Jerusalem’s Old City
Why this is the first thing I do every time I land in Israel.
Read MoreMasada at sunrise
A closer look at one of Israel's most rewarding experiences.
Read MoreFloating in the Dead Sea
Where to go next once you have seen the headline sights of Israel.
Read MoreIsrael packs an extraordinary density of history into a small footprint — you can walk the Old City of Jerusalem in a morning and pass the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Dome of the Rock without ever leaving the same square kilometre. I’ve found that density both moving and disorienting; every stone seems to hold three overlapping claims, and the country’s present-day complexity is inseparable from that weight. Beyond Jerusalem, Tel Aviv offers a genuinely different register entirely — Bauhaus architecture, all-night beach bars, and a Mediterranean ease that feels a world away from the hill country an hour inland. Floating in the Dead Sea, hiking Masada at dawn, and diving the coral off Eilat round out a country whose geography is as varied as its history is dense.
Chapter One
Jerusalem’s old stones
I entered the Old City through Jaffa Gate at sunrise and let the day unfold without much planning — the Western Wall’s plaza filling slowly with prayer, the Via Dolorosa’s stations threading through the Christian Quarter’s market stalls, the golden Dome of the Rock catching light above the Temple Mount. Each quarter runs on its own rhythm and calendar, and the overlap, rather than causing chaos, has settled into a kind of practiced coexistence at street level. The Israel Museum, a short taxi ride away, holds the Dead Sea Scrolls under a purpose-built white dome, worth an afternoon on its own for anyone drawn to the deeper archaeology behind the city’s living present.
“In Jerusalem, history isn’t behind glass; it’s the pavement you’re standing on.”
Chapter Two
Desert and sea
Masada, Herod’s clifftop fortress above the Dead Sea, is best climbed before dawn via the Snake Path, arriving at the summit as the sun rises over Jordan’s mountains across the water. Afterward, floating in the Dead Sea itself is a genuinely odd sensation — the water so dense with minerals that lying flat requires no effort at all, and the mineral mud along the shore is worth the mess. Tel Aviv, by contrast, runs entirely on beach time and café culture, its White City district holding the largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings anywhere in the world. Further south, Eilat’s Red Sea coral reefs offer some of the most accessible diving in the region.
The Short List
Do not miss in Israel
At a glance
Israel in numbers
- Capital
- Jerusalem
- Language
- Hebrew and Arabic
- Currency
- Israeli new shekel
- Best time
- April to May and September to November, mild and dry
Did you know
The Dead Sea’s surface sits more than 400 metres below sea level, the lowest point on land anywhere on earth.