The two engineers who planned the restoration of the Old City Walls in 1538 made a fatal mistake: they neglected to include Mt. Zion and King David’s tomb inside the enclosure. It is said that the Turkish Sultan who ordered the construction was so enraged that he had the two put to death. The Sultan understood that Mt. Zion is such an integral part of the city, and has figured prominently in Jerusalem’s ancient and modern history.

Mt. Zion is mentioned countless times in the Bible, sometimes in poetic terms. "Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy Mountain. It is beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth. Like the utmost heights of Zaphon is Mt. Zion, the city of the Great King" [Psalms 48: 1-2].

Near to David’s tomb is a building that recalls the place, Jesus partook of the Last Supper called the Coenaculum, a second-floor room on Mt. Zion that his disciples prepared for the meal that many believed was the Passover Seder [Matthew 26:26-28]. Others recall this as the site of the Pentecost though the narrative does not specify the exact location when the Spirit came upon the Apostles [Acts 2:2-4]. After his arrest by the Romans, Jesus was held at the house of Caiaphas the High Priest in an affluent neighborhood on Mt. Zion.

According to the Bible, David "rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David" [1 Kings 2:10). Yet by the 12^th century, when world traveler Rabbi Benjamin Tudela visited Jerusalem, Mt. Zion had been identified as the site of King David’s Tomb. Though biblical scholars agree that David was buried on the slope below, Jews - and Moslems, who also revere King David - make pilgrimages to the tomb and pray at the site.

Two exquisite churches are located on Mt. Zion. Near the Coenaculum, the Dormition Abbey stands on the site where the Virgin Mary fell into eternal sleep. Across the road, on the eastern slopes of the Mountain, the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu recalls Peter’s failure at the denial of the Lord Jesus in the house of Caiaphas. Nearby, Oscar Schindler, who saved Jews in the Holocaust, is buried on Mt. Zion.