Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem
2. Zion
3. Dung
4. Golden (walled up)
5. Lions
6. Herod
7. Damascus
8. New Gate
Quarters:
This article lists the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. The gates are visible on most old maps of Jerusalem over the last 1,500 years.
During different periods, the city walls followed different outlines and had a varying number of gates. During the era of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1291), Jerusalem had four gates, one on each side.[citation needed]
The current walls of the Old City of Jerusalem were built between 1533 and 1540 on orders of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who provided them with seven gates: six new gates were built, and the older and previously sealed Golden Gate was reopened (only to be re-sealed again after a few years). The seven gates at the time of Suleiman were, clockwise and by their current name: the Damascus Gate; Herod's Gate; Lions' Gate; Golden Gate; Dung Gate; Zion Gate; and Jaffa Gate.
With the re-sealing of the Golden Gate by Suleiman, the number of operational gates was only brought back to seven in 1887, with the addition of the New Gate.
Until 1887,[citation needed] each gate was closed before sunset and opened at sunrise.
List
[edit]The seven gates at the time of Suleiman were: Damascus Gate; Golden Gate; Herod's Gate; Jaffa Gate; Lions' Gate; Silwan Gate (also known as Mughrabi Gate, and now as Dung Gate); and Zion Gate. After the re-sealing of the Golden Gate already in Suleiman's time, the number of operational gates was only brought back to seven with the addition of the New Gate in 1887.
| English | Hebrew | Arabic | Alternative names | Construction year | Location | Status | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Gate | Sha'ar HaRahamim
שער הרחמים "Gate Of Mercy" |
Bab al-Dhahabi / al-Zahabi, "Golden Gate"
باب الذهبي |
A double gate, last sealed in 1541. In Arabic also known as the Gate of Eternal Life.[citation needed] In Arabic each door has its own name:
|
6th century | Northern third of eastern side | Sealed | 
|
| Damascus Gate | Sha'ar Shkhem
שער שכם "Nablus Gate" |
Bab al-Amoud
باب العمود |
Sha'ar Damesek, Nablus Gate, Gate of the Pillar | 1537 | Middle of northern wall | Open | 
|
| Herod's Gate | Sha'ar HaPerachim
שער הפרחים "Gate Of The Flowers" |
Bab al-Sahira
باب الساهرة |
Sha'ar Hordos, Flower Gate, Sheep Gate | 1537; greatly expanded in 1875 | East part of northern wall | Open | 
|
| Dung Gate / Silwan Gate / Maghrabi Gate | Sha'ar HaAshpot
שער האשפות "Gate Of Trash" |
Bab al-Maghariba
باب المغاربة |
Gate of Silwan, Sha'ar HaMugrabim | 1538–40 | East part of southern wall | Open | 
|
| Lions' Gate | Sha'ar HaArayot
שער האריות |
Bab al-Asbatt
باب الأسباط |
Gate of Yehoshafat,
St. Stephen's Gate, Gate of the Tribes, St. Mary's Gate (باب ستي مريم, Bab Sittna Maryam) |
1538–39 | North part of eastern wall | Open | 
|
| Jaffa Gate | Sha'ar Yafo
שער יפו |
Bab al-Khalil
باب الخليل |
The Gate of David's Prayer Shrine,
Porta Davidi |
1530–40 | Middle of western wall | Open | 
|
| Zion Gate | Sha'ar Tzion
שער ציון |
Bab al-Nabi Da'oud
باب النبي داود |
Gate to the Jewish Quarter | 1540 | Middle of southern wall | Open | 
|
| New Gate | HaSha'ar HeHadash
השער החדש |
Al-Bab al-Jedid
الباب الجديد |
Gate of Hammid | 1887 | West part of northern wall | Open | 
|
Previous gates
[edit]A smaller entrance, popularly known as the Tanners' Gate,[citation needed] has been opened for visitors after being discovered and unsealed during excavations in the 1990s.[citation needed]
Sealed historic gates, other than the Golden Gate, comprise three that are at least partially preserved (the Single, Triple, and Double Gates in the southern wall),[citation needed] with several other gates discovered by archaeologists of which only traces remain (the so-called Gate of the Essenes on Mount Zion, the gate of Herod's royal palace south of the citadel, and the vague remains of what 19th-century explorers identified as the Gate of the Funerals (Bab al-Jana'iz) or of al-Buraq (Bab al-Buraq) south of the Golden Gate).[1]
| English | Hebrew | Arabic | Alternative names | Construction year | Location | Status | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Tanners' Gate" [citation needed] | Sha'ar HaBursekaim
שער הבורסקאים |
12th century [citation needed] | East part of southern wall | Open | 
| ||
| Excavators' Gate [citation needed] | Excavation Gate. (Eastern gate of the main Umayyad palace, attributed to Caliph Al-Walid I (705–715). Destroyed by an earthquake around 749, walled up when the Ottoman wall was built (1537–41), reopened and rebuilt by archaeologists led by Benjamin Mazar and Meir Ben-Dov in 1968.)[2][3] | 705–715, 1968 [citation needed] | Wall south of Al-Aqsa Mosque | Open | |||
| Single Gate [citation needed] | This gate led to the underground area of the Temple Mount known as Solomon's Stables | Herodian period | Southern wall of Temple Mount | Sealed | ._The_single_gate._LOC_matpc.05071.jpg)
| ||
| Huldah Gates | Sha'arei Chulda
שערי חולדה |
Two gates:
|
Herodian period | Southern wall of Temple Mount | Sealed | 
|
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Necipoğlu, Gülru (2008). "The Dome of the Rock as a palimpsest: 'Abd al-Malik's grand narrative and Sultan Süleyman's glosses" (PDF). Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic. 25. Leiden: Brill: 20–21. ISBN 9789004173279. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
- ^ "The Function and Plan of the 'Palaces'". The Jerusalem Archaeological Park – Davidson Center. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
- ^ Meir Ben-Dov (1987). The Excavation Gate (18). Jerusalem: East Jerusalem Development Ltd. p. 20.
Thus for all intents and purposes, a ninth gate has been opened in the walls of Jerusalem.
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