Prince William tours Jerusalem on final day of royal visit

Prince William toured sensitive Jerusalem holy sites today and paid a pilgrimage to the tomb of his great-grandmother on the final day of his historic royal visit to the Middle East.

The Duke of Cambridge's Jerusalem leg is by far the most charged of his five-day tour of Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories the first official visit of a member of the British royal family as he ventures into the heart of world religion and regional politics.

The trip has been carefully orchestrated as a non-political event, and the prince has been watchful in his words and actions not to stoke controversy as he met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and toured the region's various locales.

But the Jerusalem sites he visited are central to the century-old conflict and every step he took was closely scrutinised.

Prince William began his visit with a lookout of the Old City from the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem.

He then visited the nearby gravesite of his great-grandmother, Princess Alice, who saved Jews in the Holocaust and whose last wishes were to have her remains buried in the Church of St Mary Magdalene above the Garden of Gethsemane.

He was then to visit a trio of key Muslim, Jewish and Christian sites before departing home to London.

Prince William said he was particularly looking forward to his Old City visit that included stops at the contested holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where tradition holds that Jesus was crucified and buried.

Israeli politicians were angered his royal itinerary mentioned Jerusalem as being part of "the Occupied Palestinian Territories," rather than Israel's capital. Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin who is running for mayor of the city in this year's elections called the reference a "distortion" that cannot "change reality."