Khan Sha'ar Hagai

We visited Khan Sha'ar HaGai during the Passover holidays. The khan, or caravanserai, was one of the way stations built by the Turks at the end of the 19th century to provide accommodation for pilgrims travelling from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The building stands close to the side of the Tel Aviv to Jerusalem highway. In 1869, the year of the inauguration of the Suez Canal, part of the road adjacent to the site was paved to allow access for carriages and carts. When the structure itself was built in 1873 it included a ground floor with stables, a bakery, a vaulted courtyard and an orchard, and served as a roadside hostelry where travellers could rest and recover before continuing their journey.

The khan has recently been renovated and opened as a heritage centre telling the story of the brave Palmach fighters, commanded by Yitzhak Rabin, who broke through to besieged Jerusalem during Israel's War of Independence.

The Jaffa-Jerusalem road near the Bab al-Wad caravanserai, 1917.

Photo credit: Imperial War Museum archive

Sha'ar HaGai, which translates into English as "the Gateway to the Valley", is also known by its Arabic name "Bab al-Wad". It is at the point on the Tel Aviv to Jerusalem highway where the road begins to ascend through a deep valley flanked by steep rocky slopes. Thanks to these characteristics, during the Arab uprising of 1936-39, the Arabs first realised the potential of this narrow part of the road for ambushes. In the War of Independence they began blocking the road there with the goal of preventing any supplies from reaching Jerusalem, including food, water and medicine. A decision was made among the Palmach commanders to gain control of the area to prevent these attacks. They organised convoys accompanied by armoured cars to force a way through to Jerusalem. The "armour" consisted of a thin sandwich layer of tin sheeting and plywood that was not effective against heavier weapons. Many of these vehicles were destroyed by fighting at Bab al-Wad (Sha'ar HaGai) and to this day they have been left at the side of the road as a monument to the bravery of the men and women who saved Jerusalem from certain starvation.

Eventually the Burma Road was cut through the mountains to bypass the Arab held areas and break the siege. The road was in use during the first, crucial part of Israel's War of Independence, being replaced after just six months by a longer but safer detour route. 

The Palmach fighters managed to capture Bab al-Wad itself, but the road section west of it, controlled from Latrun, remained in Jordanian hands until 1967, cutting off this main access route to Jerusalem. In 1967, during the Six-Day War, it was captured by Israel and the main Tel Aviv to Jerusalem highway was constructed once again.

The road to Jerusalem at Bab al-Wad seen from Arab Legion positions at Latrun, 1948.

This image is now in the public domain because its term of copyright has expired in Israel.

A bulldozer tows a truck on the "Burma Road" to Jerusalem, June 1948.

Photo credit: photographer Hans Pinn

The new heritage centre, which is managed by Israel's Nature and Parks Authority, reveals the legacy of the battles and the story of the Palmach fighters and some civilians who broke through to besieged Jerusalem. The story is told through five interactive stations, including an opening presentation and video of fighters' testimonies, a road station, a wireless station, a supply station, a station that simulates an armoured vehicle on the way to Jerusalem during the war and a final exhibition.

A song was written to honour and commemorate the bravery of those who died, and those who risked their lives to save the city of Jerusalem. Palmach member and Israeli poet Haim Gouri channelled the pain he felt upon seeing the wreckage of the convoys on the road to Jerusalem into writing "Bab el-Wad." His tribute to the fallen in the battle for the road to Jerusalem became one of the most famous songs of the Israeli War of Independence.

Here I'm passing by. I stand beside the rock,
A black asphalt highway, mountain ridges, stones.
Evening darkens slowly and a sea breeze blows.
Over Beit Mahsir, the first starlight glows.

Bab al-Wad,
Remember our names for all time.
Where convoys to the city broke through
Our dead lie sprawled by the roadside.
The iron skeleton, like my comrade, is mute.

Here tar and lead baked in the sun
Here nights passed with fire and blades
Here grief and glory dwell side by side
A scorched armoured car and unknown men’s names.

Bab al-Wad...

And here I walk by, making no sound
And I remember them all, remember each one.
Here together we fought on cliffs and harsh ground
Here as one family, each to each bound.

Bab al-Wad...

A spring day will come and cyclamens bloom
Anemones redden the hilltop and slope.
You who will walk here, on the path that we trod
Never forget us - we are Bab al-Wad.

* I recently changed the email subscription on my blog from Feedburner to Follow.it. Those of you who signed up with Feedburner to receive an email with my latest post will now get one from Follow.it instead. When you receive the latest mail, please click on the green "Continue Reading" on the bottom left of the post to access the full blog post.
There may have been a few days when emails were sent out from both Feedburner and Follow.it. This has now been stopped. Please accept my apologies for the overload of emails. 

** This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Our World Tuesday, Tuesday's Treasures and My Corner of the World.