City (pop., 2005 est.: 704,900), capital of Israel (&see; below). Located in the heart of historic Palestine, it is nestled between the West Bank and Israel. The Old City is a typical walled Middle Eastern enclosure; the modern city is an urban agglomeration of high-rises and housing complexes. It is holy to Judaism as the site of the Temple of Jerusalem, to Christianity because of its association with Jesus, and to Islam because of its connection with the Mi&ayn;rāj (the Prophet Muhammad's ascension to heaven). Jewish shrines include the Western Wall. Islamic holy places include the Dome of the Rock.
In 1000 &BC; David made it the capital of Israel. Razed by the Babylonians in the 6th century &BC;, it thereafter enjoyed only brief periods of independence. The Romans devastated it in the 1st and 2nd centuries &AD;, banishing the Jewish population. From 638 it was ruled by various Muslim dynasties, except for short periods during the Crusades when it was controlled by Christians. Rule by the Ottoman Empire ended in 1917, and the city became the capital of the British mandate of Palestine. It was thereafter the subject of competing Zionist and Palestinian national aspirations. Israel claimed the city as its capital after the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 and took the entire city during the Six-Day War of 1967. Its status as Israel's capital has remained a point of contention: official recognition by the international community has largely been withheld pending final settlement of regional territorial rights.
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