Gate sights in Middle East
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Damascus Gate
The scene in front of the Damascus Gate is a microcosm of the Palestinian world - vendors heave goods in and out of the Old City, families picnic on the steps and Israeli soldiers tap their truncheons. You'll also spot elderly women from the villages trying to sell herbs and produce; most of them wear intricately embroidered dresses that are a part of their dowry and identity.
The gate itself dates in its present form from the time of Süleyman the Magnificent (who oversaw the gate's construction between 1537 and 1542), although there had been a gate here long before the arrival of the Turks. This was the main entrance to the city as early as the time of Agrippas, who…
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Bab Antakya
The 13th-century Bab Antakya, the western gate of the old walled city, is all but completely hidden by the swarm of busy workshops surrounding it, but you definitely get a sense of 'entering' as you pass under its great stone portal and through the defensively doglegged vaulted passageway. Once through here you emerge onto Souq Bab Antakya, the bazaar's bustling main thoroughfare, which runs due east to halt abruptly at the foot of the Citadel, some 1.5km away.
Until the development of the New City in the 19th century, this was Aleppo's main street, tracing the route of the decumanus, the principal thoroughfare of the Roman city of Beroia. A great triumphal arch is…
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Jaffa Gate
The actual gate is the small block through which the doglegged pedestrian tunnel passes (the dogleg was to slow down any charging enemy forces - you'll find the same thing at the Damascus and Zion Gates); the breach in the wall through which the road now passes was only made in 1898 in order to permit the visiting Kaiser Wilhelm II and his party to ride with full pomp into the city.
Just inside the gate, on the left as you enter, are two graves said to be those of Süleyman's architects, beheaded for leaving the Mt Zion monastery outside the walls. The Arabic name for the gate is Bab al-Khalil (Gate of the Friend), which refers to the holy city of Hebron (Al-Khalil in…
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Zion Gate
This gate had to be punched through to give access to the Franciscan monastery left outside the walls by Süleyman's architects. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Israeli soldiers holding Mt Zion also tried to burst through here in a desperate attempt to relieve the besieged Jewish Quarter. First they tried to dynamite the wall at a spot 100m east of the gate (it still bears the scar), and when that failed they launched an all-out assault, which ended disastrously.
A memorial plaque to the fallen is inset within the gate while the bullet-eaten façade gives some indication of how ferocious the fighting must have been. To the Jews, the gate is Sha'ar Ziyyon, while in Arabic…
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Bab al-Bahrain
Built by the British in 1945, Bab al-Bahrain, the 'Gateway to Bahrain' was originally designed by Sir Charles Belgrave. It was redesigned in 1986 to give it more of an 'Islamic' flavour. The small square in front of the bab (gate) was once the terminus of the customs pier (which provides some idea of the extent of land reclamation in the area). The building now houses the Tourist Department and a souvenir shop.
Despite having been moved back from the water's edge, the gateway is still aptly named, as goods of various description, people of all nationalities, street vendors, shoppers and workers pass under its arches in a constant pageant of activity in this, the heart of…
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Golden Gate
Uncertainty surrounds this sealed entrance to the Haram ash-Sharif/Temple Mount. The Jewish Mishnah mentions the Temple's eastern gate and there are Herodian elements in the present structure. Some believe it to be where the Messiah will enter the city (Ezekiel 44:1-3). The gate was probably sealed by the Muslims in the 7th century to deny access to the Haram ash-Sharif/Temple Mount to non-Muslims.
A popular alternative theory is that the Muslims sealed it to prevent the Jewish Messiah from entering the Haram. The Golden Gate is known as Sha'ar ha-Rahamim (Gate of Mercy) in Hebrew and either Bab al-Rahma or Bab al-Dahriyya (Eternal Gate) in Arabic.
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St Stephen's Gate
This is the gate that gives access to the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane and, from their positions on that biblically famed hillside, Israeli paratroopers fought their way in through this gate on 7 June 1967 to capture the Old City.
Although Süleyman called it Bab al-Ghor (the Jordan Gate), the name never stuck and it became known as St Stephen's Gate after the first Christian martyr, who was stoned to death at a spot nearby. The Hebrew name, Sha'ar Ha'Arayot (Lions Gate), is a reference to the two pairs of heraldic lions carved either side of the archway.
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Bab al-Farag
Until the 20th century there were 13 gates in the city walls, all closed at sunset, and there were inner gates dividing the Christian, Jewish and Islamic quarters. These inner gates are now gone, as are several of the main city gates.
Most impressive of those remaining are the northern Bab al-Farag ; Bab al-Faradis (Gate of Paradise), with a short stretch of market enclosed within its vaulting; Bab as-Salaama (Gate of Peace), the best-preserved of the gates and a beautiful example of Ayyubid military architecture; and, in the south, Bab as-Saghir (Little Gate).
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Bab as-Saghir
Until the 20th century there were 13 gates in the city walls, all closed at sunset, and there were inner gates dividing the Christian, Jewish and Islamic quarters. These inner gates are now gone, as are several of the main city gates.
Most impressive of those remaining are the northern Bab al-Farag (Gate of Joy); Bab al-Faradis (Gate of Paradise), with a short stretch of market enclosed within its vaulting; Bab as-Salaama (Gate of Peace), the best-preserved of the gates and a beautiful example of Ayyubid military architecture; and, in the south, Bab as-Saghir.
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Bab as-Salaama
Until the 20th century there were 13 gates in the city walls, all closed at sunset, and there were inner gates dividing the Christian, Jewish and Islamic quarters. These inner gates are now gone, as are several of the main city gates.
Most impressive of those remaining are the northern Bab al-Farag (Gate of Joy); Bab al-Faradis (Gate of Paradise), with a short stretch of market enclosed within its vaulting; Bab as-Salaama, the best-preserved of the gates and a beautiful example of Ayyubid military architecture; and, in the south, Bab as-Saghir (Little Gate).
reviewed
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Bab al-Faradis
Until the 20th century there were 13 gates in the city walls, all closed at sunset, and there were inner gates dividing the Christian, Jewish and Islamic quarters. These inner gates are now gone, as are several of the main city gates.
Most impressive of those remaining are the northern Bab al-Farag (Gate of Joy); Bab al-Faradis, with a short stretch of market enclosed within its vaulting; Bab as-Salaama (Gate of Peace), the best-preserved of the gates and a beautiful example of Ayyubid military architecture; and, in the south, Bab as-Saghir (Little Gate).
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Western Temple Gate
At its eastern end, Souq al-Hamidiyya re-emerges back into glaring sunlight at the spot where the Western Temple Gate of the 3rd-century Roman Temple of Jupiter once stood. The outer walls of the Umayyad Mosque, directly ahead, mark the position of the temple itself, but here, on ground now occupied by stalls selling Qurans and religious paraphernalia, was the propylaeum (the monumental gateway to the temple complex).
What remains today are several enormous Corinthian columns carrying fragments of a decorated lintel.
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Khan al-Jumruk
The great gateway of the magnificent Khan al-Jumruk, completed in 1574, is the largest and most impressive of Aleppo's khans. At one time it housed the consulates and trade missions of the English, Dutch and French, in addition to 344 shops. Its days as a European enclave are now long gone but the khan is still in use, serving as a cloth market. The decoration on the interior façade of the gateway is splendid.
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Muscat Gate Museum
Straddling the road between the corniche and the old walled city, the Muscat Gate Museum, with the original gates used until the 1970s to keep land-bound marauders out, marks the position of the old city wall and introduces Muscat proper. It is also a vantage point for the Sultan's Palace. A quick climb up to the aerial mast on the neighbouring hill gives an even better view of Mutrah and Muscat.
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Bab ash-Sharqi
First erected by the Romans, the Old City walls have been flattened and rebuilt several times over the 2000 or so years since. What stands today dates largely from the 13th century. They are pierced by a number of gates (the Arabic for gate is bab, plural abwab), only one of which, the restored Bab ash-Sharqi, dates from Roman times.
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Old City Walls
First erected by the Romans, the Old City walls have been flattened and rebuilt several times over the 2000 or so years since. What stands today dates largely from the 13th century. They are pierced by a number of gates (the Arabic for gate is bab, plural abwab), only one of which, the restored Bab ash-Sharqi dates from Roman times.
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Old City Gates
Al-Shaab, Al-Shamiya, Al-Jahra and Al-Maqsab are the names of Kuwait City's gates in Safat on Al-Soor St, the street that follows the line of the old city wall ('soor' is the Arabic word for 'wall'). Despite their ancient appearance, the wall and gates were only constructed around 1920. The wall was demolished in 1957.
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Herod's Gate
It was just 100m east of this gate that the Crusaders breached the city walls on 15 July 1099. The name was derived from a mistaken belief held by 16th- and 17th- century pilgrims that a nearby building was at one time the palace of Herod Antipas. In Hebrew the gate is Sha'ar HaPerahim and in Arabic, Bab as-Zahra (Flower Gate).
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Eastern Temple Gate
From the Sayyida Ruqayya mosque, follow the lane that runs due east, and turn right (south) at the T-junction leading to a crossroad marked by the half-buried remains of the Eastern Temple Gate. The gate served as the eastern entrance to the compound of the Roman Temple of Jupiter, the site now occupied by Umayyad Mosque.
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Bab Touma
For most of their length, the Old City Walls are obscured by later constructions. It's not possible to do a circuit of the walls, nor get up on the ramparts. However, there is a fine short walk between Bab as-Salaama and Bab Touma along the outside of the walls by a channel of the Barada River.
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Bab al-Nafura
Beside the coffeehouses, a broad flight of stairs carries Sharia al-Qaimariyya up to the eastern wall of Umayyad Mosque, shaped by elements of what was originally part of the main Roman-era monumental entrance to the inner courts of the temple - now the mosque's Bab al-Nafura.
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New Gate
The New Gate is the most modern of all the gates, opened in 1887 by Sultan Abdul Hamid to allow direct access from the newly built pilgrim hospices to the holy sites of the Old City's Christian Quarter. In Hebrew it's ha-Sha'ar He-Chadash, and in Arabic, al-Bab al-Jadid.
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Bab Kisan
The Old City gate, Bab Kisan, purportedly marks the spot where the disciples lowered St Paul out of a window in a basket one night, so that he could flee from the Jews, having angered them after preaching in the synagogues.
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