and is a popular venue for benefit events, craft shows, concerts, and sound-and-light performances. Ottoman clock tower In 1907 a clock was placed on the roof of the gate, and in 1908 a very ornate clock tower was built on top of Jaffa Gate' historical gate tower. Apart from serving the developing business district in the upper part of the Hinnom Valley, it was meant to be one of approximately one hundred such clock towers built throughout the Ottoman Empire in 1900 in celebration of the 25th year of rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II; but because of the high cost of 20,000 francs and the poverty of the city, the money was not raised in time, and the clock tower was not completed until 1908. Seven such clock towers were erected in what are now Israel and the Palestinian Territories – in Safed, Acre, Haifa, Nazareth, Nablus, Jerusalem, and Jaffa. The fact that the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem was selected for the clock tower indicates the gate's importance at the time, even more than the Damascus Gate. The clock tower was built of limestone quarried (a minor quarry activity) from the nearby Zedekiah's Cave. It stood 13 feet tall, and was topped by four clock faces, oriented to the cardinal compass points. The eastern and western faces showed official time (European time) while the northern and southern faces showed local time. Above the clock faces was a bell and the crescent-and-star symbol of Ottoman rule. The Turkish clock tower only lasted for a decade and was knocked down by the British in 1922 – for aesthetical reasons. The clock itself was re-erected on a modern, far less decorated tower at Allenby Square near the British Post Office and City Hall; this British-built tower was itself ultimately demolished in 1934 The British authorities attempted to recreate the historical aspect of the 16th-century city walls and gates and considered the clock tower to be an unaesthetical, disfiguring addition. As part of the same general plan, all recent buildings set against the city walls and gates, were demolished as well. Ottoman sebil Outside the 1898 breach in the city wall at Jaffa Gate, on its southern side and near the Bezalel Pavilion, was the so-called "Sultan's Sabil", built in 1900 or shortly before that. It, too, was removed in 1921 by the British authorities. Bezalel Pavilion The Bezalel Pavilion near Jaffa Gate