The scene in front of Damascus Gate is a colorful one – vendors heave goods in and out of the Old City, Israeli border police tap their truncheons, elderly Palestinian women from the villages squat on the pavement selling herbs, parents shepherd their young children through the crowds and tourists take it all in, appearing in turn bewildered and enchanted.
The gate itself dates in its present form from the time of Süleyman the Magnificent, although there had been a gate here long before the arrival of the Turks. This was the main entrance to the city as early as the time of Agrippa, who ruled in the 1st century BCE. The gate was considerably enlarged during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian.
A long-disappeared column erected by Hadrian once stood in the square, which is why the gate is known in Arabic as Bab al-Amud (Gate of the Column). In Hebrew it is known as Sha’ar Shchem (Nablus Gate).
