But in the past few years, two neighbourhoods to the north and south of Old Jerusalem have undergone a spate of new development to keep up with tourist demand, revealing pockets of a modernised city amid otherwise historical sites.
But much remains to be achieved for the conservation of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Host Leone Lakhani strolls along the ramparts of the wall surrounding the old city of Jerusalem, a place of enormous spiritual and cultural significance for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.
Al-Aqsa mosque is in the heart of Jerusalem's old city, alongside sites also considered amongst the holiest by Jews and Christians.
Benedict began the day with a busy morning in Jerusalem's Old City, including meeting the patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches.
Police said the incident happened outside the Damascus Gate entrance of Jerusalem's Old City last week, when about 80 Palestinians were having a snowball fight.
Shrugging off blunt criticism on this score from Mrs Clinton, Mr Netanyahu earlier this year approved a Jewish building project in the heart of a Palestinian district close to Jerusalem's old city.
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As the local and international press corps converged on Jerusalem's Old City to cover the Arab riots at the Temple Mount two weeks ago, little mention was made of the fact that Jerusalem was not the only flashpoint.
From the time of his betrothal to Mary until the finding of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, he is there at every moment with loving care.
Ruti Cohen(ph) sits at a large corner table in the Jerusalem Gate Hotel as her sons, six-year-old quadruplets, pick at their food.
The prisoner, 64-year-old Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, was serving a life sentence for a 2002 foiled bombing of a busy Jerusalem cafe.
As Christmas approaches, her 17-year-old son Sari checks daily for the arrival of his permit to travel 20 minutes' drive to East Jerusalem to see his sister on Christmas Eve.
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"That a majority of American Jews have never been to Israel, and that those who have are, for the most part, infrequent visitors, is an old and sad story, " the AJC's media director, Kenneth Bandler, wrote in The Jerusalem Post.
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