The Lions of the Lion’s Gate
The Lions’ Gate is one of the gates of the Old City Wall in Jerusalem. It is named so because of the reliefs of two pairs of prey animals on both sides that resemble lions, although contrary to popular opinion and the gate’s name - these are actually cheetahs.
The gate was built between 1538-1539 during the construction of the old city wall by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. It is located in the northeastern part of the wall. The “Lion’s Gate” street leads to it from within the Muslim Quarter, and it serves as the main exit from the Old City towards the Mount of Olives and the primary entrance for Muslim worshipers coming to the Temple Mount.
The two pairs of raptors placed on the front of the gate were the symbol of the Mamluk sultan Baybars. They were reused after they were taken from a Muslim pilgrims’ hostel that Baybars built in the 13th century near the site.
In 1948, with the fall of the Jewish Quarter to the hands of the Arab Legion, the quarter’s defenders were led into captivity through the Lions’ Gate. 19 years later, during the Six Day War, Israeli paratroopers broke into the Old City - symbolically through this exact same Gate. Mordechai (Motta) Gur, commander of paratroopers’ brigade during the war and later IDF’s Chief of Staff, yelled the famous call “Go Ben Tzur, go!” to his driver Moshe ben Tzur who broke through the gate with the armored car in which they were riding. This was the first time in the history of Jerusalem that an army broke into the city from the east, since all previous conquests took place from the north which is topographically easier to access.
(Anecdote authored by: עמיר)
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