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Motza, Jerusalem — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Motza is a neighbourhood on the western edge of Jerusalem, set in the Judaean Mountains above the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.
About Motza
Where to stay in Motza
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Beds are thin on this ridge. Motza sits down the slope from the built-up western neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, so most visitors book in the city proper and drive out along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway or the winding mountain road that climbs to Har Nof. The pull is the quiet.
If you want pine slopes and the Tel Motza temple site within a short walk rather than a hotel lobby, base yourself on this western fringe and treat the memorial ridge around Yad Vashem as the way back in.
About Motza
What are the main landmarks in Motza?
Two names carry this ground. Tel Motza temple marks an excavated temple site on the slope below the houses, and Beit Yelin keeps a historic dwelling standing in the older part of the neighbourhood. The memorial ridge sits above.
Climbing east toward Jerusalem brings the Mount Herzl Plaza, the Herzl Museum, and the Yad Vashem campus with its Hall of Names and The Valley of the Communities cut into the hillside.
What is the history of Motza?
The name is old, and so is the ground. Excavation at Tel Motza temple shows this slope in the Judaean Mountains was built on long before the modern neighbourhood took shape, and the place has been written as Mozah and as Motsa as well as Motza. Settlement came later.
Beit Yelin is the surviving marker of that settlement, while the memorial institutions on the ridge above, among them Yad Vashem and the Herzl Museum, belong to a much later chapter of Jerusalem.
Where is Motza?
Motza lies 600 metres above sea level in the Judaean Mountains, on the western edge of Jerusalem where Highway 16 threads the hills.
Good for
More areas in Jerusalem
Updated September 2026