Image Details

Damascus Gate. Thousands of Jerusalem residents and tourists daily stream through the large gate above, which for centuries has been a main entrance to Jerusalem’s walled Old City. Suleiman the Magnificent built this gate in the 16th century, but much earlier, in the Roman period, a main entrance to the city was located here; below the 16th century gate and to its left may be seen one arch of an earlier triple-arched gate. Some scholars date this gate to the second century A.D. and attribute it to Hadrian. On a knoll opposite this important city gate, King Herod the Great built a round tower as a tomb and funerary monument for his family.