Jerusalem ranked among top 10 cities in world

In massive online poll launched by popular travel site Trip Advisor, city of David chosen one of world's top attractive traveling destinations - before London, Istanbul and Venice. Capital described as having 'profound cultural and historical significance'

Omer Shachnai|Published: 10.08.10 , 14:33

Now it's official: The city of Jerusalem has been ranked as one of the world's top 10 attractive traveling destinations.

In a massive online poll launched by the popular travel site Trip Advisor, the city of David was chosen above London, Istanbul and even Venice. In addition, the capital of Israel was righteously described as having "profound cultural and historical significance."

Jerusalem was ranked seventh in the category of the world's best culture and sightseeing destinations. The traveling site's readers ranked the Italian city of Florence, located in the heart of Tuscany, first; Florence contains many famous historical and cultural landmarks including some of the world's most important art galleries. Following Florence, the readers chose Washington DC for second place, followed by another Italian city – Rome – and then Paris, the city of lights.

The site added that in order to enjoy Jerusalem's "profound cultural and historical significance," you don't have to be a pilgrim or a religious zealot – on the contrary, anyone can enjoy the city's beautiful sights and attractions.

“Plan on seeing the major sights," the website suggests, "but also leave plenty of time to walk through the streets and simply immerse yourself in the daily life of such an ancient and revered place.”

Jerusalem. Beautiful sights and attractions (Photo: Ron Peled)

Trip Advisor is a free website that provides extensive and in depth travel information on destinations all around the globe. Site users can find reader reviews, travel forums and tips. Readers of the site provide most of the content under the consumer generated content model. For the full top 10 list you can head over to Trip Advisor. Other poll categories include the top 10 emerging, family and food and wine destinations.

In July, the prestigious magazine National Geographic ranked Tel Aviv as one of the world's top 10 beach cities, alongside Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, Nice (on the French Riviera) and Cape Town.

In addition, the Dead Sea has reached the finals (is among the 14 finalists) in a vote on the world's seven natural wonders. The Dead Sea, which is the lowest point in the world, will compete against phenomena such as the Amazon River, the Galapagos Islands, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef and more in the Internet poll. Final results are due in 2011, by which time the organizers expect one billion people will have voted online.