My husband and I visited the Old City of Jerusalem in October of 2009. Below are some pictures of some of the current Gates. We entered via the Dung Gate which is the closest gate to the Western (Wailing Wall). Of all the Gates mentioned in Nehemiah, the Dung Gate is the only one mentioned of the current gates the Old City of Jerusalem. This entrance is closest to the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall (Wailing Wall).
Entrance into the Old City of Jerusalem through Dung Gate
The Western Wall constructed by King Herod during his occupation of Jerusalem.
Of course, we we not allowed to enter the Mosque in the Temple Mount.
The Golden Gate (also known as Gate of Mercy). This is where Jesus will make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem when He returns. (The Arabs sealed the gate, thinking that they would prevent Jesus from His return to Jerusalem in His Second Coming).
After our tour of the Old City of Jerusalem, we exited through the Jappa Gate.
The Jappa Gate.
As we exited the walled city, we viewed the ruins of the South East Bridge.
The South East Bridge was also constructed under King Herod’s occupation of Jerusalem
First Temple
The first gates of the walled city of Jerusalem were built by King Solomon around 950 BC. It was called the City of David after Solomon’s father, King David, who conquered Jerusalem. The Babylonian, King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC and the Jewish nation were exiled to Babylon. They were held in captivity for 70 years. Babylon was conquered by the Persian Emperor Cyrus, in 539 BC. He let the Jews returned from back to Jerusalem in 536 BC, although some remained in Persia. Emperor Cyrus also returned the things that King Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from the temple. The Israelites that did return to Jerusalem, began working on repairing the temple and city.
Nehemiah was a cupbearer in King Artaxerxes court. He was of Jewish descent. He has heard that after 100 years, the the walls still had not been rebuilt around Jerusalem. He asked King Artaxerxes if he could return to Jerusalem to repair the walls.
In Nehemiah Chapter 2,vv. 11-15, Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and inspected the gates walls of city one night. .At that time there were 10 gates that served as entrances and exits in the wall surrounding Jerusalem.
In Nehemiah, Chapter 3, the walls , towers, and gates were rebuilt by various families, priests, and tradesmen. The names of the gates repaired were: Sheep Gate (were animals brought through this gate for sacrificial offerings) Fish Gate (fish were brought in for sale in the market), Old City Gate(possibly the main entrance in the old city of Jerusalem), Valley Gate(lead to the Tyropoeon Valley), Dung Gate (lead to the Hinnon Valley where the trash was dumped), Fountain Gate(near the pool of Siloam and Kidron Valley), Water Gate(led to Jerusalem’ main source of water), Horse Gate(horses exited and entered here), Inspection Gate (judges sat here and rendered their decisions on cases brought here). The tenth gate, the East Gate is not mentioned in Nehemiah Chapter 3. The East Gate (people entered here to worship at the Temple) was the main entrance to the Temple and might have been undamaged; possibly the reason why it is not mentioned in the list of rebuilt gates. The work was finished in 52 days.
After centuries of wars and possession of Jerusalem by various countries and rulers, there was much destruction and rebuilding of the walls and gates in Jerusalem. In 70 AD, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. The walls of today are built in the 1500s.
Second Temple
Jerusalem was under Roman rule in 37-4 BC, under King Herod. He rebuilt the second , much larger temple. He also built gates and bridges to handle the large amount of worshippers that came into Jerusalem. In addition to expanding the temple, King Herod build the Western Wall (Waling Wall) with the bridges. Addording to the Jewish Historian, Josephus, six gates/bridges were built around the temple mount and lower city: South West Bridge (bridge and staircase between the lower city and the the Temple Mount),Western Gate (on south side of the temple Western Wall between a gate ramp and the women’s praying section), West Bridge ( bridge to the temple also found near the Western Wall), Warren’s gate (part of the Western Wall tunnel), and the West Gate (on the south side of the Western Wall On the east side were the South-East Bridge (identical to the South-West bridge on the other side)and the South Gate( actually a pair of gates called the Hulda Gates).
The West Bridge was discovered by an English excavation team in 1867. Further digging of the arch to the bottom revealed that below the Western Wall showed that the current Western Wall is about the Herodian level of about 8 meters. When there is a destruction of a building of town, it is usual for the next level of construction to be built on top of the former structures.
Two ancient gates, have not been discovered: The Tadi Gate which was sealed was on the north side, and the Eastern Gate (Sushan Gate) was used only for rituals of the Red Heifer.
After the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD, all of these gates were also destroyed. It wasn’t until the 19th century that excavations began after Jerusalem was reclaimed by Israel.
The Old City of Jerusalem Now
From 70 -1517 AD, Jerusalem was under the rule of many countries, when the Turks capture the city. The current walls of the city of Jerusalem were build by Sulieman the Magnificent in 1538 AD. In 1948-1949 Israel gained its independence and made Jerusalem the capital.
Currently, there are eight gates in the walls of the old City of Jerusalem: Jaffa Gate (is the busiest of the gates. It faces west toward the city of Jaffa) The New Gate (opens to the Christian quarter and faces north), Damascus Gate (opens to the Muslim Quarter and faces north toward Damascus),Herod’s Gate (also called the Flower Gate, and faces north),Lion’s Gate (also known as Stephen’s Gate and faces East towards Jericho), The Golden Gate (also called the Gate of Mercy, and is where Jesus will return again. The Arabs sealed this gate some years ago, Zion Gate (also called David’s Gate and faces south toward Hebron), and the Dung Gate (closest to the Western (Wailing) Wall, and faces south.
References:
Israel My Glory – israelmyglory.org
Got Questions – gotquestions.org
BibleWalks.com – bible works.com
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs – mfa.gov.il