Leon's Message Board

When traveling in the Bible lands I enjoy seeing family life there, parents with children engaging in various activities–often outdoors cooking, or playing, or just out walking. On my recent trip to Israel, this young man was walking with his Dad as I was making my way toward the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. He was about the same age as one of my grandchildren.

A new friend in Jerusalem.

The two caught up with me from behind, and the Dad told me his son wanted to ask me where I was from. I answered him, “the United States,” and “Alabama.” A broad smile resulted. I asked permission to take his photo, and it was granted; one of me with my new friend and one of father and son.

Local father and son in Jerusalem, wanting to make my acquaintance. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

I gave the father my card with URL for this blog, and told him to check it out to see their photo.

The Damascus Gate is located on the north side of Jerusalem, so named because this would be the direction going out of Jerusalem to Damascus, ca. 150 miles NNW. The Jews call this gate the Shechem Gate, and the Arabs call it Bab el-Amud.

Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

This entrance gate along the present north wall dramatically accents the spot that has been the main north entrance to Jerusalem for almost two millennia. R. W. Hamilton’s sounding here in 1937 and Basil Hennessey’s excavations in the 1960s; have revealed, below the modern entrance, layer upon layer of earlier gateways, reaching back through Arab, Crusader and Byzantine constructions to Roman Age foundations. The earliest certain construction here dates to Aelia Capitolina, the second to fourth-century C.E. city of Hadrian, but both Hamilton and Hennessey felt they found evidence that Hadrian’s gateway was built on foundations that went back to the Second Temple period. BAS Biblical World in Pictures. (2003).

Click photos for larger view.