37 BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL JERUSALEM According to the description of Nehemiah 3, six gates existed in the newly rebuilt wall. Two of these were in the northeastern and northwestern corners of the Temple Mount (the Sheep and Fish gates), two in the far south (the Dung and Fountain gates), one in the western side of the Ophel (the Valley Gate) and one in the west- ern side of the Temple Mount (Jeshanah Gate). The latter probably replaced the Ephraim Gate that is omitted from the description of the repair project (but see Neh 12,16), but its location was still me- morialized by the author of Nehemiah’s memoir and he mentioned its name in the route of the western procession (Neh 12,39). Some scholars suggested correcting the transcription “Jeshanah Gate” and reading it “Mishneh Gate”, assuming that it was the en- trance to the Mishneh quarter35. However, the gate is located north of the “Broad Wall” (Neh 3,6.8), the northern wall of the South- western Hill, hence it led out of town rather than to the quarter of Mishneh. As the transcription ša‛ar hayešānâ appears twice (Neh 3,6; 12,39), it must be the correct rendering of the gate’s name. Ehrlich suggested that its name is an ellipsis of ša‛ar hā‛îr hayešānâ (“the Gate of the Old City”), and compared it to “the Upper Gate” (Eze 9,2; possibly also 2 Chr 23,20), which is an abbreviated form of “the Upper Gate of the House of YHWH” (2 Kgs 15,35 and 2 Chr 27,3) 36. Unfortunately, there can be no certainty about the femi- nine noun that is intended by the assumed ellipsis (e.g., city, wall, pool, canal, etc.) and its identity must remain open. The Tower of the Ovens (Neh 3,11; 12,38) was probably located in the northwestern corner of the Ophel, i.e., the southwestern cor- ner of the Temple Mount, north of the Valley Gate 37. Might one sug- gest that this was the place where pastry was prepared for offerings in the temple? 35 SIMONS, Jerusalem, 277, 305-306; VINCENT, Jérusalem de l’Ancien Te- stament I, 240, 243, 252-253; M. AVI-YONAH, “The Walls of Nehemiah – a Minimalist View”, IEJ 4 (1954) 242-243; WILLIAMSON, Ezra, Nehemiah, 196; BLENKINSOPP, Ezra-Nehemiah, 234. 36 A.B. EHRLICH, Randglossen zur hebräischen Bibel. Textkritisches, Sprachliches und Sachliches 5 (Leipzig 1924; reprint Hildesheim 1968) 27; ibid., vol. 7, 189. 37 Avi-Yonah (“Walls of Nehemiah”, 244) proposed locating it near the northwestern corner of the City of David. See D.L. LIID, “Ovens, Tower of the”, ABD V, 52a.