Murals, Monuments, Orchards And Ancient Villages: Exploring Jerusalem’s Hidden Corners

Israel’s capital is renowned for its historical sites, but the city has much to offer travelers willing to go the extra mile.

World-renowned Armenian artist Marie Balian spent months preparing an original mural as a gift for the people of Jerusalem. Six meters tall and four meters wide, her fabulous artwork contains close to 1,000 colored tiles.

Balian’s unique method involved sketching in charcoal on the tiles, designing and painting them and then burning them in the oven. Afterwards, each was fit into the whole picture.

The mural offers a view of heaven and earth separated by a palm tree, and features a peacock, a deer eating leaves from a lemon tree, a cypress waving in the wind and fish jumping out of the water. No people appear in the mural, which gives off a wonderful aura of serenity.

Balian’s masterpieces are exhibited all over the world — from the Eretz Israel Museum of Tel Aviv to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. But when she proudly presented her creation to Jerusalem’s mayor, Balian probably expected it to be shown in a major municipal spot. Instead, it ended up on a whitewashed exterior wall along a run-down, nondescript downtown street (Koresh Street) that few people bother to visit.

Tel Aviv is flush with out-of-the-way or remarkable spots, but so is Jerusalem. In fact, while Balian’s mural is one of the Holy City’s most splendid features, it belongs to dozens of off-the-beaten-path highlights that Israelis call pinot or “corners”.

 

Read the full article over at The Times of Israel