December 2017 Challenge: Old Jerusalem

[Azélor]

When Diamond announced the contest, it was the only thing I could think off.
I'm not sure if that's what he secretly intended or just a coincidence. (Insert illuminati conspiracy here)
I'm not a religious person and I actually don't know much about the city layout before starting.
I hope I will not offend anyone but if I do it's unintentional.
This is not about politics but the city and the people living there.

So, the city of Jerusalem is the holy city for three religions : Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
People of different religions and cultures have lived there side by side for centuries.
It is a very diverse and chaotic city compered to most medieval cities still standing (in my opinion).

I was browsing the street of the old city with Google street views: I came across a Russian Orthodox church with a Cyrillic sign, then there was a board written in German, a shop with Arabic lettering and another was in Hebrew not too far from there. All that in just a small area of the city. Also, there are vendors everywhere...

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My entry will be to (try) to make an artistic version of the Old city of Jerusalem, including some of the surroundings to fill the gaps.
It will be a black and white map with no shadows (similar to the style of my Guild city districts). I might add these later after the challenge, maybe.
it is likely not going to be identical to the real city (for the street brickwork and rooftops). I'll do something that is randomized while respecting the general architecture present in the city.

I originally planned to map an older version of the city but the references I'm using are all modern, so it's going to be modern Jerusalem.
Since Google map is blurred here, yet I can look at Pyongyang just fine, I am using these two reference:

For the building layout, it's from National Geographic : https://www.nationalgeographic.org/h...-old-city-map/
I just found that one, the other I was using til now was at lower resolution.

And this one for the topography: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv...jerusalem.zoom

This is what I have so far. it is a redo of the previous topographic map with each colour representing 5m in altitude. I'm not sure I will use it but it look pretty.
it also have most of the buildings placed on it. Most of the landmarks and the walls aren't there yet.

[Falconius]

Nice. I should say that Jerusalem, changes a LOT. 1996 is super outdated, even for the old city (which admittedly doesn't change nearly as much, at least not since the Jewish quarter was rebuilt after being razed by the fleeing Jordanians). I was here in 1999-2001 and when I moved back ten years later it was a totally different city. But there are also some changes to the old city, such as the western wall plaza and the southern wall excavations, as well as some restored buildings such as the Hurva synagogue. Part of the problem with mapping the city is a lot of the roadways or paths are covered, especially in the Arab Quarter, many buildings extend right over the road ways and in some places there are multiple layers of road ways (such Cardo street). And of course there also a bunch of paths over the roofs. Immediately boarding the old city all those neighborhoods have undergone many changes, Mamilla, a mall made from the old neighborhood that was there, was built right out side Jaffa gate, there are a bunch of excavations right near the gate, and a pedestrian bridge going over the road (the road was also sunk and now leads also into a tunnel and that intersection). That entire side of the city wall has parks now. To the north they put in the light rail and limited the road way on the left side of that map, and the neighborhood over on the right I don't think it looks like that anymore, they made a park in front of that Herods gate I think (and maybe even moved the road a bit? I can't recall). To the south City of David is now a big excavated archaeological park, and around that that neighborhood is much more developed and crowded.

Anyways in short, it's complicated to tackle, and I wish you the best of luck .

[Azélor]

Well I needed a good map and this one seemed like the best I could find.

Yes I got it that it's crowded the minute I started looking at the streets. I might include some of these structures or whatever it's called but not everywhere.
As for the buildings covering roads, the map has quite a few already, maybe some are missing.
There are a lot of lines crossing streets, I think these are buttresses? I've seen a couple. I didn't know common buildings needed them.

What do you mean by multiple layers of road? You mean like a tunnel underneath?

[- JO -]

Good call Azelor ! It’s good to see you on the challenge !
Jérusalem sure is the right place for the given theme !

[Falconius]

Lines crossing streets? I don't know what I'm looking for I don't see that. The lines I see there represent barriers of some sort, mostly walls, or level changes (ie parapets). For instance that line around the Tower of David represents the edge of a pit that is maybe 6-7 meters deep between the street and the tower wall. They might also account for walls with gates in them? It actually looks like they left out the buildings built over streets. There is one in the Armenian Quarter right between the U and the A that orange building goes over the road and that is a tunnel in the building, like the one in Red just south of there. Another is I think that road Muristan as it comes off the bazzar/shuk, its a big gate and tunnel with buildings over it (At least I think it's that road, it's one of those three coming off that street there). By multiple levels of road I mean there are literally roads built over one another, I'm not sure if this is a unique case to the one I'm thinking of, or if there are other areas like that. (I'm pretty sure there are others though now that I think of it). For instance there is a path to go up to the roofs and you can just walk over the shuk and go to the other side of the city that way. Anyways the one I'm thinking of is located between what is labeled Habad and Jewish quarter. There is a road that runs under those buildings starting from that pit (which is also like 5ish meters deep) where the "s" is from Sidma Omer Mosque label, you can see it continue as it runs between the Lutheran Hostel label between the two words and joins up with the shuk, the beginning part of that road has two levels, and as you can see it has those two roads next to it which are also on a different levels, but honestly I may just be getting them confused at this point . Unfortunately I'm not as familiar with the old city enough to actually point out more of these things but there are a lot more than the map shows. The area near Davids Tomb is my most recent discovery, there are basically paths through that building that exit it every which way.

[Ilanthar]

It seems to me you're going for another very detailed one, Azelor!

[Greg]

You've been making some real crackers recently, Azelor, so looking forwards to this one!

[Azélor]

This was probably too ambitious and the fact that it could turn out as something pretty far from reality is not motivating me.
For example, the building layout is much more complex that what I'm used to.

[Mouse]

Don't give up, Azelor.

Maybe map a small portion of the city, rather than the entire extent?

[- JO -]

As Mouse said, you could concentrate on the hottest point of Jerusalem ? The wall, the mosque and a church ?
Your temple in your section of guild city is very beautiful, you could manage to do the same with 3 smaller buildings ?