Mahane Yehuda Market

Mahane Yehuda is where Jerusalem shops and, increasingly, where it eats and drinks. Two main lanes and a web of alleys hold a couple of hundred stalls piled with fruit and vegetables, olives, pickles, dried fruit and nuts, sacks of spices and za'atar, whole halva in enormous wheels cut to order, fish, cheeses and bakeries turning out rugelach and burekas. It is loudest and fullest on a Friday morning as the city stocks up before the Sabbath, when the shouting of prices and the crush of trolleys is a spectacle in itself. In the past decade the market has grown a second life: as the produce stalls shut in the evening, their painted shutters reveal a long outdoor gallery of murals, and the alleys fill with small bars and restaurants that run late into the night, so the same lanes serve completely different crowds by day and dark.

History

The neighbourhood of Mahane Yehuda was founded in 1887 on the north side of Jaffa Road by three business partners, among them Johannes Frutiger, a German Protestant who owned the largest bank in Ottoman Palestine (Wikipedia, Mahane Yehuda Market).

The main sights

• The produce and spice stalls - the heart of the market, at their fullest on Friday morning.
• Halva and rugelach - the wheels of halva cut to order and the famous pastries.
• The painted shutters - the mural gallery revealed when the day stalls close.
• The evening bars - the night-time life in the same alleys after dark.

When to go

Friday morning is the classic and most intense time, though also the most crowded; the market winds down early on Friday afternoon and closes for the Sabbath until Saturday evening. Weekday mornings are calmer for shopping, and evenings from Sunday to Thursday for the bar scene.

Good to know

It closes for the Sabbath, from Friday afternoon until Saturday night, which catches out visitors who arrive on a Saturday to find the shutters down. Friday morning is genuinely crowded, with trolleys and elbows, and it is not a relaxed browse. Prices for tourists at some stalls are higher than for regulars, and the eating side has become fashionable and pricier than the market's origins suggest.

Nearby

The Old City is a short light-rail ride east; the Israel Museum and the city centre are close.

Key facts