Walls of the Old City

Home inside city wall.

The Golden Gate

It has been several years since I was in Israel and there has been a lot of fighting between the Jews and the Palestinians, I've not sure the following is still true. But when I was there, the walls were very impressive, 2 1/2 miles in circumference and average 40 feet in height, with 34 towers and 8 gates.The New Gate, Damascus Gate and the Hero's Gate was in the northern wall; St Stephen's Gate and the Golden Gate (closed by the Turks in 1530) in the eastern wall; the Dung Gate and the Zion Gate in the southern wall and the Jaffa Gate in the western wall.

The site of the Damascus Gate is believed by many to be the place of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It was through the Golden Gate that Jesus entered the city after His triumphal journey from Bethany.

The Western Wall or Wailing Wall is the sole remnant of the outer court of the magnificent Second Temple built by Herod. It is the holiest Shrine of the Byzantine period, where they were allowed to come once a year on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple so they could lament the dispersion of their people and weep over the ruins of the Temple. This is why this section of the wall became known as the Wailing Wall. After the Six-Day War, the Wailing Wall became a place of rejoicing as well as a place of worship, and the custom of praying at the wall continued for centuries.

When I was there, the guards were protecting the Wailing Wall and we were not allowed to go up to it, but we could watch the people saying their prayers and putting written prayers in the crevices of the wall.