Warren's Gate ( he, שער וורן, Sha'ar Varen), first described by nineteenth century surveyor

Charles Warren General Sir Charles Warren, (7 February 1840 – 21 January 1927) was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of the Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of the Temple Mount. Much of his mi ...

, is an ancient entrance into the

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

platform in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

which lies about into the

Western Wall Tunnel The Western Wall Tunnel ( he, מנהרת הכותל, translit.: ''Minharat Hakotel'') is a tunnel exposing the Western Wall from where the traditional, open-air prayer site ends and up to the Wall's northern end. Most of the tunnel is in continua ...

. In the Second Temple period, the gate led to a tunnel and staircase onto the

Temple Mount The Temple Mount ( hbo, הַר הַבַּיִת, translit=Har haBayīt, label=Hebrew, lit=Mount of the House f the Holy}), also known as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, lit. 'The Noble Sanctuary'), al-Aqsa Mosque compou ...

. After the Rashidun Caliphate conquest of Jerusalem from the Byzantines, Jews were allowed to pray inside the tunnel. The synagogue was destroyed in the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic r ...

in the siege of Jerusalem in 1099. The tunnel then became a water cistern, thus its name ''Cistern 30''. The area is surrounded by a vaulted tunnel.

Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

Yehuda Getz, the late official Rabbi of the

Western Wall The Western Wall ( he, הַכּוֹתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי, HaKotel HaMa'aravi, the western wall, often shortened to the Kotel or Kosel), known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall (Arabic: حَائِط � ...

, believed that the Gate represented the point west of the Wall closest to the Holy of Holies. An underground dispute broke out in July 1981 between Jewish explorers inside Warren's Gate and Arab guards who came down to meet them through surface cistern entries.Nadav Shragai
Raiders of the Lost Ark
'' Haaretz'', 25 April 2003. via

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

A small underground riot ensued which was only stopped when the Jerusalem police came in to restore the peace.

References

{{Old City (Jerusalem) Jews and Judaism in the Roman Empire Gates Historic sites in Jerusalem Synagogues in Jerusalem Temple Mount