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Damascus Gate, Jerusalem

Damascus Gate (Arabic: Bāb al-ʿĀmūd, Hebrew: Sha'ar Sh'khem) is one of the main entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem.

It is located in the wall on the city's northwest side and connects to a highway leading out to Nablus, which in the Hebrew Bible was called Shechem or Sichem, and from there, in times past, to the capital of Syria, Damascus; as such, its modern English name is Damascus Gate, and its modern Hebrew name, Sha'ar Shkhem, meaning Shechem Gate, or Nablus Gate.

Of its Arabic names, Bab al-Nasr means "gate of victory," and Bab al-Amud means "gate of the column." The latter name, in use continuously since at least as early as the 10th century, preserves the memory of a Roman column towering over the square behind the gate and dating to the 2nd century AD.

Directly below the existing gate there is an older gate, believed to have been built in the early first or second centuries CE.

Damascus Gate.
In its current form, the gate was built in 1537 under the rule of Suleiman the Magnificent, however a gate is known to have been located in the same spot since the Roman period.

  • The Damascus Gate is flanked by two towers, each equipped with machicolations. It offers access from the north to the Arab bazaar (souk) in the Muslim Quarter.
  • In contrast to the Jaffa Gate, where stairs rise towards the gate, at the Damascus Gate the stairs descend towards the gate.

Old Roman era gate.
Beneath the current gate, the remains of an earlier gate can be seen, dating back to the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who visited the region in 129/130 CE.

  • Directly below the 16th-century gate there is an older gate, dated by most archaeologists to the second century CE.
  • In the square behind this gate stood a Roman victory column topped by a statue of Emperor Hadrian, as depicted on the 6th-century Madaba Map.
  • On the lintel of the 2nd-century gate, which has been made visible by archaeologists beneath today's Ottoman gate, is inscribed the city's Roman name after 130 CE, Aelia Capitolina.

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Location

Location: Jerusalem