The Jaffa Gate in The Old City
The Jaffa Gate, currently the main entrance to the Old City, gate is named so for it served as the gate leading to the port city of Jaffa The Ottomans built a clock tower on the gate structure to commemorate the 30 year rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. However, the clock tower was removed and relocated several times by the British mandate which felt that it was visually unfitting. Similar clock towers can still be seen in Jaffa and other parts of the former empire. Today vehicles enter the Old City through the gate but until 1898 the gate was blocked and the fortress was surrounded by a wide moat. In honor of his visit to the Holy Land, the Ottomans reopened the gate and sealed the moat thus allowing the German Kaiser Wilhelm II to enter the Old City mounted on his horse. The outline of the Ottoman wall and moat can still be seen on the newly renovated Umar Ibn Al-Khattab Square.
