Dung Gate

The Dung Gate Jerusalem (Sha’ar Ha’Ashpot) is the smallest and lowest of the Old City gates, and for most visitors it is the most important: it is the gate closest to the Western Wall and the main entrance to the Western Wall plaza. The name appears in the Book of Nehemiah, who describes rebuilding the gates of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile: “The Dung Gate was repaired by Malkijah son of Recab” (Nehemiah 3:14). The name likely refers to the gate through which refuse was carried out of the city to the Kidron Valley below.

The Gate Built by Suleiman the Magnificent Jerusalem

The current gate was built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century as a small, low opening in the southern wall. After 1967, when Israel captured the Old City, the Western Wall became freely accessible through the gate that the Jordanians had already widened during their control (1948–1967) to allow vehicle access to accommodate the traffic of worshippers and visitors heading to the Wall. The original Ottoman arch is still visible within the enlarged opening. Security checkpoints at the gate control access to both the Western Wall plaza and, through separate checkpoints, to the Temple Mount.

Approaching the Dung Gate from outside the walls, the view encompasses the southern wall of the Temple Mount, the City of David on the slope below, and the Mount of Olives rising beyond. The Davidson Center and the Southern Steps are a short walk along the southern wall to the east.

Gateway to Prayer

Today, the Dung Gate is the busiest entrance to the Western Wall complex. On any given day, thousands of people pass through its security checkpoint: worshippers heading to morning prayers, bar mitzvah families carrying Torah scrolls, soldiers in uniform, tourists with cameras, and ultra-Orthodox men hurrying to the Wall before dawn. On Friday evenings, the flow reverses as Shabbat crowds stream out through the gate after welcoming the Sabbath at the Wall. On Jewish holidays and especially on Tisha B’Av, the fast day commemorating the Temple’s destruction, the gate becomes a bottleneck as tens of thousands converge on the Western Wall plaza.

June 7, 1967

The Dung Gate gained its modern significance on June 7, 1967, when Israeli paratroopers entered the Old City during the Six-Day War. After breaking through the Lions’ Gate and reaching the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, the area around the Dung Gate became the main access point to the newly liberated Western Wall plaza. Within hours, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the Chief Military Chaplain, blew a shofar at the Western Wall, and the Dung Gate became the route through which a nation returned to its holiest site after 19 years of separation. Today it remains the primary entrance for visitors heading to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.

Visit with Hoshen Tours

Dung Gate is the closest entrance to the Western Wall and the primary access point for visiting the Temple Mount compound. From here, your Hoshen Tours guide can lead you up into the Jewish Quarter with its synagogues and archaeological sites, along the ancient Cardo with its restored Roman columns, or to the intimate Little Western Wall tucked away in the Muslim Quarter. This gate is an essential landmark on any Jerusalem itinerary. Hoshen Tours often combines this site with Sephardic Synagogues, Deir es-Sultan, and Sisters of Zion for a memorable day exploring the region.