Bab Sharqi

The gate was established around 200 AD and dedicated by the Romans to the sun. According to the Arabic Wikipedia it took its present form under Emperor Septimius Severus and was completed under Caracalla, reportedly on the site of an earlier Greek Gate of the Sun; a relief of a sun disc above the gate no longer exists as a result of restoration work.

According to the German Wikipedia, the commander Khalid ibn al-Walid entered Damascus through this gate on 18 September 634 during the Muslim conquest. Because the triple gate was poorly suited to defence, it was partly walled up in the 12th century under Nur ad-Din; only the central opening was kept and turned into a bent entrance, and a minaret was added. The large façade was restored in the 1960s.[1][2][3]

The gate has a large central passage for caravans and wheeled traffic, flanked by two smaller passages for pedestrians. Its decoration is minimal: projecting pilasters are the only ornament. It may have been reinforced by flanking towers. At 26 metres wide it spanned the decumanus, later the Street Called Straight, which had a 14-metre carriageway and two covered colonnades; remains of these colonnades survive inside the gate.[1][2][3]

The Street Called Straight, named in biblical sources, still links Bab Sharqi with the western gate, Bab al-Jabiyah. The surrounding Christian quarter is named after the gate; nearby are the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of St Sarkis, the Melkite al-Zeitoun Church and, a little to the north, the House of Ananias. UNESCO lists the city walls and gates among the key attributes of the World Heritage property Ancient City of Damascus.[1][2][3][4]

The sources document no current condition of the gate. They record the restoration of the façade in the 1960s and the loss of the sun relief through restoration work (undated). UNESCO's 2009 statement names the walls and gates as surviving attributes of the old city.[2][3][4]