 Al @-@ Jamali , an Armenian in origin , is said to have employed Armenians from the north of Mesopotamia as well as Syrians in his extensive building works . Each gate was said to have been built by a different architect . The gates have Byzantine architectural features , with little trace of the Islamic tradition . According to <unk> , the gates were built by three Christian monks from Edessa , who had fled from the <unk> . There are no surviving structures similar to the gates near Edessa or in Armenia , but stylistic evidence indicates that Byzantine origins for the design are entirely plausible . 
