Bāb Kīsān

 

The Roman Gate of Saturn would—according to the New Testament—be the place where St. Paul escaped from Damascus, as related in 2 Corinthians 11:32-33:

In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:

And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.

The biblical text raises a controversy about the legal status of Damascus at the time: was it ruled by the Romans or the Nabateans—Aretas was a Nabatean ethnarch—and, if the latter, what was the nature of the relationship between the two powers? Also disputed is the exact location of St. Paul's departure from the city.

The Greek Catholic Chapel of Saint Paul claims the honor of having been erected at the site of St. Paul's descent. It was constructed in the third decade of the twentieth century using the remains of a blocked Arab gate that replaced the Roman one.The Australian historian Ross Burns raises doubts that such a closely guarded spot would be a likely choice for a clandestine getaway.

Ross Burns. Damascus, a History. Routledge 2005.