Bab al-Jabiya (Arabic: بَابُ الْجَابِيَّةِ, romanized: Bāb al-Jābīyah; Gate of the Water Trough) is one of the seven ancient city-gates of Damascus, Syria. During the Roman era, the gate was dedicated to Mars.[1] Bab al-Jabiya was the main entrance on the city's west side. The gate opens on Medhat Pasha Souq, which is the modern western half of the Street Called Straight, the Roman east-west artery (decumanus), which still connects it to Bab Sharqi (the Roman "Gate of the Sun").[2] The gate's modern name dates to the Umayyad period and comes from the name of Jabiyah in the Golan Heights, then the capital city of the Ghassanids, allies of the Roman Empire.[3]
During Roman times the gate was a typical tripartite gate with three entrances; a central carriageway for wheeled vehicles, flanked by two pedestrian entrances.[4] Close to the gate is where the Roman Temple of Jupiter and the Theatre of Herod the Great (modern Bayt al-Aqqad), once stood.[5]