Jerusalem

The capital of Israel and Judah from David onward, set on a limestone ridge in the central highlands at about eight hundred meters above sea level. The Second Temple stood here in the first century, surrounded by the colossal Herodian platform whose retaining walls still rise above the old city. The book of Acts opens in Jerusalem and returns to it repeatedly: the Pentecost crowds in the temple courts, the Hellenistic Jewish quarter where Stephen disputes in the synagogues of the Freedmen, the Sanhedrin chamber where he is tried, and the stoning ground outside the city wall where he becomes the first Christian martyr.