Steve Cole, age 13, of Bessemer. Ala., for his question:
HOW OLD IS THE CITY OF JERUSALEM?
Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel, is a holy city for Jews. Christians and Muslims The prehistoric beginnings of what is now Jerusalem date back more than 4,000 years About 1000 B.C., King David captured it from a people called the Jebusites and made it the capital of the united Israelite tribes.
King Solomon, David's son, built a magnificent temple there as well as palaces.
By 900 B.C., the kingdom had split in two. Jerusalem remained the capital of Judah, the southern kingdom. But then in 587 B.C. the Babylonians conquered all of Judah and took many Jews to Babylonia as captives. King Cyrus of Persia allowed allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem after he conquered Babylonia in 538 B.C.
Through the centuries, control of Jerusalem changed many times. By A.D. 6, Romans ruled the area A major revolt began in A.D 66 and the Jews seized control of Jerusalem and held it until A.D. 70. That year the Romans burned down the temple, leaving only the western wall, which is still standing. Much of the city also lay in ruins.
The Jews recaptured Jerusalem in 132, but the Romans drove them out three years later. The city was renamed Aelia Capitolina and Jews were prohibited from even visiting the city.
By the 200s the ban against Jews was no longer strictly enforced. During the 300s Emperor Constantine I made Christianity the state religion of the Roman empire and he gave the city its old name again.
In 395, the city became part of the Byzantine Empire. During the 900s and 100s a number of Muslim groups fought for control of Jerusalem. In 1099, a military expedition of European Christians called crusaders captured the city The Muslims recaptured the city in 1187 but the Ottoman Turks took control in 1517.
In December 1917 during World War I, British troops captured Jerusalem from the Turks. A month earlier, the British government had issued the Balfour Declaration, which supported the idea of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine.
In 1920, the victorious Allies made Palestine a mandated territory to be governed by Great Britain in preparation for self government.
Jewish immigration to Jerusalem increased during the 1920s and 1930s as the Zionist movement gained strength. The city's suburbs grew rapidly.
In May, 1948, British control ended and the state of Israel was established in spite of Arab opposition. Jerusalem was divided between Israel and the neighboring Arab country of Jordan. Israel held West Jerusalem and Jordan controlled East Jerusalem.
Israel won East Jerusalem in the brief Arab Israel war in 1967 and combined it with the western zone.