Sha'ar HaGai

Sha'ar HaGai (Hebrew: שער הגיא) in Hebrew, a name literally translated from Bab al-Wad or Bab al-Wadi in Arabic (Hebrew: באב אל-ואד, Arabic: باب الواد or باب الوادي), meaning Gate of the Valley, is a point on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, 23 km from Jerusalem, where the road begins to ascend through a deep valley flanked by steep rocky slopes, of the intermittent Nahshon Stream, or Wadi Ali in Arabic.

Etymology

The Arabic name Bab al-Wad, 'Gate of the Valley', was used in Hebrew as well, as seen in the 1948 song, until after the establishment of the State of Israel and the creation of the Hebrew name, Sha'ar HaGai, a verbatim translation of the Arabic name.

History

Ottoman period

The Jaffa–Jerusalem road was initially made accessible for wheeled vehicles by the Ottomans in 1867, and since then served as the main highway to Jerusalem, favoured over more topographically convenient routes such as the one following the ridge north of it and known since biblical times as the "ascent of Beth-Horon" (today's Route 443). The journey from Jaffa to Jerusalem was reduced, thanks to this upgrade, from three to two days and Bab al-Wad became the one place where travellers had to stop for the night. For this purpose, the Ottomans built there an inn or caravansary, used soon after, in 1869, the year of the inauguration of the Suez Canal, by travelling royalty taking a detour to Jerusalem such as Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary, the future British king Edward VII and his brother-in-law the future German emperor Frederick III. In 1898 the site was used again by German emperor Wilhelm II and his wife Augusta Victoria, who slept there in a tent camp. The largest bell for the church of the Augusta Victoria Foundation, initiated by Wilhelm during his 1898 visit and built between 1907 and 1910, weighed six tonnes and required that the road be widened and paved.

British Mandate

After World War I, Todros Warshavsky, a Jew born in Jerusalem in 1877, leased the khan and moved there with his family, offering travelers light meals and care of animals.

1948 war

During the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, this area saw fierce fighting between Arab forces and Jewish convoys on the way to blockaded West Jerusalem. Bab al-Wad and the defile it guards changed hands between the Arab Liberation Army supported by local Arab irregulars, and Jewish Palmach and Haganah units, until April 20 1948, when the Arabs recaptured the heights around Bab al-Wad closing off the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road.

After the beginning of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the fort at Latrun, two kilometres west of Bab al-Wad, was held by the Arab Legion, the British-trained and commanded army of Transjordan, thus reinforcing the Arab siege of West Jerusalem.