The
Damascus Gate is one of the main Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is located in the wall on the city's northwest side and connects to a highway leading out to Nablus, which in the Hebrew Bible was called Shechem or Sichem, and from there, in times past, to the capital of Syria, Damascus; as such, its modern English name is the Damascus Gate, and its modern Hebrew name is
Sha'ar Shkhem, meaning
Shechem Gate, or in modern terms
Nablus Gate. Of its historic Arabic names,
Bฤb al-Naแนฃr means "gate of victory", and the current one,
Bฤb al-สฟฤmลซd, means "gate of the column". The latter, in use continuously since at least as early as the 10th century, preserves the memory of a Roman column towering over the square behind the gate and dating to the 2nd century AD.