Jerusalem: Start the day with a visit to the Tower of David Museum dedicated to the history of Jerusalem from its founding to modern times with remains said to go back to Hasmonean times.
Continue to the Jewish Quarter
to visit the Broad Wall, a 2,700-year-old fortification built by King
Hezekiah to save Jerusalem from the Assyrians. You can also visit the First Temple period museum and the nearby Israelite Tower, Herodian Mansions and Burnt House, the latter two sites tell the story of this area at the time of the Second Temple.
The
Jewish Quarter was home to European and Sephardic Jews during the
centuries under Ottoman rule, a story told by the quarter’s Four Sephardic Synagogues and the Menahem Zion Synagogue.
Descend from the Jewish Quarter to the Western Wall, the last remnant of the Herodian Temple Mount. While at the Western Wall, arrange your schedule to join a public tour of the Western Wall Tunnels by enquiring at the Western Wall Heritage Foundation (www.english.thekotel.org).
In
the Southern Wall Archaeological Park, you can walk the original two
thousand-year-old street and climb the ancient steps. At the Davidson Visitors Center,
in the basement of an eighth-century-CE palace, make arrangements to
see its virtual-reconstruction, high-definition interactive model.
End the day exploring the City of David,
with remains going back to the days of the biblical king who made
Jerusalem the capital of the Tribes of Israel. See the new visitors'
center; walk through Warren’s Shaft, the Water Fortress where King
Solomon was crowned, and through the waters of Hezekiah’s Tunnel or the
adjacent “dry route.”
Overnight in Jerusalem