East Jerusalem

East Jerusalem is the city seen from the Mount of Olives at dawn — the view every pilgrim and every photographer means when they say Jerusalem: the Old City walls with the golden Dome of the Rock rising over the esplanade Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif, olive slopes running down through the world's oldest continuously used cemetery, and Gethsemane's ancient trees at the valley floor. Two peoples love this city; the Guide loves it with both, and this page has a sister page, Jerusalén, holding the western window.

The traveller enters by Damascus Gate, the liveliest door in the city, where the bread sellers stack kaak at dawn; walks the Muslim Quarter's markets to the esplanade — non-Muslim visitors enter at set hours by the Mughrabi gate, modestly dressed, and the courtesy repays itself —; descends the Mount of Olives past Gethsemane; and takes the East's own high street, Salah ad-Din, for bookshops, knafeh and the unhurried Palestinian Jerusalem that headlines rarely show: aunties, schoolchildren, excellent coffee, patience.

The Guide's honesty, gently: the conflict is real and present-tense here too — access to holy places can change with little notice, conditions differ street to street, and the prudent traveller checks current counsel, carries respect as their main document, and follows local guidance in both halves of the city —; Friday reshapes the east around prayers as Saturday reshapes the west; and the Guide keeps this page, like its sister, with lamps lit for the day the city's two windows look out on an easier morning.