Jerusalem: The Biography

* Zion was originally the name of the citadel of David’s City, south of the Temple, but became synonymous with the Temple Mount. Now ‘Zion’ became the Christian name for the western hill. In 333, the Bordeaux Pilgrim already called it Zion. In 390, the Bishop of Jerusalem built the magnificent and colossal Zion, Mother of Churches there on the site of the Coenaculum. Jerusalem’s gift for dynamic reinvention and cultural theft is endless – but it does make names very confusing. Take this example: Hadrian’s Neapolis Gate with the huge column standing before it nowbecame St Stephen’s Gate for some centuries before the Arabs called it the Gate of the Column, and later the Nablus Gate (Neapolis being today’s Nablus); the Jews called it the Shechem Gate; the Ottomans called it today’s name, Damascus Gate. (Today’s St Stephen’s Gate is on the eastern side of the city.)