There was a pair of gates located on the south side of the temple mount, known as the Huldah gates. The gate to the west was a double arched gate; the one to the east was triple-arched. The double-arch gate is mostly hidden by a medieval structure. Traces of the eastern gate are still visible. The gates were previously adorned with grand decorated capitols.
Each of the two gates served as a passage way to the temple, entering from the south. The Huldah gates were excavated in the ’70s by Meir Ben-Dov among other Israeli archaeologists. This area is currently a portion of the Southern Wall Archaeological Park.
In our photo above you can see how the triple-arched gate has been blocked and assimilated into the wall.
The name Huldah comes from the Old Testament prophetess, who lived during the days of Judah’s good king Josiah, when the lost book of the law of the LORD was found: “So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shullam son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the supervisor of the wardrobe. (She lived in Jerusalem in the Second District)” (2 Kings 22:14, NET).
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