Warren's Gate

Rav Getz synagogue. The arch to the right belongs to Warren's Gate.

31°46′40″N 35°14′04″EWarren's Gate (Hebrew: שער וורן, romanized: Sha'ar Varen) is an ancient entrance into the Temple platform in Jerusalem. Located about 150 feet (46 m) into the Western Wall Tunnel, the gate was first described by and later named after nineteenth century British surveyor Charles Warren. During the Second Temple period, Warren's Gate led to a tunnel and staircase at the Temple Mount.

Following the Rashidun Caliphate conquest of Jerusalem from the Byzantines, Jews were allowed to pray inside the tunnel, turning the location into a Jewish synagogue. When the synagogue was destroyed in the First Crusade during the siege of Jerusalem in 1099, the tunnel ended up becoming a water cistern, thus its later name being Cistern 30.^[1]

The area is surrounded by a vaulted 18-foot (5.5 m) tunnel.

Rabbi Yehuda Getz, the late official Rabbi of the Western Wall, believed that the Gate represented the point west of the Wall closest to the Holy of Holies. An underground dispute broke out in July 1981 between Jewish explorers who were inside Warren's Gate and Arab guards who came down to meet them through surface cistern entries.^[2] A small underground riot commenced, but soon ended when the Jerusalem police appeared at the scene, restoring peace.

References

1. Warren's Gate, Western Wall Heritage Foundation website
2. Nadav Shragai, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Haaretz, 25 April 2003. via archive.org