Damascus Gate

 ruins, archaeological site, city gate

The South-West Gate – Damascus Gate – is the most monumental and best preserved one. Nearly 50 m long it really includes two entrances: the innermost sector, with a main gate, nearly 22 m long, featuring the classical pattern with three pairs of buttresses and two rooms, was in fact preceded to the outside by a trapezoidal court, nearly 15m long, and by an outer sector with a second shorter gate, nearly 10.50 m long, with two pairs of buttresses and only one room. The eastern side of the inner gate, very well preserved, had a base structure with large alternating basalt and limestone orthostats , and also featured a tower, 20 m high, that is like the rampart itself, as happened also in the pouter gate, where a similar tower is less preserved. Outside this gate, which certainly was the most monumental city gate, the rampart had a double stone revetment, quite well preserved also in correspondence with the eastern sector.
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