Gate of the Sun

Seen in the attached photo is the East Gate of Damascus viewed from outside the city wall (i.e. east to west) shortly after its restoration in the mid 1970's.

This Roman monument was the subject of a systematic study by Wulzinger & Watzinger during WWI. Their findings and conclusions were published in German all the way back in 1921 and -to the best of my knowledge- have never been translated to any other language.

Bab Sharki (the East Gate) is the beginning of the Street Called Straight of Biblical fame that, as the Decumanus Maximus or Via Recta,  formed the main artery of Roman Damascus ending at Bab a-Jabiya (reported in different medieval literature sources as the Gate of Mars or Jupiter of the Classical Age) at the west end. The German team estimated the ancient street as located approximately three meters below the current level and attributed the construction of the East Gate to the end of the second century CE and the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus or his son Carcalla few years later.

For their part, a French team (Jean-Michel Mouton, Jean-Olivier Guilhot, & Claudine Piaton) was far less specific though perhaps more accurate. In a recent (2018)  study that may very well be the definitive one for a long time to come, they placed the gate's construction anywhere between the onset of the 1st century CE and the age of Augustus Caesar on the one hand, and the beginning of the 3rd century when Caracalla presided over the fate of the Roman Empire on the other. 

A novel and daring (though perfectly plausible) contribution of the French scientists was their proposal that the East Gate was not -at least at the time of its erection- a gate at all. It rather served as an imposing monument located at a considerable distance outside the city's wall to the east, not unlike Hadrian's Arch in Gerasa (aka Jerash in Jordan) or the famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris in modern times. Only under the Byzantines would this beautiful edifice be integrated in Damascus' walls as the city expanded further east.  

Supporting this hypothesis is the very structure of the "gate", a huge arch with three bays would amount to an Achilles Heel in the city's fortifications greatly facilitating the task of aggressors and besiegers. Viewed through this prism, the decision of the Atabeg Nureddin Zengi (second half of the 12th century) to wall-up two of the arch's three openings -the large one in the middle one plus the smaller south aperture- derived from purely defensive considerations and was perfectly logical and understandable. He also added an advanced barbican to further secure the hitherto vulnerable access. The whole structure was enhanced by a porch created inside the gate in the first half the the 13th century under the Ayyubid. 

Khalid had in 635 to force his way through Bab Sharki as Abu Ubayda entered the future Omayyad Capital peacefully from Bab al-Jabia in the west. Omar's two victorious lieutenants would subsequently meet at a location called al-Maqsalat in the Straight Street but this is another story. 

Dorothée Sack. Damaskus. Entwicklung und Struktur einer orientalisch-islamischen Stadt. von Zabern, Mainz 1989.

Karl Wulzinger & Carl Watzinger. Damaskus, die antike Stadt. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1921.    

Jean-Michel Mouton, Jean-Olivier Guilhot et Claudine Piaton. Portes et murailles de Damas.