This is an impressive market built during the 14th century, in the days of the Mameluke Emir Tankiz. It borders the gate of the cotton merchants- Bab El Qattanin, a gate that leads to the Temple Mount and is the closest to the dome of the rock. The gate was built in a typical Mameluke style: Ablaq, a combination of red and yellow stones, or black and white, topped by a Muqarnas decoration.
There are currently no more cotton merchants at this site, but the gate and the market bear the memory of commerce from the past. There are about 50 shops in the market, and its boundaries include also the Khan (a hospice), two magnificent Hamams, and residential rooms. Tourists who visited the market were impressed by its beauty, and documented their descriptions. Rabbi Moshe Baula, who visited the city in the 16th century wrote: “and there is another market, the most beautiful of all, of cotton wool shops, next to a gate that leads to the temple”.
In the western part of the market we can see a barred opening that leads to an entrance hall. This is Khan Tankiz, which serves today as “The Center for Jerusalem Studies” of El Quds University. A goblet is carved in the lintel, the symbol of the Mameluke Emir Tankiz. On the western side of the Khan there is an impressive Mameluke Hamam, named Hamam El Ein (meaning, in Arabic: the spring bath). The water of the Hamam came from the Pools of Solomon, via an aqueduct from the times of the Second Temple, which was renovated during the Mameluke era.
