There is evidence of Stone Age settlement in the Jerusalem area, then a people who became known as the Canaanites replaced these inhabitants in 4000 to 3000 BC. The earliest evidence of building activity are remains of Canaanite walls from the 18th century BC.
Around 1250 BC saw the influx of the race known as the Hebrews into the Jordan valley to the east of the Judean hills. Jerusalem, at that time inhabited by the Jebusites was a strongly fortified hill city and didn't fall for a further 250 years.

In around 1000 BC David, King of the newly united states of Judah and Israel needed a new capital for his kingdom to replace Hebron. Jerusalem provided an ideal solution being in a strategic position between Judah and Israel; he captured the city from the Jebusites and made it the political and religious capital of the Kingdom of Israel by bringing the Ark of the Covenant to the city.

During David's reign the city appears to have retained the same outline as the Canaanite settlement on the area now known as King David's hill or the Ophel, which is to the south of the current city walls. The Bible states that David bought a threshing floor outside the city walls for fifty shekels of silver, this area is now known as the Temple mount, also thought to be the Mount Moriah where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac.

In around 960 following the death of David, Solomon was proclaimed king. King Solomon initiated a huge building program by extending the city walls to include the Temple Mount area and built many new buildings including a new Temple to house the Ark of the Covenant. After Solomon’s death in 920 the Kingdom of Israel fell apart with King Rehoboam ruling Judah in the south and King Jeroboam ruling Israel to the north from Sechem. The weakened Judah was soon attacked by Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt, the Temple was looted and all its treasures taken.

Building activity appears to have remained at a low ebb for the next 200 years until the reign of King Uzziah at which time the area to the west of the city started to be settled. In 720 BC King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked the cities of Israel causing many people to flee to the relative safety Jerusalem. The influx of population and threat to the city promoted the expansion of the city westwards, and the building of massive new walls by King Hezekiah as Jerusalem more than doubled in size. The Assyrian assault on Jerusalem however never happened, the bible states ' the angel of the lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000; and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses'. Whatever the truth of the story the Assyrian grip on Israel and Judah did not relax for a further 100 years, until the rise of the Babylonian empire and Nebuchadnezzer.

Babylon

The first Babylonian assault on Judah came in 597 BC in which King Jehoiachim and ten thousand of his subjects were carried off to captivity, a vassal king, Zedekiah was appointed in his place. A rebellion by King Zedekiah against the Babylonians despite the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah provoked Nebuchadnezzer again; the Babylonian army marched on Jerusalem. One by one the cities of Judah fell until only Jerusalem was left, the city held out for a further eighteen months slowly starving to death. In the summer of 587 BC Jerusalem finally fell and was burnt to the ground. The first temple built by Solomon was torn down, and the inhabitants of the city were deported into exile, it would be fifty years until they were allowed to return.

With the death of Nebuchadnezzer in 562 BC the Babylonian empire rapidly declined, Persia led by Cyrus conquered the city of Babylon unopposed. In 538 BC Cyrus issued a decree allowing the return of the Jews to Jerusalem to start the difficult task of rebuilding the destroyed city.

The rebuilding work appears to have been very slow and it was not until around 515 BC that the second Temple was complete. The city remained without walls until the arrival of a new governor for Judah in 445 BC, Nehemiah.
Nehemiah was a high-ranking official in the Persian court, he persuaded the Persian king Artaxerxes 1 to allow the rebuilding of the walls around Jerusalem, a task that was completed in fifty-two days. The city remained under Persian rule until the coming of Alexander the Great.

In 333 BC Alexander the Great captured Jerusalem, after his death it fell of the Egyptian Ptolomists who ruled until succeeded by the Syrian Seleucids. In 176 BC the Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Temple and forced the population to follow Hellenism. After Jewish uprisings and revolts Antiochus destroyed much of Jerusalem. This provoked a Jewish revolt under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus a member of the Hasmonean family.

Jerusalem was freed from Hellenism in 165 BC and came under the rule of the Hasmonean priesthood dynasty. The city walls fortified and Hasmonean rule was extended to cover a large part of Judea. The Roman general Pompey ended this rule with the conquest of the city.

Judah's 100 years of independence ended when the Roman general Pompey the Great entered Jerusalem in 63 BC and after a prolonged struggle cleared the Temple area of Jewish defenders. Judah was now a province of Rome.

Herod the Great was appointed by the Romans to be King in 40 BC, it was not until 37 BC that he was able to force his way into Jerusalem against strong Jewish opposition.
King Herod undertook a huge building program, traces of which remain visible until this day. Herod’s major project was the Temple Mount, this was enlarged and strengthened to support a new Temple built on the site of Solomon’s original building. A section of the retaining wall for this Temple mount still stands today and is known as the Western or Wailing Wall. King Herod died in 4 BC having put to death his wife and three of his sons in fear that they were plotting against his rule.

Following Herod’s reign, a succession of Roman governors ruled the city including Pontius Pilate who sentenced Jesus to be crucified. The increasingly oppressive rule by the Romans provoked Jewish uprisings and in 66 AD they managed to take the city and hold it until 70 AD. In that year Titus captured the city after a long battle and set about destroying the city walls and the Temple.
In 132 another Jewish revolt against Rome this time led by Bar Kochba liberated Jerusalem, but for a short while only. The Roman general Hadrian was sent to retake the city which he succeeded in doing in 135. This time the city was totally destroyed leaving only the supporting walls of the Temple Mount. The Jewish inhabitants were slain, sold into slavery or escaped to other lands. Jerusalem was rebuilt with the walls following much the same contour as they do today and renamed Aelia Capitolina. Jerusalem became an unimportant Roman provincial town, Jews were forbidden to enter the city.

The fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Byzantines, coupled with the increasing popularity of Christianity revived interest in Jerusalem; the city became a destination for Christian pilgrimage.
 The Byzantine Emperor Constantine who ruled over the city from 324 AD converted to Christianity and started a new wave of building activity, mainly of Christian shrines. Constantine’s mother Queen Helene, also a convert visited Jerusalem and located the supposed spot of the hill Golgotha, on which the Crucifixion of Jesus took place. A church, the Holy Sepulchre was built on this spot in 335 AD.
The Persians conquered the city in 614 and held it until 629 when the Byzantines returned, but for a short while only.

The Moslems under the Caliph Omar conquered the city in 637 AD and built the Dome of the Rock on the site of the first and second temples. On the southern end of the Temple Mount the Al Aksa Mosque was constructed.
Jews and Christians were allowed into the city at this time to visit their respective religious sites.
From 660 the Damascus based dynasty of the Omayyads ruled the city. During this Period many fine buildings were constructed, including a palace on the southern end of the Temple Mount and the El Aksa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine built by the Caliph Waleed in 709-715. In 750 the Abbasids of Baghdad took over Jerusalem and ruled until 969, there is little knowledge of this period. In 969 the Fatimids of Egypt were in control until 1071. It was during this period, in 1009 that the Caliph Hakim ordered the destruction of all churches and synagogues. The Seljuk Turks took over from the Egyptians in 1074, by this time Jerusalem was going into decline, Christian pilgrims were prevented from entering the city and the Churches were in ruins. In response to this Pope Urban II called for the Crusades asking Christians to go to the Holy Land to reclaim Jerusalem and other Christian sites.

The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 under Godfrey of Bouillon. What followed was a massacre of nearly all of the 40,000 Jewish and Moslem residents with only a handful taken prisoner. The Crusader armies and Christian immigrants took over the empty dwellings.
Much building activity took place during the brief reign of the Crusaders, the Holy Sepulchre was rebuilt and several other Churches were established including St Anne’s which is one of the best preserved. The Dome of the Rock and El Aksa mosques on the Temple Mount were converted to Churches.  The overall city area shrunk however to much the same contour as the walls of today.

In 1187, Jerusalem was attacked by Saladin (Salah-A-Din). Saladin’s approach to the conquest of the city was somewhat different than that of the Crusaders, with his superior forces surrounding the city, the inhabitants were obliged to bribe their way out or face being taken prisoner. This resulted in a relatively peaceful take-over with the Moslems now moving into the vacated houses. The Mosques on the Temple Mount were returned to their original state, but the Churches in the city were left intact and Christians were still allowed to enter. A small Jewish community was allowed to live within the city walls.

After the death of Saladin the fortunes of Jerusalem declined. In 1250 the Mamelukes conquered the city and ruled until the Ottoman take over in 1517. Jerusalem became a province of Syria and was not regarded as being important. At one point the city walls were destroyed and many of the inhabitants left. In 1376 control of Jerusalem passed to Cairo and with it an improvement in the city’s fortunes. Many building improvements were made mainly to the buildings on the Temple Mount.

The Turkish Ottomans defeated the Mamelukes in 1517 and took over Jerusalem. In 1520 the Sultan Sulieman the Great decided to use the city as a base for his rule over the area. This led to the rebuilding of the walls in 1536 –1541. These walls, which still stand today, are 4 km in length and built on the foundations of the Roman city Aelia Capitolina. The Sultan Sulieman also made improvements to the Dome of the Rock and El Aksa Mosques on the Temple Mount. Sulieman’s rule could be considered the Golden age of Ottoman rule for Jerusalem as after this the city became neglected and it’s importance in the Ottoman Empire diminished. The population fell to ten thousand by the start of the 19th century, the great majority of them living in poverty.

In 1838 the British set up the first consulate in the city and with international involvement and investment public services started to improve. Jewish immigration from Europe started to increase, and by the middle of the century had reached over 60% of the population. As conditions in the old city became increasingly cramped communities spilled out of the city walls, the first of these was Yemin Moshe that was set up in 1860. Many other communities followed, Jewish mainly to the west and Arab to the East

1917 Ottoman rule in Jerusalem ended when British troops defeated the Turks in Gaza. General Allenby entered the city the 11th December 1917 starting thirty years of British rule. Military rule ended in 1922 to be replaced by a mandated civilian rule sanctioned by the League of Nations. Both Jews and Arabs continued to leave their respective quarters in the Old City and moved to new suburbs in the area, the Jewish population in the Old city declined from 14,000 under Turkish rule to under 2,000 at the end of the British Mandate. The total population of the city at this time was 160,000 of which 100,000 were Jews, 40,000 Moslems and 25,000 Christians

 As the Jewish – Arab struggle for Palestine intensified, friction and clashes between the residents of Jerusalem also increased, not helped by British duplicity who were making promises to both sides. Both communities sought to gain control, each considering the city to be their capital.

In November 1947 the United Nations recommended the partition of the country into Jewish and Palestinian states with Jerusalem being an international city. The UN resolution was rejected by the Arabs, this bought about the War of Independence between the two sides. Upon the termination of the Mandate in May 1948 and the declaration of independence by Israel, British troops left the country and the Jordanian army crossed the river Jordan to attack Jerusalem. The Old City fell to the Jordanians; the Jewish inhabitants were taken prisoner and their quarter largely destroyed. A cease-fire was called in November 1948 leaving the city divided with the Jordanians holding the east including the Old City and the Israelis holding the west. A truce was signed in April 1949; the dividing line was fortified and fenced. Jerusalem was declared the capital of Israel for the third time its history.

United But Still Divided

The Six Day War in June 1967 saw the Israeli troops retake east Jerusalem reuniting the city. The Jewish quarter was rebuilt and services in the Old City were improved. 

President Anwar Sadat of Egypt visited Jerusalem 1977 as part of the Camp David accords. The first recognition of the status of Jewish Jerusalem  by an Arab leader . 

Today Jerusalem is a bustling cosmopolitan city of over 500,000 inhabitants, attracting tourists from all over the world to visit the historic and holy sites.
However despite many efforts, Palestinian aspirations for east Jerusalem (Al Quds) and the holy sites remain unresolved or have been ignored. There are still flare-ups and violence usually on or around the disputed Temple Mount as there has been for the last 3,000 years.

Jerusalem, still not at peace.