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The New Imperial Hotel
One of the oldest hotels in Palestine the New Imperial Hotel is attractively located in front of the Cita- del as you enter the Old City of Jerusalem from its northern Jaffa Gate. This is one of the busiest en- trances to the Old City. The Arabic name for it is Bab el Khalil (Gate of the Friend) in reference to Abraham, forefather of both Jews and Moslems and "the Friend of God" (Isa. 41:8).
The wall bears the following inscription in Arabic: "there is no God but Allah and Abraham is the Friend of Allah." The Moslem Caliph Omar Ibn Al Khattab entered Jerusalem from this gate after its capture in AD 638. Also, this is the gate used by General Allenby, commander of the British forces which cap- tured Jerusalem during World War One, to enter Jerusalem heading a victory parade in December 1917.
In the area where you now find the New Imperial Hotel and beyond it there were fields where wheat grew in the winter. In the summer, the empty fields became dumping grounds for carcasses of donkeys, camels and horses. The Turkish authorities moved this "cemetery" outside the wall and the Grand New Hotel was built in its place in 1884. Travelers began to write of the new hotel with grand facilities inside Jaffa Gate when it first opened. The walls are of a light red variation of the Jerusalem Stone. The Greek Orthodox Church owns the build- ing.
When it was under construction, a pool known as Bathsheba was discovered. Its name was given based on the assumption that Uriah's wife was bathing here when seen by David. It is now a cistern underneath the hotel. Roman tiles of the Tenth Legion and part of the shaft of a column bearing a votive inscription in honor of the Augustan Legate, Marcus Julius Maximus, erected by the Tenth Legion were also discovered. The column now forms the pedestal of a street lamp; a bomb scalped it in 1948. In the late 1940s it became known as Morcos Hotel.
Kaiser Wilhelm II stayed here when he visited Palestine in 1898. The wall between the gate and the Citadel was torn down and the moat filled by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II in order to permit the Kaiser and his suite to ride into the city. In the 1950s and 60s it had an elegant ballroom in which many wed- dings were held. Sitting on the hotel's balcony overlooking Omar Ibn Al Khattab Square one observes below an ever-changing mosaic of people, images, colors, and sounds.
Its top offers an enchanting panoramic view of Jerusalem. If you step onto the hotel's roof, you will see important sites such as Mount Scopus, Mount of Olives, Mount Zion, Dome of the Rock, dome of the Church of the holy Sepulchre, the Hebrew University, the bell tower of the Church of the Redeemer, King David Hotel, and the garden of King David Citadel.