Zion Gate ( he, שער ציון, ''Sha'ar Zion'', ar, باب صهيون, ''Bab Sahyun''), also known in Arabic as Bab Harat al-Yahud ("Jewish Quarter Gate")
or Bab an-Nabi Dawud ("Prophet David Gate"), is one of the seven historic
Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem
This article lists the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. The gates are visible on most old maps of Jerusalem over the last 1,500 years.
During different periods, the city walls followed different outlines and had a varying number of gates. Du ...
.
History
Zion Gate was built in July 1540, west of the location of the medieval gate, which was a direct continuation of the Street of the Jews (also known as the Cardo). Six sentry towers were erected in the southern segment of the wall, four of them situated in the Mount Zion section.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, a leper colony, slaughter house and livestock market were situated in the vicinity of Zion Gate. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, shops were built along the length of the southern wall which were torn down during the British Mandate.
On May 13, 1948, as the British Army withdrew from Jerusalem, a major from the
Suffolk Regiment
The Suffolk Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army with a history dating back to 1685. It saw service for three centuries, participating in many wars and conflicts, including the First and Second World Wars, before b ...
presented
Mordechai Weingarten with the key for the Zion Gate.
In 2008, restoration work was carried out on the gate, marking its 468th birthday.
Preservation project marks 468th birthday of Jerusalem's Zion Gate
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File:James McDonald. City walls, the Zion Gate. 1865 (cropped).jpg, Zion Gate, 1865
File:שער ציון בירושלים-JNF022199.jpeg, Zion Gate 1930
File:Zion Gate 1948.jpg, Zion Gate 1948
See also
* Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem
This article lists the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. The gates are visible on most old maps of Jerusalem over the last 1,500 years.
During different periods, the city walls followed different outlines and had a varying number of gates. Du ...
* Walls of Jerusalem
The Walls of Jerusalem ( he, חומות ירושלים, ar, أسوار القدس) surround the Old City of Jerusalem (approx. 1 km2). In 1535, when Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Suleiman I ordered the ruined city wa ...
*Battle for Jerusalem
The Battle for Jerusalem took place during the 1947–1948 civil war phase of the 1947–1949 Palestine war. It saw Jewish and Arab militias in Mandatory Palestine, and later the militaries of Israel and Transjordan, fight for control over ...
*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 ...
References
External links
Photos of the Zion Gate
at the Manar al-Athar photo archive
{{Old City (Jerusalem), state=collapsed
Infrastructure completed in 1540
Zion
Zion ( he, צִיּוֹן ''Ṣīyyōn'', LXX , also variously Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated ''Sion'', ''Tzion'', ''Tsion'', ''Tsiyyon'') is a placename in the Hebrew Bible used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Isra ...
Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem)