The Lions Gate also known as "Sha’ar Ha’aryot" (Hebrew "שער האריות") and Bab Sittna Maryam in Arabic, St Stephen’s Gate, Gate of the Tribes and Gate of Yehoshafat, was built by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1538-1539

This gate was named the Lions Gate because of a pair of panthers, often mistaken for lions are carved near the gate’s crest. Legend has it that Suleiman the Magnificent decided to levy unaffordable taxes on the residents of the old city of Jerusalem. While contemplating one night how to punish those who did not pay the tax he fell asleep and had a dream. Suleiman saw in his dream two lions coming to devour him. When questioned by his dream solver, what he thought of just prior to drifting off to sleep, Suleiman said that he was pondering about a suitable punishment for those people in Jerusalem who avoided paying the taxes. His advisor replied that it was God’s punishment for thinking badly about the residents of the holy city. So, in atonement for his "sin," Suleiman constructed the Lion’s gate to protect the city and its inhabitants from its attackers.

In the 1967 Six Day War the Israeli 55 Paratroop Brigade came through this gate and raised the Israeli flag above the Temple Mount.  This gate is situated on the east wall close to the Temple Mount.

Click the following for the list of all of Old Jerusalem's Eight Gates: The Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem