Bus Number 99 Shows
Jerusalem's Diversity
DAVID LANDAU
Special to The Jewish News
erusalem — One of the
best ways to start a
visit to Jerusalem is on
the Number 99 bus.
A one-and-a-half-hour ride
on the Egged Bus Company's
Jerusalem Circular Line
gives the visitor a glimpse of
most of the major tourist sites
in the city.
From the bus depot just out-
side Jaffa Gate, the 99 swings
around the walls of the Old
City and northward to the
crossroads, once the site of the
Mandelbaum Gate — the on-
ly checkpoint between Israeli
and Jordanian Jerusalem
before 1967.
The visitor can sense what
life was like in those days, as
the English-speaking driver
j
The visitor can
sense what life
was like before
1967.
points out the tiny protective
windows in the tenements on
Shmuel Hanavi Road that
once skirted the border.
For about $1.50, you can
join the route at any of its 34
stops and ride the air-
conditioned coach around
east and west Jerusalem.
The bus passes Ammuni-
tion Hill — site of one of the
fiercest battles for control of
Jerusalem in the Six-Day
War — and climbs Mount
Scopus to the Hebrew Univer-
sity campus.
From there one can see
breathtaking views over the
Judean Desert toward the
Dead Sea to the east, and old
and new Jerusalem to the
west.
If you prefer to see the
capital at a more leisurely
pace, one- and two-day tickets
are available, allowing the
visitor to explore sites along
the way and rejoin the 99
later that day or the next.
The bus continues to the
Mount of. Olives for yet
another spectacular view of
the Old City's walls and dom-
ed mosques, and then
descends into the Kidron
Valley past the Second
Temple-period tombs of Ab-
salom and Zecharia, ex-
quisitely carved out of the
rock.
This is the traditional
burial area for Jerusalem,
with the Jewish cemetery on
the slopes of the Mount of
Olives and the Moslem graves
on the other side of the valley
near the Old City's east walls.
From here one can see the
churches of Gethsemane --
the bronzed onion domes of
the Russian Mary Magdalene
Church and the colorful
mural on the lintel of the
Church of All Nations.
The bus passes all the gates
of the Old City, including St.
Stephen's Gate in the eastern
wall through which Israeli
paratroopers made their
assault on the Old City in
1967.
The second half of the trip
focuses on newer west
Jerusalem — the city's center
and further west to the major
government buildings like
the Knesset, the Prime
Minister's Office and the
battleship-like edifice of the
Bank of Israel.
The 99 then speeds off to
the western edge of the
capital, to Mount Herzl and
the Yad Vashem Holocaust
Memorial, before returning
through residential neighbor-
hoods of diverse character
from the down-at-heel
Katamonim to affluent
Talbiyeh.
Noticeable throughout the
western half of the tour are
tree-lined roads, parks,
flowers blooming in road
islands and on balconies, and
the numerous massive
sculptures scattered through
the city, from the massive
Alexander Calder red steel
girders on Mount Herzl to the
Nikki de Saint Phalle three-
tongued monster kiddies'
slide in Kiryat Hayovel.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEWS I'mm""
Extradition
Is Applauded
Washington (JTA) — The
State Department welcomed
a Greek court's decision to
allow the extradition to the
United States of a Palestinian
accused of responsibility for
two fatal airplane bombings.
State Department
spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley
said the decision by the courts
in Athens was the "first step"
in extraditing Mohammed
Rashid, a 39-year-old member
of the Palestine Liberation
Organization.
Rashid is wanted in the
United States in connection
with the bombing of a TWA
airliner over Greece in 1986,
in which three people were
killed, and the bombing of a
Pan Am jetliner over Hawaii
in 1982, which killed a child.
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