JERUSALEM — Prince William toured sensitive Jerusalem holy sites Thursday 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 by 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 scrutinized.

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.

The prince stood solemnly by his great-grandmother’s grave, accompanied by a Russian Orthodox clergyman. He was given several gifts by the clergy, including a bouquet of flowers and a cross. With the homage, William followed in the footsteps of his father, Charles, the Prince of Wales, and grandfather Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had also visited Princess Alice’s grave.

Prince William was then taken to visit a trio of key Muslim, Jewish and Christian sites.

– From news service reports

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