XX JERUSALEM SCENES Outside the Damascus Gate Continuing eastwards along the northern walls of Jerusalem from the New Gate (the vantage point for last month’s picture) we come to the Damascus Gate, the largest of the eight gates of the city. This gate is on the site of an old Roman gate, constructed by the Emperor Hadrian when turning Jerusalem into the Roman city of Aelia Capitolina. The foundations of this gate are visible below the present gate, which was built by the Turks in the sixteenth century after the walls had been broken down for several centuries. The gate has had several names over the centuries. The Arabs called it the Gate of the Column, because a column erected in honour of Hadrian had once existed in the open place just inside. The Crusaders called it St Stephen’s Gate, a name now given to a gate on the east side, because by tradition it was where Stephen was stoned. The name Damascus Gate links with the fact that it is the main exit from the Old City northward in the direction of Damascus. Our picture shows the scene outside the gate, taken from on top of the gate. The steps leading down to the open area and the bridge across the outer ditch are modern. Here an informal street market has grown up in which bread, fruit and vegetables and all kinds of trinkets are sold, and people stop and chat. These people are not Jews but the Arab inhabitants of east Jerusalem. It is the Arabs who in many instances preserve the old way of life going back to Bible times. In Scripture we read of the importance of the gate as the centre of activity, and so it is at the Damascus Gate today.—Tony Benson.