Portals to History and Conflict: The Gates of Jerusalem's Old City

People are seen near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City October 7, 2019. (Reuters)
People are seen near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City October 7, 2019. (Reuters)
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Portals to History and Conflict: The Gates of Jerusalem's Old City

People are seen near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City October 7, 2019. (Reuters)
People are seen near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City October 7, 2019. (Reuters)

Muslims, Christians and Jews pass daily through the gates of Jerusalem’s Old City, on their way to and from prayers or simply to go about their everyday business in one of the most politically sensitive spots on earth.

There are eight gates - seven are open and one is sealed - along the Old City walls that were built in the 16th century by Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.

It’s always busy at Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the Muslim quarter, and at Jaffa Gate, facing west toward the Mediterranean, where local residents and tourists mix in markets lining stone alleyways, said Reuters.

Lion’s Gate - two pairs of heraldic lions are carved on the archway - is also known as St. Stephen’s Gate. It faces east, toward ancient Jericho. It is often crowded with Muslim worshippers after prayers at al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine.

Many Jewish worshippers take another route to Judaism’s nearby Western Wall. They pass through the Dung Gate, the closest entrance to the holy place, and Jewish families on their way to celebrate a 13-year-old son’s Bar Mitzvah can be spotted making their way to the wall.

Security is always tight in a volatile area at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli police patrol and closed-circuit TV cameras monitor the passageways of the Old City.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem, where the Old City is located, as the capital of a state they seek to establish in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel views all of Jerusalem, including the walled Old City that it captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as its “eternal and indivisible” capital.



Heavy Rains Flood Congo’s Capital


People walk through the flooded streets of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
People walk through the flooded streets of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
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Heavy Rains Flood Congo’s Capital


People walk through the flooded streets of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)
People walk through the flooded streets of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)

Major flooding hit several neighborhoods in Congo's capital Kinshasa, killing at least 19 people and causing severe damage, authorities said Saturday.

Heavy rains Friday through Saturday triggered floods and landslides in Kinshasa's western neighborhood of Ngaliema, killing at least 17 people, the local mayor, Fulgence Bolokome, told the radio station Top Congo. Two avenues in the city were also cut off, he added.

Two other people died when the deluge toppled a wall in the southern neighborhood of Lemba, Mayor Jean-Serge Poba said. A police camp and a bridge were damaged, The AP news reported.

“It was around 3 a.m. when we heard a loud noise. When we went outside, the neighbors’ wall had collapsed. The man and his wife both died, leaving behind five children who made it out unharmed,” resident Clovis Kalenga told The Associated Press.

In April, floods in Kinshasa killed at least 22 people and cut off access to over half the city and the country’s main airport.