The King David Hotel

The King David Hotel is a 5-star hotel in Jerusalem. Opened in 1931, the hotel was built with locally quarried pink limestone and was founded by Ezra Mosseri, a wealthy Egyptian Jewish banker. It is located on King David Street in the centre of Jerusalem, overlooking the Old City and Mount Zion. The hotel has played an important role in the history of Jerusalem, from the struggle for Israeli statehood, through Independence War, division of Jerusalem, and the reunification, to this day. Among other things the hotel was known for being the scene of a bombing in 1946 during a terrorist attack led by the Zionist paramilitary group Irgun, and for its frequent hosting of heads of state, dignitaries, and other personalities during their visits to Jerusalem. The hotel is owned and operated by the Dan Hotels group. The design for the hotel was commissioned from a Swiss architect, Emile Vogt, with the actual construction supervised by Jerusalem architect Benjamin Chaiken. According to Hebrew University professor Ruth Kark, Vogt's approach was typical of European architects who, commissioned to design buildings in Jerusalem, incorporated "Eastern-style domes, arches, various kinds of different-colored stone, and interior decorations with religious symbo;s and inscriptions," in buildings whose strict symmetry marks them indelibly as European. The public rooms were decorated by G. G. Hufschmid in motifs taken from Assyrian, Hittite, Phoenician and Muslim buildings in an effort to evoke a "Biblical" style. Hufschmid, also Swiss, stated that his intention was "to evoke by reminiscence the ancient Semitic style and the ambiance of the glorious period of King David." Today, the King David Hotel is part of the Dan Hotel Chain, and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World, and continues to accommodate foreign heads of state and diplomats visiting Israel. Among the hotel's more famous guests are King George V; Jordan’s King Hussein; U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump; British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Charles, Prince of Wales; Elizabeth Taylor; Richard Dreyfus; Richard Gere; Madonna; and Hillary Clinton.