Haas Promenade (Tayelet): The Best View of Jerusalem

The Haas Promenade, known locally as the Tayelet, stretches along the ridge of Armon HaNatziv in southern Jerusalem, offering what many consider the finest panoramic view of the holy city available anywhere. Opened in 1987 and designed by the celebrated Israeli landscape architect Lawrence Halprin in collaboration with Shlomo Aronson, the promenade was named in honor of Walter and Elise Haas, philanthropists from San Francisco whose generosity helped bring this landmark public space to life. From a single vantage point, visitors look out across centuries of history laid out like a living map: ancient walls, golden domes, church towers, and the timeless ridgelines of the Judean Desert beyond.

The Panoramic View: Jerusalem Spread Before You

Standing at the promenade’s main terrace, the view unfolds from left to right in a sweeping arc that encompasses some of the most significant landmarks in the world. To the northeast, Mount Scopus rises with the Hebrew University campus visible on its crest and the distinctive tower of the Augusta Victoria Hospital and Church standing sentinel on the ridge. Moving right, the Mount of Olives dominates the skyline, its slopes covered by the world’s oldest continuously used Jewish cemetery, punctuated by the golden domes of the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene and the distinctive silhouette of the Chapel of the Ascension.

The Old City walls trace their ancient line below, framing the Temple Mount where the gleaming Dome of the Rock and the silver-domed Al-Aqsa Mosque anchor the entire composition. The Jewish Quarter’s rooftops cluster to the south of the Temple Mount, while Mount Zion with its landmark Dormition Abbey closes the southern edge of the Old City panorama. On a clear day, the silver surface of the Dead Sea shimmers in the distance to the east, with the mountains of Jordan rising in blue silhouette beyond. Toward the south, the hilltop town of Bethlehem is visible on the horizon.

The Hill of Evil Counsel: Christian Tradition and Ancient Memory

The ridge on which the promenade stands carries a name heavy with biblical resonance. In Christian tradition, this hill is known as the Hill of Evil Counsel, from the Latin Mons Malis Consilii, a designation rooted in the Gospel accounts of the Passion. Tradition holds that somewhere on this commanding ridge, the high priest Caiaphas maintained a country estate, and it is here that the plot to arrest Jesus is believed to have been conceived among the religious authorities of Jerusalem. The tradition is ancient, recorded by Byzantine-era pilgrims who traveled to the site long before the promenade existed. Below the ridge, in the deep cleft of the Hinnom Valley, lies the site known as Akeldama, the Field of Blood, associated in the Gospel accounts with the fate of Judas Iscariot. A monastery and ancient burial caves mark the site today, visible from the promenade’s lower terraces. Visitors with an interest in New Testament geography will find this hillside one of the most layered and evocative spots in all of Jerusalem, where landscape and scripture intersect in ways that have drawn pilgrims for nearly two millennia.

The British High Commissioner’s Palace: Armon HaNatziv

Presiding over the ridge from its highest point is one of Jerusalem’s most architecturally distinguished buildings: the former seat of British Mandate government, designed by architect Austen Harrison and completed in the early 1930s. Known officially as Government House and to Jerusalemites as Armon HaNatziv, the Commissioner’s Palace, it was built to embody the authority and permanence of British rule, blending classical proportions with local stone and Arabesque architectural influences into a structure of considerable elegance. The building commanded this hilltop for a strategic reason: from here, the High Commissioner could look out over the entire city and surrounding region. After the British departure in 1948 and the subsequent armistice arrangements, the building and its grounds became the headquarters of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), a function it continues to serve today. The building itself is not open to the public, and its grounds remain UN-administered territory, but its presence along the ridge gives the promenade a distinctive historical backdrop and its formal Hebrew name, Armon HaNatziv, to the entire neighborhood.

The Sherover Walkway and Goldman Promenade: A Continuous Landscape

The Haas Promenade does not stand alone. It forms one section of a continuous, carefully landscaped walking route that extends for approximately two kilometers along the ridge and slopes above the Hinnom Valley. To the north and west, it connects seamlessly with the Sherover Walkway and the Goldman Promenade, sometimes called the Gabriel Promenade or Tayelet Goldman, creating a linked chain of gardens, terraces, viewpoints, and shaded paths that together constitute one of Jerusalem’s great urban green spaces. All three sections were designed with the same philosophy: native plantings, Jerusalem limestone paving, and unobstructed sight lines toward the Old City. The path descends gently toward the valley, offering changing perspectives on the city walls and Silwan as it goes. Families, joggers, students, and tourists share the walkway throughout the day, and the southern section near the Haas Promenade is particularly popular in the late afternoon, when the setting sun bathes the Old City in warm golden light and the Dome of the Rock glows against the deepening sky. The walk between the Sherover Walkway and the Haas Promenade makes for an unhurried and rewarding itinerary in its own right.

Visit with Hoshen Tours

The Haas Promenade offers the widest and most complete panorama of Jerusalem, stretching from the Mount of Olives to Mount Zion and the Old City walls. Hoshen Tours uses this viewpoint to orient visitors before diving into the city below, pointing out the Valley of Hinnom in the foreground and the Mount of Olives across the valley. The promenade connects well with visits to the German Colony and First Station nearby in southern Jerusalem.