Golden Gate (Jerusalem) facts for kids

the gate in the year 1900

The Golden Gate (Hebrew: שער הרחמים, Sha'ar HaRachamim; Arabic: Bab al-Dhahabi) is one of the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is in the western side of the walls and the main gate that was connected the Temple Mount to outside the old city. According to the Jewish tradition, the Messiah will come through this gate to the Temple. In the 16th century, the gate was blocked by the Ottoman Sultan and a Muslim cemetery was created to insure that Messiah will never come through this gate. According to the Christian tradition, Jesus came into this gate to Jerusalem.

The Hebrew name for the gate translates to the "Gate of Mercy". In ancient times the gate was known as the "Beautiful Gate".

Construction history

The Golden Gate from within the Mount

The gate is located in the northern third of the Temple Mount's eastern wall. The present gate was probably built in the 520s AD, as part of Justinian I's building program in Jerusalem, on top of the ruins of the earlier gate in the wall. An alternate theory holds that it was built in the later part of the 7th century by Byzantine artisans employed by the Umayyad khalifs. The Ottoman Turks transformed the walled-up gate into a watchtower. On the ground floor level a vaulted hall is divided by four columns into two aisles, which lead to the Door of Mercy, Bab al-Rahma, and the Door of Repentance, Bab al-Taubah; an upper floor room has the two roof domes as its ceiling.

The sealing of the gate

Closed by the Muslims in 810, reopened in 1102 by the Crusaders, it was walled up by Saladin after regaining Jerusalem in 1187. Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt it together with the city walls, but walled it up in 1541, and it stayed that way until today.

While Suleiman may have taken this decision purely for defensive reasons, in Jewish tradition this is the gate through which the Anointed One (Messiah) will enter Jerusalem, and it is suggested that Suleiman the Magnificent sealed off the Golden Gate to prevent the Messiah's entrance.

The Ottomans also built a cemetery in front of the gate, in the belief that the precursor to the Anointed One, Elijah, would not be able to pass through the Golden Gate and thus the Anointed One would not come.

Images for kids

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  Reconstruction of the Second Temple during the 1st century CE. The Shushan Gate is at the bottom.

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  City of Jerusalem in the Peregrinatio in terram sanctam (1486) by Bernhard von Breidenbach. Golden Gate appears damaged and sealed, just below the Dome of the Rock.

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  The Golden Gate as seen from the western slopes of the Mount of Olives

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  Giotto di Bondone, Legend of St Joachim, Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1305 is an early depiction of the scene.

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  Golden Gate in the 1920s

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  Golden Gate as seen from inside the Temple Mount

See also

In Spanish: Puerta Dorada para niños