Lions' Gate ( he, שער האריות, Sha'ar ha-Arayot, Lions' Gate, ar, باب الأسباط, Bab al-Asbat, Gate of the Tribes), also St Stephen's Gate, is one of the seven open Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It leads into the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.

History

The start of the traditional Christian observance of the last walk of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

from prison to

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...

, the

Via Dolorosa The ''Via Dolorosa'' (Latin, 'Sorrowful Way', often translated 'Way of Suffering'; ar, طريق الآلام; Hebrew: ויה דולורוזה) is a processional route in the Old City of Jerusalem. It represents the path that Jesus would have t ...

, begins at the Lions' Gate, called St Stephen's Gate by Christians. Carved into the wall above the gate are four lions, two on the left and two on the right.

Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...

had the carvings made to celebrate the Ottoman defeat of the Mamluks in 1517. Legend has it that Suleiman's predecessor

Selim I Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite las ...

dreamed of lions that were going to eat him because of his plans to level the city. He was spared only after promising to protect the city by building a wall around it. This led to the lion becoming the heraldic symbol of Jerusalem. Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome, ''The Holy Land: an Oxford archaeological guide from earliest times to 1700'', 2008, p. 21, Historian

Moshe Sharon Moshe Sharon ( he, משה שָׁרוֹן; born December 18, 1937) is an Israeli historian of Islam. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he serves as Chair in Bahá ...

notes the similarity of the sculpted felines to similar pairs at

Jisr Jindas Jisr Jindas, Arabic for "Jindas Bridge", also known as Baybars Bridge, was built in 1273 CE. It crosses a small wadi, known in Hebrew as the Ayalon River, on the old road leading south to Lod and Ramla.Petersen, 2001, p183/ref> The bridge is name ...

and Qasr al-Basha in Gaza. All represent the same

Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...

sultan, Baibars. Sharon estimates that they all date to approximately 1273 C.E. Sharon, 2009, p
58
and pl. 6. The gate is part of the city's extant walls, built by Ottoman Sultan Suleiman in 1538. The walls stretch for approximately and rise to a height of , with a thickness of . All together, the Old City walls contain 43 surveillance towers and 11 gates, seven of which are presently open. In 1967, it was through this gate that Israeli paratroopers broke into the Old City of Jerusalem, occupied, along with the rest of East Jerusalem and the whole

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, from

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

at the time. Image:Loewentor Leoparden.jpg, Detail of Lions' Gate carvings, actually leopardsJerusalem municipality website
(panthers). File:Indian and British guards, St. Stephen's Gate, Jerusalem LOC matpc.00756.jpg, British imperial troops from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

guard the gate in 1920

References

Bibliography

External links

Photos of the gate
at the

Manar al-Athar Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Em ...

photo archive
The Old City Gates: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
{{Old City (Jerusalem), state=collapsed Gates in Jerusalem's Old City Walls Muslim Quarter (Jerusalem)

History

See also

References

Bibliography

External links