarea serving as the principal Roman administrative center of the province.

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Shrine of the Book - Israel Museum

The distinctive white dome of the Shrine of the Book houses some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered beginning in 1947 in caves near Qumran. Designed by architects Frederick Kiesler and Armand Bartos and dedicated in 1965, the Shrine was conceived as a symbolic setting for the ancient manuscripts. The dome recalls the lids of the ceramic jars in which the first scrolls were found.

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Shrine of the Book - Israel Museum

A massive black wall stands opposite the Shrine’s white dome. The dramatic contrast symbolizes the conflict between the “Sons of Light” and the “Sons of Darkness,” language found in the Dead Sea Scrolls for the Qumran community and its enemies. Together, the black wall and white dome make the architecture itself part of the story told by the Shrine.

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Shrine of the Book - Israel Museum

Two monumental iron trees by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei stand near the Shrine of the Book. The sculptures remained at the Israel Museum following Ai’s 2017–18 exhibition “Maybe, Maybe Not,” and the artist specifically requested that they be placed beside the Shrine as a celebration of two ancient cultures—Chinese and Jewish. Ai’s art frequently engages China’s history and traditional culture while exploring the effects of modernization, political change, and the loss of tradition. Here, his contemporary Chinese sculptures stand beside a building devoted to preserving some of the most important surviving texts of ancient Jewish culture.

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Shrine of the Book - Israel Museum

The passage into the Shrine of the Book was designed to evoke a journey into the caves of the Judean Desert where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Its dark, enclosed forms lead visitors away from the modern museum complex and toward the ancient manuscripts preserved within the Shrine.

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Shrine of the Book - Israel Museum

At the center of the Shrine’s upper hall is a facsimile of the Great Isaiah Scroll, one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered near Qumran. Dating to about 125 BC, the remarkably well-preserved manuscript contains all sixty-six chapters of Isaiah and is the only nearly complete biblical book among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The circular display allows visitors to appreciate the extraordinary length and form of the ancient scroll.

The original manuscript is not normally displayed in its entirety. Because its more than 2,000-year-old parchment is extremely sensitive to light and environmental conditions, the original was removed from continuous display in 1968 to protect it from deterioration. A small portion of the original is normally exhibited under carefully controlled conditions, while the facsimile allows visitors to see the complete scroll without endangering the ancient manuscript.

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Shrine of the Book - Israel Museum

Displays surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls place the manuscripts within the daily life and religious practices of the community associated with Qumran. Pottery vessels, archaeological finds, reconstructions, and explanatory panels help visitors move beyond the texts themselves to consider the people who copied, studied, and lived according to these writings in the Judean Desert during the Second Temple period.

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Model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period

The Model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period at the Israel Museum reconstructs the city as it may have appeared shortly before its destruction by the Romans in AD 70. This view looks north along the City of David, the narrow ridge in the foreground, toward the enormous Temple Mount and the reconstructed Temple. The model helps visitors visualize the relationship between ancient Jerusalem’s topography, its expanding neighborhoods, and the monumental Temple complex that dominated the city in the time of Jesus.

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Jerusalem - Second Temple Model

The model reconstructs the magnificent Temple built by Herod the Great within the greatly enlarged Temple Mount. Herod began rebuilding the Temple in the late first century BC, surrounding it with expansive courts, colonnades, and massive retaining walls. The sanctuary itself rose prominently above the surrounding city and formed the religious center of Jewish life in the time of Jesus. The entire complex was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, although portions of the enormous retaining walls survive today.

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Jerusalem - Second Temple Model

At the western edge of Jerusalem’s Upper City stood the palace of Herod the Great, protected on the north by three formidable towers named Hippicus, Phasael, and Mariamne. Josephus describes the palace as an exceptionally luxurious complex of buildings, courtyards, gardens, and banquet halls. The three towers guarded the vulnerable northwestern approach to the city; substantial remains traditionally identified with the base of the Phasael Tower survive within Jerusalem’s Citadel near today’s Jaffa Gate.

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Jerusalem - Second Temple Model

The prominent structure with a cone-shaped roof (right) represents the traditional location of the palace of Caiaphas, the high priest before whom Jesus was taken following His arrest (Matt. 26:57–68). The model places the residence on the eastern slope of Mount Zion, overlooking the City of David. Although this general area has long been associated with Caiaphas and the events of Jesus’s trial, the precise location and appearance of his residence are unknown; the building shown in the model is therefore a reconstruction rather than an archaeologically identified palace.

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Jerusalem - Second Temple Model

The densely built Upper City occupied Jerusalem’s higher western hill and included the residences of many of the city’s wealthy and priestly families. The model also includes a Roman-style theater, reflecting Josephus’s statement that Herod the Great constructed a theater in Jerusalem. Archaeology has not securely established the theater’s location, dimensions, or appearance, however, so its representation here should be understood as hypothetical. The model combines archaeological evidence, ancient literary descriptions, and informed reconstruction to help visitors visualize Jerusalem in the time of Jesus.

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Jerusalem - Second Temple Model

The Antonia Fortress stood at the northwestern corner of the Temple Mount, where its commanding position allowed soldiers to observe activity within the Temple courts. Herod the Great rebuilt and named the fortress in honor of Mark Antony, and during the Roman period it housed troops responsible for maintaining order in Jerusalem. The New Testament describes Roman soldiers intervening when a disturbance arose around Paul at the Temple and taking him into the nearby barracks (Acts 21:27–40). The exact architectural form of the Antonia is uncertain, making the model an informed reconstruction.

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Jerusalem - Second Temple Model

The model places Golgotha, the site of Jesus’s Crucifixion, outside Jerusalem’s northern city wall, consistent with the New Testament statement that Jesus suffered “outside the gate” (Heb. 13:12). The traditional site of Golgotha, now enclosed within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, was a rocky area beyond the city wall in the first century. Jerusalem expanded northward after the time of Jesus, bringing the site within later city walls and helping explain why the traditional location of the Crucifixion lies inside the Old City today.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

Entrance to the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national memorial and museum devoted to Holocaust remembrance. The museum presents the history of the Holocaust through artifacts, photographs, documents, films, and personal testimony, placing particular emphasis on the experiences of individual victims and survivors. Visitors should note that backpacks and large bags are not permitted inside the museum and must be left in the designated storage facilities.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

The Hall of Remembrance is one of Yad Vashem’s principal memorial structures. The austere, tent-like building provides a place for visitors and official guests to honor the victims of the Holocaust. Inside, the names of 22 Nazi murder sites are inscribed on the floor, representing the hundreds of extermination and concentration camps, transit camps, and killing sites established throughout Europe.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

Inside the Hall of Remembrance, the names of Nazi extermination and concentration camps, transit camps, and killing sites are inscribed on the dark floor. An eternal flame burns beside a stone crypt containing ashes of victims brought from extermination camps. The stark interior deliberately avoids elaborate decoration, focusing attention on the places where millions were murdered during the Holocaust.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

The entrance to the Children’s Memorial, dedicated to the approximately 1.5 million Jewish children murdered during the Holocaust. The memorial is entered through a passage cut into the rock, leading visitors from the daylight outside into a darkened underground space designed to commemorate children whose lives were cut short.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

Inside the Children’s Memorial, photographs of children murdered during the Holocaust emerge from the darkness. Deeper within the memorial, the light of candles is reflected repeatedly by mirrors, creating the impression of countless points of light. As visitors pass through the darkened space, recorded voices recite the names, ages, and countries of origin of murdered children, transforming the enormous number of victims into the remembrance of individual lives.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

The Janusz Korczak and the Children Memorial honors the Polish-Jewish physician, educator, and author who directed an orphanage for Jewish children in Warsaw. When the children were deported to Treblinka in 1942, Korczak refused opportunities to save himself and accompanied them to their deaths. The sculpture portrays Korczak sheltering the children within his arms, commemorating both his devotion to them and the approximately 1.5 million Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

Trees and commemorative plaques honor the Righteous Among the Nations, the designation bestowed by Yad Vashem upon non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust without expectation of reward. Beginning in the 1960s, trees were planted in honor of recognized rescuers along the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations, making individual acts of courage and compassion part of Yad Vashem’s landscape of remembrance.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

The Connecting Path links Yad Vashem with Mount Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery. Created in 2003, the path traces the years between the end of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel, with interpretive markers addressing the liberation of the camps, Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine, the struggle for independence, and the creation of the state in 1948. Symbolically, the path connects remembrance of the Holocaust with the rebirth of Jewish national life.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

An interpretive marker along The Connecting Path explains the symbolic relationship between Yad Vashem and the military cemetery on Mount Herzl. The path recalls the transition from the Holocaust to the establishment of Israel and the subsequent sacrifices made in defending the new state. Above the text appears a passage from Jeremiah 31:20: “For whenever I speak of him, I will continue to remember him.”

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

A memorial on Mount Herzl records the names of those who perished aboard the Egoz, a ship secretly carrying Jewish emigrants from Morocco toward Israel. The vessel sank in the Mediterranean in January 1961, killing 44 emigrants. The disaster became an important episode in the story of clandestine Jewish emigration from Morocco during the years when such emigration was restricted.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

The memorial stone of Aharon Maman, one of those who perished aboard the Egoz. The Hebrew inscription records that he was born in Morocco and was among the immigrants traveling clandestinely aboard the ship when it sank in 1961. He was 42 years old. Individual stones such as this place names and personal identities alongside the larger memorial to those lost in the disaster.

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Jerusalem - Yad Vashem

The Egoz burial and memorial plot on Mount Herzl commemorates the Jewish emigrants who died when the ship sank in January 1961 while secretly carrying them from Morocco toward Israel. Twenty-two bodies were recovered after the disaster; their remains were eventually brought to Israel for burial on Mount Herzl in 1992. The remaining victims were never recovered, making the site both a burial place and a memorial to all those who perished aboard the Egoz.

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Second Temple Model History

Jerusalem Temple Mount in AD 70

The Model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period recreates the city as it may have appeared in AD 66, shortly before the Jewish revolt against Rome and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. Built at a scale of 1:50, the model was created under the direction of Michael Avi-Yonah, an archaeologist and historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Avi-Yonah drew upon archaeological evidence and ancient literary sources, especially Josephus, as well as the Mishnah, Talmud, and New Testament.

The model was commissioned by Hans Kroch, owner of Jerusalem’s Holyland Hotel, as a memorial to his son Jacob (Yaakov) Kroch, who was killed in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. After several years of construction, the model opened to the public in 1966 on the grounds of the Holyland Hotel in the Bayit VeGan neighborhood of western Jerusalem. At that time, the Old City was under Jordanian control and inaccessible to Israelis, which gave the model added significance as a way of visualizing ancient Jerusalem.

When redevelopment of the Holyland Hotel property required the model to be relocated, the Israel Museum was selected as its new home. Because the model was too large and complex to move intact, it was carefully cut into approximately 1,000 sections, transported across Jerusalem, and reassembled on the museum grounds near the Shrine of the Book. It reopened there in 2006, where visitors can now view the reconstructed city alongside the Dead Sea Scrolls and other important remains from the Second Temple period.

The model should not be regarded as an exact architectural reconstruction of first-century Jerusalem. Archaeological discoveries made since the 1960s have changed our understanding of portions of the ancient city, and the model has itself been modified in response to new evidence. For that reason, it is valuable not only as a visualization of Jerusalem before AD 70, but also as a reflection of how scholarly and archaeological understanding of the city has developed over time.