The Zion Gate
Israel, Jerusalem, 3 March 2009

Overview

On 3 March 2009, Carol and John embarked on a walking tour of Jerusalem. We were part of a Grand Circle Tours group that visited, Israel, Egypt and Jordan. Upon departing from our bus, we were greeted by a slow drizzle. With cameras and umbrellas in hand, our first stop was Jerusalem's “Zion Gate.”

The following photos were taken during that visit with a Canon G.10 “PowerShot” 14.7 megapixel camera. Behind the majority of the thumbnail photos shown below is a full-size (4,416 × 2,480 pixel) 16:9 HD formatted photo. A few of the photos had been straightened and cropped. Although copyrighted © by Skytamer Images, none of the photos contain messy copyright notices. They all look like they came straight out of your camera … Enjoy! These photos are for your personal use only, and are not to be used for commercial purposes without written permission from Skytamer Images.

Let's start off our visit to Zion Gate by checking out the Old Jerusalem map shown above. This will help orientate you as to the locations various venues that we will be visiting. The “Zion Gate” is located at the lower left of the map.

Zion Gate, is one of eight gates in the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Located in the south of the Old City, facing Mount Zion and Hebron, the Zion Gate leads into the Armenian and Jewish Quarters. Zion Gate is also known as David's Gate, because the tomb of King David is believed to be on Mt. Zion. The gate was built for Suleiman the Magnificent in 1540 CE. In the 19^th century, an area close to the gate was the gathering place of lepers.

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Palmach gained control of the Jewish Quarter via the Zion Gate. The stones surrounding the gate were pockmarked by weapons fire and bullet holes that are still visible today. The last British troops leaving Jerusalem on May 13, 1948, presented Mordechai Weingarten with the key to the gate. The gate was under the rule of Jordan until the Six-Day War.

Both pedestrians and vehicles use the gate, although maneuvering is difficult due to the L-shaped passageway. Until recently, there was two-way vehicular traffic passing through the gate. Today cars can exit but not enter the Old City via this gate.

Archive Photos

This concludes our visit to the Zion Gate located in Jerusalem, Israel &hellip: we hope you enjoyed your visit. To learn more about the Zion Gate, visit the Wikipedia reference noted below. Please remember that the photos used on this webpage are copyrighted © by Skytamer Images, and are for your personal use only. Commercial use of these images requires written permission from Skytamer Images.

References

1. Shupek, John, “Skytamer Images Photo Archive”
2. Google Earth, “Satellite Image”
3. Wikipedia, Zion Gate
4. Map, Wikipedia, Old City (Jerusalem)