THE DAMASCUS GATE. 
The walls of Jerusalem are chiefly modern and Saracenic, but are built evidently on the 
site of more ancient walls, raised in the time of the Crusaders, and those, not improbably, 
formed of the material of others still more ancient. They consist wholly of hewn stones, in 
general not of remarkable size, and laid in mortar. 
An Arabic inscription over the Yaffa Gate gives the rebuilding to Sultan Suleiman, in 
the year of the Hegira 948 (a.d. 1542). The walls are still stately, and, at a distance, 
picturesque; they have towers and battlements, the latter crowning a breastwork with 
loopholes. A broad walk passes along the top of the wall, protected by the breastwork, 
and reached by flights of steps from within. Their height varies according to the in¬ 
equalities of the ground outside from twenty to fifty feet. 
Jerusalem has four open gates and four walled up: which seem in general to retain the 
places of still older ones, and, in some instances, to be older than the walls. Of the four 
open gates, facing the four points of the compass, that of which the view is given looks 
to the north, and is called by the natives Bab-el-Amud, or “ Gate of the Pillar.” The 
“Damascus Gate” is a name given by the Europeans, from its leading to Damascus and 
Nabulus by the great northern road. It is more ornamented than the others, and forms 
a striking object to the traveller. 1 
Roberts’s Journal. Robinson, Biblical Researches, vol. i. 386. 
