The Damascus Gate

It is amazing what sights escape us when we don’t know what is right in front of our eyes. At the Damascus Gate there is a gate below the gate. I have walked through his gate many times when visiting Jerusalem, but until i studied for new book Israel: Stories for Your Journey, I totally missed the interesting Roman period entry which was literally right in front of me as I entered Jerusalem through this northernmost portal.

A look north from the Ramparts Walk above the Damascus Gate.
Do you see what is right in front of your eyes?

The Damascus gate is the grand northern entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. It is on the main road leading out of Jerusalem northward, in the direction of Nablus (Shechem), Galilee and Damascus. It is the main entry into the Muslim Quarter, with its markets both inside the gate and a bazaar on the entry plaza on Thursday night. This major gate was the northern entry to the cardo, the main street of Jerusalem from the Roman period to our present time, which is the starting point of telling about the gate below the gate.

A look at the Damascus Gate, The Roman entry
can be seen below the walkway to the left.

After Jerusalem was subdued by both general Titus and by Hadrian, the emperor decided to rebuild and rename the city in order to demean the Jewish population. The new city was called Aelia Capitolina. Aelia was the emperor’s family name and celebrates the greatness of Hadrian. Capitolina praises a triad of Roman gods: Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The city was built in the shape of a square with the main roads entering near today's Damascus Gate, Jaffa Gate, Zion Gate and the Stephen Gates. The second century Roman style entry consisted of a grand victory arch set between two smaller arches, a victory symbol which sometimes stood in an area which was in front of the city gates. Beyond the entrance stood a pillar with the bust of the Roman Emperor.

The Thursday Night Bazaar at the Damascus Gate

As a person enters the Damascus gate today, the small Roman arches can be seen to the south and below the current gate reconstructed by Suleiman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century. The name Aelia Capitolina is emblazoned in Latin above the entrance and the original Roman pavers lead to a plaza with the remains of Hadrian’s pillar. From there a twenty-six foot wide cardo flanked by rows of columns and five foot wide raised sidewalks used to lead into the city.

Our travel brochure available at www.KosherCopy.com

If you would like to see the Damascus Gate, and many other sights in Jerusalem and Israel, take a look at my May adventure in the Holy Land (link). If you can’t make it on the trip, please order my book, Israel: Stories for Your Journey and take a look at my blog during the month of May.

Joppa Gate

Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations. (Isaiah 62:10)

Jaffa Gate from inside the walls of Jerusalem

The Jaffa Gate is, in a way, the international gate of Jerusalem. The name shared most often today motions away from the city to the port city of Jaffa (and beyond that to Caesarea), from which travelers arrive into Eretz Yisrael from all over the world. From the days of King David, when King Hiram of Phoenicia passed by this gate, even until today travelers and others have written about the beautiful Jaffa Gate.

Looking down from the top of the Rampart Walls

At one time the gate was heavily guarded, with a double entry and heavy wooden doors which sat upon bronze hinges. Towers guarded this entrance, portions of which still stand today. King Herod named these towers Phasael (145’ high), Hippicus (132’) and Mariamne (74’) after his brother, a friend, and his favorite wife. Of these, only a portion of the Phasael tower stands today, and the gates were removed to allow Kaiser Wilhelm II easier access to the city in 1898. (More in my book, Israel: Stories for Your Journey)

A must for tourists to Israel

Most of the walls and gates of Jerusalem, which we see today, were ordered to be constructed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent who ruled the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. A story is told of how he found the walls of Jerusalem in ruins after being visited by four lions in a dream. He sent two architects to build a wall following the original course of the city’s protective enclosure. When completed the Sultan visited the city, and when inspecting the work found it satisfactory with one exception. The Tomb of King David was left outside the walls. The two architects were hanged and put to rest in graves outside the Jaffa Gate.

The outside of Jaffa Gate from the top of the walls

Most people pass in and out of the wide Jaffa Gate with no notice of these two graves, for this international gate is the portal into Jerusalem’s oldest and one of it’s newest marketplaces. The walls of Jerusalem contain a vast marketplace spreading out from David Street which leads toward Temple Mount. An entrance to the Mamilla Mall can be found when exiting the old city through the Jaffa Gate. Below the mall visitors will enjoy the fountains, shops and sights of Teddy Park.

Join me for a great tour of Israel

Jerusalem with its gates and holy sites is worth a visit. Please join me on my next trip May 5-18, 2018 (click this link for more details). If you can not go, please order my $2 book, Israel: Stories for Your Journey.