Golden Gate Interior

About Golden Gate Interior

Architectural structure; Gate of ancient city wall of Jerusalem

Bab al-Rahma, the Gate of Mercy, known to Western visitors as the Golden Gate, is one of the gates of the Al-Aqsa compound in the eastern wall of the Old City of Al-Quds, about 200 metres south of Lions' Gate (Bab al-Asbat). The structure dates from the Umayyad period: a double gate crowned by two arches, opening onto a vaulted inner hall whose arches rest on massive Corinthian columns. It is one of the most beautiful of the city's gates and leads straight into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa. Its history is one of repeated closures. It was sealed in 810 under the Abbasids, reopened by the Crusaders in 1102, and walled up again by Salah ad-Din after he regained the city in 1187. The Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt it along with the city walls, but blocked it in 1541, and it has remained sealed ever since. Muslims and Christians generally hold that Jesus entered the city through this gate. From inside the compound the vaulted hall behind the gate, with its huge columns, has served over the centuries as a prayer and teaching space. Immediately outside runs the historic Bab al-Rahma cemetery along the eastern wall, where tradition places the graves of several companions of the Prophet.

Where:

Jerusalem, Palestine