Dung Gate


The Dung Gate or Mughrabi Gate, or Silwan Gate is one of the Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was built as a small postern gate in the 16th century by the Ottomans, first widened for vehicular traffic in 1952 by the Jordanian, and again in 1985 by the Israeli authorities.
The gate is situated near the southeast corner of the Old City, southwest of the Temple Mount.
Directly behind the gate lies the entrance to the Western Wall Plaza. The Dung Gate is a main passage for vehicles coming out of the Old City and for buses headed to the Western Wall.

Name

The name Sha'ar Ha'ashpot appears in the Book of Nehemiah (. It is probably named after the residue that was taken from the Jewish Temple into the Valley of Hinnom, where it was burned. This ancient "Dung Gate" may not have been in the same location as the 16th-century gate, which only received this name in the 19th century.
Although Dung Gate is also known as the Mughrabi Gate, that name normally refers to one of the gates of the Temple Mount, which is inside the Old City walls. The name alludes to the Mughrabi Quarter, a neighborhood of North African Kutama Fatimids which was situated between both gates until 1967.
The name Silwan Gate refers to the village of Silwan that lies outside the gate, broadly southeast of it.

History

Fortified Ottoman postern

The Dung Gate was built as part of the new city walls erected under Suleiman the Magnificent between 1537-1541. The original gate was just 1.5 metres wide, topped by an arch and only designed for pedestrians and pack animals to pass through. Initially the gate, or more precisely the postern, included an inner gate tower, which was demolished still during the Ottoman period. Towards the end of Ottoman rule, a new gate tower or gatehouse was added, but this time outside the wall, in a style that blended in with the 16th-century fortifications. This outer tower was demolished by the British Mandate officials in 1938, probably as part of their drive to restore the walls to their original look, this bringing back to light the old stone decorations.

Jordanian and Israeli modernisation

In 1952, when the gate was widened by the Jordanian authorities to allow cars and buses to pass through here, a reinforced concrete girder was installed under the old stone arch. In 1984-85 the gate was again enlarged, the old arch and the other decorative elements being raised, so that the opening reached a height of 4.5 metres. The modern gate is built of reinforced concrete, but clad in stone, and the new design helps the old and new elements blend together without disturbing the general style of the city wall, with the gate's opening closing in a more curvy line in stead of the straight Jordanian lintel. Landscape architect Shlomo Aronson cooperated with architect Arthur Kutcher at implementing the decision of the Jerusalem Foundation established by then-mayor Teddy Kollek, motivated by the sharp increase in pilgrims traffic.