Al-Qattanin Street

Al-Qattanin Street is a covered stone tunnel that leads directly to the Cotton Merchants Gate of the Temple Mount. Its vaulted ceiling is lined with small, uniform cells that once served as storehouses for merchants selling fine fabrics. During the fourteenth century, the Mamluk governor Tankiz commissioned this complex to provide a dedicated marketplace for the city's textile trade. A brass bolt still remains on the gate, where laborers once used a heavy iron ring to pull the doors shut each night.