| The Mount Zion Section |
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Historic Overview:
Mount Zion was enclosed within Jerusalem's city wall at the end of the governorship of Nehemiahand during the Herodian period.
In the Late Roman period the Tenth Legion's camp, which remained in Jerusalem, was situated next to Mount Zion, in the area that would one day be the Armenian Quarter. The Zion Gate of this period was built slightly west of the present-day gate's location. At that time the gate led to the ancient Street of the Christians, which ran from the entrance to the legion's camp on Mount Zion toward the north.
The Byzantine period (326-638 CE) was a time of prosperity and growth in Jerusalem. The population of the city increased and many religious buildings were constructed. The route of the southern part the wall was made wider; part of it overlapped the line of the city wall from the time of the Second Temple and it now included Mount Zion and the hill of the City of David. This wall surrounded the city and protected it until 1033 CE.
In 1033 CE the city was struck by an earthquake which severely damaged its fortifications. The short southern line of wall, which exists to this day, was built when the Fatimids rehabilitated the city wall. Mount Zion and its churches remained outside the city limits. This was a new line of fortifications in which the gates and towers were meant to protect the city against an attack by the Crusaders. And so, with the exception of during the Ayyubid period, Jerusalem's walls in the south were based on the line of this wall until the construction of the Ottoman city wall by Suleiman the Magnificent.
The Ayyubid period. In the beginning of the 1970's the remains of a tower and a monumental Arabic inscription that dates the construction of the tower to the Ayyubid period (Tower 95) were discovered in the base of the city wall c. 100 meters east of Zion Gate. According to the inscription, this tower was erected in the year 1212 by the Ayyubid governor of Damascus, Al-Malik Al-Matham, nephew of Saladin. In 1219, just seven years after he fortified the city, Al-Malik Al-Matham demolished Jerusalem's city walls in a scorched earth policy rather than allow them to be captured by a foreign army.
For the next 320 years the city walls stood in ruins until they were rebuilt during the reign of the sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent.
The Ottoman period. Suleiman the Magnificent quickly rebuilt Jerusalem's city walls, completing their construction, including the gates and citadels, in just three years (1538-1541). The line of the wall in the south was built during the final stage of the fortifications' construction. A lack of money and the urgency to complete the building project - out of fear of a European invasion - led the planners to base its construction on the line of the wall from the Fatimid and Crusader periods. This line left Mount Zion unprotected and outside the fortifications. From a military standpoint it was extremely important that Mount Zion be included inside the walls because otherwise it would then be a strategic asset to those who besieged the city. Nonetheless, the need to finish the fortifications as quickly as possible spurred the builders on. A popular legend of the time says that the builders who were responsible for the construction in this area paid with their heads for not including Mount Zion inside the city.
Zion Gate (David's Gate in Arabic) with all of its elaborate decorations was built in July 1540, west of the location of the medieval gate. Here it was no longer a direct continuation of the Street of the Jews (the cardo). This change was made in order to make the buildings on Mount Zion, among them David's Tomb, more accessible from the city. Six towers were erected in the southern segment of the wall, of which four are situated in the Mount Zion section. The towers served as sentry posts which overlooked the surrounding area. The concentration of towers in the Mount Zion section stems from the topographic advantage Mount Zion has vis-a-vis the fortifications.
In the second half of the nineteenth century the region adjacent to Zion Gate (Figs. 1, 2) went into decline. The leper colony, the city slaughter house, as well as the livestock market were all situated in the vicinity of it (Fig. 3).
After the leper colony was relocated outside the city, the livestock market developed near Zion Gate. This market was moved to the Sultan's Pool at the end of the nineteenth century. At this time shops were built the length of the southern wall (Fig. 4). These were removed at the beginning of the British Mandate, probably as part of the rehabilitation and preservation of the city (Fig. 5).
The War of Independence (1948). For an entire year, from December 2, 1947 until December 1, 1948, fierce battles raged in Jerusalem between the Palmach and the Arab soldiers, in which Mount Zion was an important strategic point. Several days after the outbreak of the war Mount Zion and a section of the city's western wall - from the southwestern tower until David's Citadel - were turned into Arab sniper outposts that continuously harassed Yemin Moshe. On May 18, 1948 the Palmach conquered Mount Zion. The machine gun fire that was aimed at the outposts on the wall and at the Armenian Quarter caused the city's Arab population to flee. Sappers in the Palmach approached the defended Zion Gate and placed an eighty kilogram explosive charge there. The resulting explosion created a small breach in the gate through which the soldiers, followed by reinforcements, broke into the Old City (Fig. 6). This opening and the establishment of a passageway to the besieged Jewish Quarter were not exploited to free the Jewish Quarter. After several hours Zion Gate was abandoned and afterwards the Sixth Regiment of the Jordanian Arab Legion took control of it, at which time they entered the Old City. Four other attempts by the Harel Brigade to the breach the gate in order to liberate the Jewish Quarter failed. The Jewish Quarter fell to the Jordanians on May 28, 1948 and c. 700 residents of the Jewish Quarter were expelled from it by way of Zion Gate. The following day the rest of the quarter's residents were allowed to leave and afterwards Zion Gate was sealed shut with an iron gate for the next nineteen years (Fig. 7).
The Six Day War (1967). On June 5, 1967 the Jordanians opened fire on the Israeli positions opposite them on Mount Zion and along the entire border in the city. As a result of the gunfire the dome on the Church of the Dormition caught fire. The shooting continued for two days and included bazooka and mortar fire (the effects of which added to the damage on the gate's facade). Two days later, the Jordanians deserted their positions in the region and the Old City was conquered by the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces who entered it through the Dung Gate.
With the unification of the city rehabilitation and development measures were begun in the Old City, particularly in the Jewish Quarter. This work, which was done at the end of the 1960's, included among other things treating and restoring the city walls. The heaps of refuse and collapse that had accumulated during the war were cleared away and most of the Jordanian positions that were on the city walls were removed. Parts of the city walls were repaired and the cracks in them were sealed.
In 1967 the Department of Antiquities carried out rehabilitation work on Zion Gate. This work mostly entailed the removal of hazards from the region of the arch and the inscription register, which had been severely damaged by the warfare (Fig. 8). The voussoirs of the flat arch were replaced with new stones; the stone courses above the inscription were changed, as were the stones that were damaged by the gunfire.
References:
P. Merom 1968. Thy Gates, Oh Jerusalem. Tel Aviv
E. Schiller 1977. Jerusalem: Vicissitudes in Recent Generations. Jerusalem.
E. Schiller 1978. The First Photographs of Jerusalem: The Old City. Jerusalem.
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| Orientation map |
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| 1. View of Zion Gate in 1898. From: the Matson Collection, Library of Congress (Picture No. 06554). |
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| 2. Zion Gate at the beginning of the twentieth century. From: Schiller 1978. |
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| 3. The lepers' quarters next to the Zion Gate in 1860. From: Schiller 1977. |
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| 4. The street with shops next to Zion Gate at the end of the nineteenth century. From: Schiller 1977. |
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| 5. Zion Gate during the British Mandate, 1936. Courtesy of Photo Illiya, The Old City. |
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| 6. Zion Gate during the War of Independence, 1948. Courtesy of the Ammunition Hill Archive. |
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| 7. Residents leaving the Jewish Quarter by way of Zion Gate, 1948. Photograph: John Phillips. From: the exhibition "Alone on the Walls"- Documentation of the Fall of the Jewish Quarter in 1948 http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_sys/picture/atarim/Toursite_form_atar.asp?icon_cat=5&pic_cat=1&site_id=7175&type_id=289&york_cat=8 |
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| 8. The front of Zion Gate after the Six Day War, 1967. From: Mirom 1968. |
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