Jerusalem.

at the heart of my heart is a city: Yerushalayim. ‘Jerusalem the Beautiful’, as those of old once said. across the ages, poets and prophets and kings have memorialised her splendour in their scrolls. and the violent spasms of history have – countless times – thundered through her gates to raze her houses to rubble and ash. yet, in all of the disasters that have gutted Yerushalayim, hope more so has defiantly returned and returned to raise the city from its ruins.

translated ‘city of peace’, her days have been a mixture of glory and tears. she has lived a deeply conflicted story. Yerushalayim has been beseiged. her towers have been burned. she has been cut in two by the sword of division. and still there is a great chasm separating East Jerusalem from West.

even so, something remarkable hangs in Yerushalayim’s air. beyond the cacophany of sirens and sects that fill her streets, an ancient mystery perfumes her stones. and it enchants the soul. it captivates. I have been captivated by its fragrance. Jerusalem has seeped into my skin and has made for herself a home.

the allure of Yerushalayim, however, lies not in her architectural flourishes. there are cities in the world that are far greater monuments to the ingenuity of the minds that imagined them. Tel Aviv, for one, stands with far more flair on its enclave of the land. from the Bauhaus treasures of the White City to the utopian skyscrapers of the CBD, the buildings of Tel Aviv shout of the creativity that fashioned their design. Jerusalem not so much.

but what does set Jerusalem apart is the complex, variegated history on which the city stands.

on her hills you touch base with epics seemingly out of another world. carved under her citadel are the tales of logic-defying feats. three-thousand years of songs and births and feasts have given the city her depth. she has been crushed but her spirit has never been destroyed. and the world is richer because Yerushalayim has risen and fallen and risen from dust.

East Jerusalem

Monastery of the Cross & The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

exterior close-up of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

house façades in Rehavia

an Abu Tor rooftop

prayers at the Western Wall

a street in the Old City viewed from the Tower of David