Image Details

Middle Bronze Age gate. Two huge stones called cyclopean stones (bottom right) project into the passageway through this gate’s triple entryway. The cyclopean stones mark the position of the entries, which probably were bridged by mudbrick when the gate was intact. The gap between the center stone and another to its left (unseen in this photo) has been cleared. Debris still fills the gap between the center and right stones. Over three feet of beautifully preserved mudbrick, some of which is seen here as varicolored horizontal stripes, was excavated above the cyclopean stones; in some places the mudbrick also reached down to the floor between them. But since the excavations of 1970 to 1974, when these perishable structures were exposed to wind and rain, they have suffered steady erosion.