Information about Jaffa Gate, the old city of Jerusalem, itself will be provided after this announcement. Unfortunately, I have not been able to work as a tour guide because of the war.

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Zahi Shaked

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Jaffa Gate is one of the seven main open gates of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The name Jaffa Gate is currently used for both the historical Ottoman gate from 1538, and for the wide gap in the city wall adjacent to it to the south. The old gate has the shape of a medieval gate tower with an L-shaped entryway, which was secured at both ends (north and east) with heavy doors.

The breach in the wall was created in 1898 by the Ottoman authorities in order to allow German emperor Wilhelm II to enter the city triumphally. The breach and the ramp leading up to it now allow cars to access the Old City from the west.

The L-shape of the historical gateway was a classical defensive measure designed to slow down oncoming attackers, with its outer gate oriented in the direction of Jaffa Road, from which travelers including pilgrims arrived at the end of their journey from the port of Jaffa.

Both the Jaffa Gate and Jaffa Road are named after the port of Jaffa, from which the Prophet Jonah embarked on his sea journey and pilgrims debarked on their trip to the Holy City. Nowadays the name Jaffa Road is only used for the city street going through the city of Jerusalem outside the historical Old City, while the multi-lane modern road further connecting it westwards with Tel Aviv-Yafo is part of Israel's Highway 1.

The Arabic name for the gate, Bab el-Khalil, literally "Gate of the Friend", refers to Abraham, "the beloved of God". Since by tradition the burial site of Ibrahim/Abraham is in Hebron, whose Arabic name is el-Khalil, so the Arabic name for the Jaffa Gate translates as "Hebron Gate".

In medieval times the Arabs used to call this gate Bab Mihrab Dawud, or "Gate of David's Chamber or Sanctuary", out of the belief that the room atop the Herodian tower stump represented the "private chamber" or "prayer room" of Prophet Dawud, which is specifically mentioned in the Quran ( Prophet Dawud is how King David is known in Islam).

The Crusaders, who rebuilt the citadel to the south of Jaffa Gate, also built a gate behind the present location of Jaffa Gate, calling it "David's Gate".
Like the stones used for the rest of the Old City walls, the stones of Jaffa Gate are large, hewn, sand-colored blocks. The entryway stands about 20 feet (6.1 meters) high, and the wall rises another 20 feet above that.

Adjacent to the old gate tower (the 1538 Jaffa Gate proper, which is used only by pedestrians), is a wide breach in the wall, through which the roadway passes. This breach is located between the gate tower and the citadel/Tower of David. Photographs from circa 1870 to 1890 show that originally the city wall was continuous at that point, although the wall segment between the citadel and the gate tower was much lower, owing to the fact that a moat ran around the citadel, and the city wall at that point was constructed from the bottom of the moat up. Therefore, even though the overall height of that wall segment was presumably the same as the rest of the city wall's, therefore providing a similar level of protection from invaders, the top of the wall segment only reached about two metres above the moat, a much lower elevation than both the adjacent city wall and citadel. The breach was made by the Ottoman authorities ahead of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany's visit to the city and allowed him and his retinue to comfortably enter Jerusalem riding on horses and in carriages. Part of the moat also had to be filled in for the purpose.

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