The Old City is the center for three religions and contains some its holiest sites, The Dome of the rock, The Western Wall, and the tomb of Jesus in the Church of the holy Sepulchre. It is also the site of some disturbing violence, which is hard to forget when you are walking these hallowed streets.
If you are regious, then the Holy City is a must. To pray at the Western Wall and feel all the tears that were shed there, to climb to the Dome of the Rock where tens of thousands gather for Ramadan, and scramble into the chamber where Christ might have been buried, can only happen in the Old City.
Yet there are constant reminders that the city is fraught with tension between the three religions. Soldiers carrying weapons in this holy environment seem out of place. It is a city of contradictions: holy yet profane, peaceful yet prone to violence, spiritual yet secular. The air is mesmerizing and the tranquility can overwhelm. It is a place like no other. It is the center of the universe.