Citadel of Damascus, Tower X and the North Gate

With the exception of its rear wall, the tower is in ruins. About half of its west flank, however, is still standing. As can be seen from the plan, Tower 10 had been a double gate, the posterior one fronting the old curtain between Towers 15 and 16. It is unclear if both walls were constructed under the ʾAyyūbid al-ʿĀdil. Some attribute the posterior curtain to Saladin, though Professor K. A. C. Creswell of Cairo disagreed.

Tamerlane's engineers effected a great breach through this gate in 1400-1401, a prelude to the surrender of the Citadel. The task of repairing the damage fell to the Mamlūk Governor Nawrūz al-Ḥāfiẓī in 1406, a few years after the withdrawal of the Mongol hordes. The diagram details the purposefully complex structure of the North Gate, also known as Bāb al-Ḥadīd (i.e., the Iron Gate), with a tentative dating of its various components.

The attached photo was taken by Herzfeld in 1914. The North Gate is viewed from the outside with the Bānīās-ʿAqrabānī canal in the right bottom corner.

D. J. Cathcart King. The Defences of the Citadel of Damascus; a Great Mohammedan Fortress of the Time of the Crusades. Archaeologia, Volume XCIV, 1951 (p 57-96).