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.