Yosef ben Matityahu, also known by his Roman name Josephus Flavius, describes four gates in the western wall of the Temple Mount, during the latest period of the Second Temple. In his book named ‘the Antiquities of the Jews’, Yosef ben Matityahu wrote as follows: “In the western parts of the wall stood four gates: one that faced the king’s palace through the valley in the middle that was crossed, two to the suburb, and the last gate to the rest of the city…”.
Warren Gate is one of the Temple Mount’ gates, which according to the description by Yosef ben Matityahu, the gate led from the temple mount to the suburbs.
General Charles Warren was one of the first archaeologists in Jerusalem who was sent to the land of Israel on behalf of the British Foundation for the Exploration of the Land of Israel, in order to find archaeological discoveries, and this was during the second half of the 19th century. Charles Warren discovered the gate and hence the origin of the gate name.
From here we can see three out of four gates mentioned by Yosef ben Matityahu: the gate that was above Robinson’s Arch, then on the same line but below it, in the women’s prayer area you can see the Barclay gate jamb, and if we continue left till the northern end of the prayer square, we will reach the Wilson arch which on top of it was a gate. The fourth gate that Yosef ben Matityahu is probably referring to is Warren Gate. The gate, which was the northernmost of the four gates in the Western Wall, led from the street level or slightly above it, through an underground tunnel, and from there stairs to the Temple Mount Plaza.
Before we go to see the upper outer wall of Warren Gate, it is important to note that after the destruction of the second temple in the year 70, the gate was abandoned. Hundreds of years later, after the Muslims conquered Jerusalem in 638 from the Byzantines, they apparently allowed the Jews to build a synagogue there, and it was then known by the name of ‘The Cave’ as mentioned in documents from the Cairo Genizah. The Cairo Genizah is a collection of hundreds of thousands Jewish manuscript that were kept in a storeroom at the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo written between the 9th and 19th centuries.
When the Crusaders conquered the city in 1099, they killed the members of the Jewish community, destroyed the synagogue and turned it into a cistern. The inner part of the gate was discovered by Warren in a cistern and therefore was named after him. When he surveyed it, Warren saw that it was perpendicular to the Western Wall and therefore determined that it was a gate. It is important to note that Warren saw the gate from the inside, he did not see the outside, which was only exposed by the excavation of the Wall tunnels. In order to see its outside, we will need to enter the tunnel by the western wall, let’s go there.
We now see the largest stone in “Nidbach Raba” named sometime The Great Course. This is a layer of huge stones from the days of Herod the Great. This course of stones is the tallest and longest in the Western Wall and its stones are the largest building stones found in Israel from ancient times. It continues north along the Western Wall until it reaches Warren Gate which is the northern border of “Nidbach Raba”.
We are about 40 meters north of Wilson Arch, below us is the sealed Warren Gate, leading to the Temple Mount from the street level. We see very little of the gate – we can see the parts of the lintel made of a stone arch. The shape and the style of the gate’s arch is similar to other gates built during the 11th century. This dating coincides with the data from the Cairo Genizah, that is – the gate entrance is identified with the ‘cave’ which is the name given to the main synagogue of the Jews in Jerusalem during the 11th century, a name that originates from the time when Jews were allowed to settle in the Holy City. In the Genizah letters, the earthquake in the year 1033 is described, as the cause the ‘cave’ was destroyed. It was renovated from funds raised by the Jews of the diaspora.
During this renovation, the original doorframe that was in place since the Second Temple, was replaced with the one we see today. The mezuzahs of the gate are apparently the remains of the original gate, and from this it is clear that its lower parts, which have not yet been exposed, include its original parts.
The gate matches the descriptions of Yosef ben Matityahu, since it is the fourth gate known to us in the Western Wall. Near the gate or slightly north of it, we are west of the Foundation stone under the dome of the rock.
The gate was blocked for centuries. In 1981, when it was decided to install a synagogue by the gate, a niche was cut in the gate for the Holy Ark. Following the construction activity, a hole was created in the gate, behind which a tunnel under the Temple Mount was revealed. Its dimensions were impressive: 28 meters long and 6 meters wide. Despite the intention to explore the underground of the temple mount secretly, the operation was exposed, leading to conflicts with the Muslims. As a result, the government ordered to seal the opening to the tunnel with concrete. The gate is currently sealed to prevent anyone passing through to the Temple Mount.
And to conclude as usual I have a question for you, Charles Warren discovered another important site in Jerusalem that is named after him, what is the site? The answer will appear at the end of the video.
