Herod’s Gate, or Flowers Gate, is one of the newest gates in the Old City of Jerusalem, built in 1875, which opens from a wall tower. While it is simple, it has floral design near the top of the gate.
The gate’s name was derived from a mistaken belief held by pilgrims that a nearby building was at one time the palace of Herod Antipas.
Formerly, the residential area gate led to was known as Bezetha, or “New City,” settled during the late Second Temple period to accommodate Jerusalem’s growing population. Today this area is the Muslim Quarter.
At the time when Suleiman the Magnificent built the city walls, it was just a a small wicket gate and rarely opened.
By 1875, in order to provide a passageway to the new neighborhoods, which were beginning to develop north of the Old City, the Ottomans opened a new gate in the northern, frontal wall of the tower closed the original lateral gate.