Jaffa Gate is one of the best-known entrances to Jerusalem’s Old City, but it is more than a landmark arch beside the Citadel. It is a working passage through the western wall, a place where the city’s layered names meet and where road, pilgrimage and military histories overlap. In Arabic it is Bab al-Khalil, or Hebron Gate; in Hebrew and English it is commonly called Jaffa Gate. The names point in different directions: one toward the inland road to Hebron, the other toward Jaffa, the Mediterranean port historically connected with Jerusalem.
The gate belongs to the Ottoman wall system associated with Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. A commemorative inscription records the ruler and a construction date in 945 AH, corresponding to 1538–39. The Palestinian Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs describes the entrance as a stone opening followed by a covered vestibule and a passage that bends before reaching the city. This turn was not decorative. A bent route made a direct rush into the walled city more difficult than a straight opening, while heavy doors and the surrounding masonry gave the entrance a defensive character.