Damascus Gate

Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City carries two histories, one on top of the other. The guide traces how the Roman emperor Hadrian raised a triumphal gate and a victory column on this spot in the second century, and how travelers giving directions to that column left behind the gate's enduring Arabic name, Bab al-Amud. It follows Suleiman the Magnificent's sixteenth-century masons as they rebuilt the walls directly over the Roman ruins below. Look for the arrow slits and the turret, patched after the 1967 fighting, in the stonework above you.