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Souq al Qattanin (The Cotton Merchants' market)
This market can be reached through the Qattanin gate in the western wall of the Haram ash Sharif. It was one of several new markets added to Jerusalem during the Mamluk period. Built in 1336-37, the souq was meant to be a commercial center for Sultan Al Nasir Mohammad and Emir Tankiz al Nasiri, the Mamluk governor of Damascus at the time (1312 - 1340). With monumental entrances, shops, and living quarters, the market contains two public bathhouses (hammam) and a khan (inn). By the nineteenth century, the market fell into decay. It was partlyrestored by the Islamic Waqf and reopened in 1974. Currently, the inn and the two Hammams (bathhouses) are undergoing renovation.