JERUSALEM AREA BY AREA - Jerusalem and the Holy Land - page 114

YMCA 1
24 King David St. Map 1A4 .
Tel [phone].

ancient architectural and
decorative elements, including
Egyptian, Phoenician, Assyrian
and Greek, as well as aspects
of Islamic art. The hotel boasts
an impressive list of former
guests, including Winston
Churchill and Haile Selassie,
and for a long time, part of
the British Mandate adminis-
tration (see p52) was housed
here. In 1946 it was the target
of a bomb attack perpetrated
by the Zionist paramilitary
terrorist group Irgun, led by
Menachem Begin (see p53) . It
was rebuilt and the two top
floors were added later.

@ 7, 8, 30, 38.
To wer # 8am-6pm daily. &

Built in 1926-33 by Arthur
Loomis Harmon, who also
created New York's Y Empire

State Building, Jerusalem's
YMCA (see p257 A is one of the
city's best-known landmarks. It
consists of three sections - the
central body, dominated by a
bell tower offering extraordi-
nary views of the city, and the
two side wings. The stone and
wrought-iron decorative
elements on the outside of the
building, including the 5-m
(16.5-ft) bas-relief of one of the
six-winged seraphim described
in the Old Testament (Isaiah 6:
2-3), reflect a stylized form of
Oriental Byzantine design,
combined with elements of
Romanesque and Islamic art.
Yet the exterior, splendid as Y
it is, does not prepare the
visitor for the fabulously
elaborate decor on the inside.
Here design elements from
three different cultures are
woven through with symbols
from the three main mono-
theistic religions.
In the concert
hall, the dome's
twelve windows
represent the
Twelve Tribes of
Israel, the Twelve
Disciples of Christ
and the Twelve
Followers of
Muhammad,
while depicted on
the chandelier are the Cross,
Crescent and the Star of David.
The entire creation has a kind
of Art Deco gloss, while the
ethos of its eclectic design is
clearly one of peace and
tolerance
between
faiths and
cultures.

Jerusalem Time
Elevator 3
Beit Agron, 37 Hillel St. Map 1 A3.
Tel [phone].

The distinctive bell tower of
Jerusalem's YMCA

# 10am-8pm

King David Hotel 2
23 King David St. Map 1 B4 . Tel
[phone]. @ 7, 8, 30, 38.

Thu-Sun. &
On the southern edge of the
neighbourhood of Nakhalat
Shiva (see p123) , this is a
themepark-style ride through
3,000 years of Jerusalem's
often-turbulent history. The
audience is belted into their
seats and given surround-
sound headphones for an
audiovisual journey enhanced
by computer-generated
animation and other special
effects. It begins in the times
of King David and Solomon,
and rattles through dramatic
highlights of conquest,
destruction, earthquake and
fire, ending with the Six Day
War of 1967 and reunification.
The special “motion” seats
jolt and sway through the
experience, which culminates
in an “aerial” ride over the
Jerusalem of today. It is a
useful introduction to the city's
complicated chronology,
especially if
visited in

Eye-catching not least for its
pink stone walls and green
windows, this impressive 1930 S
hotel (see p258) is a grandiose
display of colonial
architecture. It
was designed by
Swiss architect
Emile Vogt for the
Jewish-Egyptian
Mosseri family.
Inside, the
spacious lobbies
and public areas,
with their discreet
period wooden
furnishings, reflect a sense of
splendour from an altogether
different era. The richly
ornamental style is achieved
through a mixture of various

Inside the elegant lobby of
the King David Hotel

The square-set form of the King David Hotel, the choice of many rich and famous visitors to Jerusalem

For hotels and restaurants in this area see pp257-8 and pp272-4