Just outside the city walls you will find Mount Zion, which is home to many churches and monasteries, the most prominent of which are a cloister dating back to the time of the Crusaders, where King David’s tomb can be found, and the impressive Dormition Church

Though it is located outside the city walls, Mount Zion is an integral part of the Old City and more ancient walls surrounding the city included it within. Mount Zion has great significance in both the Jewish and Christian tradition.

King David’s Tomb

According to Jewish tradition, the top of Mount Zion is King David’s site of burial. The tomb itself is a Roman Sarcophagus located in the basement of the Christian cloister built around 900 AD. Through the years, the Christian faith attributed various significances to the mount and it is considered the place where the Last Supper took place, which lead to the establishment of a great cloister. The tomb of King David is located in a room called the room of the Last Supper.
Open Sat-Thu 8:00-17:00

The Dormition Church

In the 19th century, it was claimed that Mount Zion was also the place where the Virgin Mary took her final sleep before dying and rising to heaven. This idea led to the building of the Domrition Church (The Church of Sleep). Constructed in the 19th century by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the rounded structure is considered among the most beautiful in Israel and includes four towers. The church may have been built in the 19th century, but it was built on the foundations of more ancient churches whose ruins are still visible in the church underground basement. The Dormition Abbey, inhabited by the Benedictine monks that serve the church, is known today as the Hagia Maria Sion Abbey, but the church itself has retained its original name.

The Chamber of the Holocaust

Located in an ancient house on Mount Zion and run by a Yeshiva, the Chamber of the Holocaust is a small religious-orthodox museum that focuses on the Jewish Holocaust and displays religious and daily artifacts belonging to Jews who died in the Holocaust. Note that the museum is quite rundown and the display is not in very good condition.
Ma’aleh Hashalom
Tel: 02-6715105
Open Sun-Thu 9:00-15:45
Entrance fee: NIS 6-12