Golden Gate

$6.00

Description

The Golden Gate’s outer façade is composed of two blocked-up gateways adorned with intricately carved relief arches. The gate appears to have been built in the Umayyad period, on the foundations of an earlier gate. The remains of two massive ancient gateposts are preserved inside this gate. These gateposts are set in the same line as the Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount and line up with the massive masonry that can be seen on either side of the Golden Gate and farther south in the Eastern Wall. The gateposts and the three masonry sections appear therefore to be part of the same construction. The top of the southern gatepost is level with the top of the ancient masonry that can be seen south of the Golden Gate. The northern gatepost is one stone course higher and is located only one stone course below the surface of the Temple Mount. The two gateposts belong to a gate that dates from the First Temple period and is most likely the Shushan Gate, mentioned in Mishnah Middot 1.3 as the only gate in the Eastern Wall.