Jerusalem

The city was captured from the Canaanites by King David of the Israelites (circa 1000 bc), who made it his capital. As the site of the Temple, built by Solomon (957 bc), it became also the centre of the Jewish religion. Since then it has shared the troubled history of the area—destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 bc and by the Romans in ad 70, and fought over by Saracens and Crusaders in the Middle Ages. From 1947 the city was divided between the states of Israel and Jordan until the Israelis occupied the whole city in June 1967 and proclaimed it the capital of Israel. It is revered by Christians as the place of Christ’s death and resurrection, and by Muslims as the site of the Dome of the Rock