Jerusalem is one of the oldest continuously populated cities on earth. The Canaanite Phoenician “city of peace”, Urushalim, evolved into Jerusalem after it was over run by King David around the year 1000 BCE.

Living in Jerusalem has always been a bit of a risk. The ancient Babylonians, Egyptians and Persians all cast lusty eyes on Jerusalem’s riches. In the seventh century, Moslems conquered the “Holy Land” along with its city sacred to three faiths.

During the Crusades, Jerusalem changed hands frequently. After the knights of the First Crusade succeeded in breaking through Jerusalem’s walls, they killed nearly everyone within them, regardless of religion, killing as many as 40,000.

Today, the Israeli and Palestinian states lay claim to parts of the city and Jerusalem’s bloody, violent history continues.

Since 1980, Jerusalem has been the base of the Israeli government, although all foreign diplomatic missions are based in Tel Aviv in accordance with a United Nations mandate.

Three major religions live together in Jerusalem, which naturally leads to a multiplicity of points of view. Each religious group is split and subdivided into factions and sects. There are as many as a dozen different Christian splinter groups, the largest of which is the Greek Orthodox community. This diversity of belief should contribute to Jerusalem’s attraction, but, in reality, it too often leads to strife and bloddshed. The incredible concentration of sacred sites draw visitors, religious or not, from all over the world.

For Jews and Christians alike, Jerusalem is the Holy City and the birth place of their faiths. For Moslems, Jerusalem is the third holiest city after Mecca and Medina. It was the destination of Mohammed’s miraculous trip to and from Mecca in a single night. Its Temple Mount is the place from which Mohammed ascended to, and returned from, heaven.

Three architectural styles
The Old City of Jerusalem was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. It is split into four districts. The Armenian Quarter occupies the south-west, the Christian Quarter, the north-west, the Jewish Quarter, the south-east and the Moslem Quarter, the north-east.

The wall around the Old City was built on the order of the Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century.

Jerusalem’s treasures are so many that only a handful can be mentioned here. The most visited site is probably the Wailing Wall, a 400-metre-long section of the retaining wall of the terrace on top of the Temple Mount where Herod the Great built his great Jewish temple.

This temple was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE. Important pilgrimage sites for Christians include the Via Dolorosa, the name of the path Christ walked on his way to the crucifixion, and the fourth-century Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

One of the most grand Islamic monuments is the Dome of the Rock. Erected on the Temple Mount over the place from which the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven, the Dome of the Rock is not a mosque. The remarkable Al-Aqsa Congregational Mosque, one of the largest and oldest in the world, is located nearby, also on top of the terrace of the destroyed Jewish temple.

More than a lookout
The Mount of Olives (Hebrew: Har Ha-Zetim) is a famous hill on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem. The ridge of hills is within sight of the Old City. The Temple Mount is actually higher than the Mount of Olives, which is just 809 metres above sea level. The Mount of Olives has great significance for all three major religions.

According to the Jewish faith, the Messiah will cross the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem before the Last Judgment takes place in the Kidron Valley. Moslems also believe the Final Judgment will take place there. For Christians, the Mount of Olives is inextricably linked to the life and death of Jesus. Today it plays a more mundane role for many tourists, because its lookout deck affords an incredible view of Old Jerusalem.

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Vegetables are essential to the human diet. The latest recommendation from nutritionists is a minimum of five cups of vegetables per day. The truth is we can get the majority of our daily vitamin content from vegetables.

We need to ensure that how we prepare them does not wash away vitamin contents and benefits of consumption.

Cooking vegetables can be complicated. Over cooking can make vegetables bland and mushy. My belief is that vegetables should not be boiled. Boling not only robs us of vitamin content, it is the main culprit in turning vegetables to a lifeless, tasteless mass.

If we cannot boil, what do we do?

Steaming vegetables is always a good choice. This will leave vegetables full of colour and texture. They will be crisp and colorful. It will also not deplete the vegetables of their vitamin content.

It is a speedy way of cooking too. By rule of thumb, vegetables will only need a few minutes in the steam. In some cases you may be able to steam your vegetables on the table and immediately serve them up.

For those who do not have purpose made vegetable steamers, an easy steamer can be fashioned out a of pot, a metal colander, and a pot lid.

Place a small amount of water in the bottom of the pot. Fit the metal colander into the pot. Start to boil the water. You will begin the see the steam rise. Place your vegetables into the metal colander and place the pot lid over the metal colander and pot. This collection of kitchen items will allow you to steam vegetables as good as any fancy store bought steamer.

Another good option is to cook your vegetables in a wok. The secret to the wok is that it cooks quickly at a very high temperature. Vegetables retain their flavors, textures, and colors with small amount of nutrient loss.

My favorite wok recipe for vegetables is to cook broccoli, carrots, bok choy, and snow peas in a very light garlic sauce. The vegetables remain crisp and the garlic adds just the right amount of flavour. This combination can be served with any cut of meat including chicken, beef, pork, lamb or fish.

I hope you will see that secret to cooking vegetables is not to over cook. Vegetables need to remain crisp and retain their texture. As you learn different tricks to bringing your vegetables to life, these will become the most requested dishes on your dinner table.

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