Jaffa Gate facts for kids
Jaffa Gate "Hebron Gate"; also "Gate of David's Chamber" is a stone portal in the historic walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is one of seven main open gates in Jerusalem's Old City walls.
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.
Contents
History
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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 travellers including pilgrims arrived at the end of their journey from the port of Jaffa.
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 triumphantly. The breach and the ramp leading up to it are now allowing cars to access the Old City from the west.
In 1908 a very ornate clock tower was built on top of Jaffa Gate' historical gate tower. Apart from serving the developing business district in the upper part of the Hinnom Valley, it was meant to be one of approximately one hundred such clock towers built throughout the Ottoman Empire in 1900s in celebration of the 25th year of rule of the Sultan.
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.
The clock tower was built of limestone quarried from the nearby Zedekiah's Cave. It stood 13 feet tall, and was topped by four clock faces, oriented to the cardinal compass points. The eastern and western faces showed official time (European time) while the northern and southern faces showed local time. The clock tower only lasted for a decade and was knocked down by the British in 1922.
Renovation
Jaffa Gate is heavily used by pedestrians and vehicles alike. In the early 2000s (decade), the road straddling the gate was moved further west and a plaza constructed in its stead to connect Jaffa Gate with the soon-to-be-built Mamilla shopping mall across the street.
In 2010, the Israel Antiquities Authority completed a two-month restoration and cleaning of Jaffa Gate as part of a $4 million project begun in 2007 to renovate the length of the Old City walls. The clean-up included replacing broken stones, cleaning the walls of decades of car exhaust, and reattaching an elaborate Arabic inscription erected at the gate's original dedication in 1593.
Bullet fragments in the gate, from fighting in the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, were preserved. Infrastructure work beside Jaffa Gate also uncovered an ancient aqueduct dating from the 2nd or 3rd century CE.
Images for kids
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Inscription on the wall adjacent to, and north of, the outer gate, praising Allah and his servant, Ibrahim (1854 photograph)
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Jaffa Gate from northwest (1891)
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The Ottoman clock tower stood between 1908 and 1922.
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The striped round kiosk on the right housed the Ottoman sebil, or drinking fountain
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The Bezalel Pavilion near Jaffa Gate.
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The site of Kilometre Zero, at the plaza in front of Jaffa Gate.
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Conrad Schick's diagram of the breach in the wall of Jerusalem at Jaffa Gate made in 1898 for the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm
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These two Ottoman tombs are attributed by a baseless local legend to the architects of the Old City walls
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Allenby enters the Jaffa Gate on foot
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View of Jaffa Gate (left) and the Tower of David (right).
See also
In Spanish: Puerta de Jaffa para niños
