Jerusalem
The city has a history that goes back to the 4th millennium BCE, making it one of the oldest cities in the world. Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the spiritual center of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE, contains a number of significant ancient Christian sites, and is considered the third-holiest city in Islam. Despite having an area of only 0.9 square kilometer (0.35 square mile), the Old City is home to sites of key religious importance, among them the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque. The old walled city, a World Heritage site, has been traditionally divided into four quarters, although the names used today — the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters — were introduced in the early 19th century. The Old City was nominated for inclusion on the List of World Heritage Sites in danger by Jordan in 1982. In the course of its history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.
Although the origin of the name Yerushalayim is uncertain, various linguistic interpretations have been proposed. Some believe it is a combination of the Hebrew words yerusha (legacy) and shalom (peace), i.e., legacy of peace. Others point out that “shalom” is a cognate of the Hebrew name “Shlomo,” i.e., King Solomon, the builder of the First Temple. Alternatively, the second part of the word could be Salem (Shalem literally “whole” or “in harmony”), an early name for Jerusalem that appears in the Book of Genesis. Others cite the Amarna letters, where the Akkadian name of the city appears as Urušalim, a cognate of the Hebrew Ir Shalem. Some believe there is a connection to Shalim, the beneficent deity known from Ugaritic myths as the personification of dusk.
According to a midrash (Genesis Rabba), Abraham came to the city, then called Shalem, after rescuing Lot. Abraham asked the king and high priest Melchizedek to bless him. This encounter was commemorated by adding the prefix Yeru (derived from Yireh, the name Abraham gave to the Temple Mount) producing Yeru-Shalem, meaning the “city of Shalem,” or “founded by Shalem.” Shalem means “complete” or “without defect”. Hence, “Yerushalayim” means the “perfect city,” or “the city of he who is perfect”. The ending -im indicates the plural in Hebrew grammar and -ayim the dual, possibly referring to the fact that the city sits on two hills. The pronunciation of the last syllable as -ayim appears to be a late development, which had not yet appeared at the time of the Septuagint.
Some believe that a city called Rušalimum or Urušalimum which appears in ancient Egyptian records is the first reference to Jerusalem.The Greeks added the prefix hiero (“holy”) and called it Hierosolyma. To the Arabs, Jerusalem is al-Quds (“The Holy”). “Zion” initially referred to part of the city, but later came to signify the city as a whole. Under King David, it was known as Ir David (the City of David)