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Ancient cities were often more like fortresses than cities, as we understand the term "city" today. The perimeter consisted of a massive stone wall (or walls) with gates to permit or prevent the entry of people and animals. In times of war, enemy forces often concentrated their attacks on these openings, typically the weakest part of the city wall, so the gates were usually constructed in such a way that they were flanked by, or actually part of, one or more defensive guard towers. 

The old city of Jerusalem has had numerous gates over the many thousands of years of Bible History. You can still walk through some of them today, while others have been sealed at one time or another. Individual gates have been known by various names, sometimes by two or three or more, through their centuries of existence.

King Solomon built a wall around Jerusalem, and it appears that he did it with forced labor. (I Kings 3:1, 9:15)

When the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were fighting with one another, Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, and came and tore down the walls of Jerusalem. (II Kings 14:13; II Chronicles 25:23)

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, built a wall (kind of like a blockade) around Jerusalem before he conquered it. (II Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 52:4)

In the days of the Zechariah, Uzziah was King of Jerusalem, and he built towers and fortified the wall of the city of Jerusalem. (II Chronicles 26:9)

The Chaldeans came and attacked Jerusalem, tore down the wall, and took all the valuables from the temple as well as those who escaped the sword into captivity in Babylon. The neat part about this story is that it has a happy ending: a new King (King Cyrus) allows them to return, and pays to have the temple rebuilt. (II Chronicles 36:15-23)

The book of Nehemiah provides detail concerning the rebuilding of the wall after the Israelites were released from their Babylonian captivity.

The wall is pierced by 8 gates - seven are open and one is closed (Golden Gate). Until 1887, each gate was closed before sunset and opened at sunrise.

There are three gates in the north wall: Herod’s Gate, Damascus Gate, and the New Gate 

Herod’s Gate

Herod's (Flowers) Gate is on the north wall, just east of the Damascus Gate.

Built in 1538-40 by Sulieman the Magnificent’s architects., it became a direct entry during the British Mandate, losing its L shape interior for traffic purposes. Called in Arabic Bab ez-Zahra or Flowers Gate, it is called Herod’s Gate because pilgrims of the 16^th & 17^th Century erroneously believed that it led to Herod's palace.

At noon on 15 July 1099, the Crusaders breached the wall at this gate to take the city of Jerusalem and proclaim the Latin Kingdom.

Damascus Gate 

Located on the northern wall, it is the busiest and most magnificent of all Jerusalem’s gates. This is the best example of Ottoman artwork in the city.  It consists of one large center gate originally intended for use by persons of high station, and two smaller side entrances for commoners. 

Also built by Suleiman in 1542, it forms the centre of Palestinian East Jerusalem and is located at the start of the Arab bazaar and marketplace. In contrast to the Jaffa Gate, where the stairs rise towards the gate, in the Damascus Gate, the stairs descend towards the gate.  

Called the Shechem Gate by the Jews, the gate’s Arabic name, Bab el Amud or gate of the column, reflects the column from the Byzantine Period that once stood near the gate as a landmark. Outside the gate there were two roads, one leading to Damascus (north) and on veering west to the coast.  

Damascus Gate stands at the approximate location of the ancient Fish Gate, just west of the Gihon Spring, where men gathered to sell fish, sometimes in violation of the Sabbath (II Chronicles 33:14, Nehemiah 3:3, 13:16).  It also may be the same as the Middle Gate (Jeremiah 39:3).

New Gate

So named because it was constructed relatively recently — in 1889 — the New Gate was built with permission of Sultan Abdul Hamid II to link the properties near the wall in the northwest of the city with the Old City. The gate is located near the northwestern corner of the city and leads into the Christian quarter.

The tower nearby (around the corner in the park) is called Tancred’s Tower (after the Latin Kingdom ruler who may have commissioned it) and is built of stones originally cut for Herod’s palace inside the Jaffa Gate area. The stones were removed and built into this tower some distance away in the Crusader Period.

The New Gate stands at approximately the same place as the Old Gate, or Jeremiah Gate, which was located at the northwest corner of the city during the time of Nehemiah, near the location of the present-day Holy Sepulcher (Nehemiah 3:6).

There is only one gate on the western wall. 

Jaffa Gate 

Today's Jaffa Gate seems to have taken the place of the ancient Valley Gate, though the western portion of the city wall lies much further west than it did in the City of David and Nehemiah.  The Jaffa Gate (called Jaffa after the highway that led to the seacoast town of Joppa) overlooks the Valley of Gehenna; but the ancient Valley Gate overlooked the Valley of the Cheesemakers (tyropeon Valley).

The main entrance to the Old City is the Jaffa Gate, which was built by Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent in 1538. The name in Arabic, Bab el-Halil or Hebron Gate, means "The Beloved," and refers to Abraham, the beloved of God who is buried in Hebron (Isa. 41:8). The Jaffa Gate gets its name because the road leading from it goes to the port city of Jaffa (Joppa). This gate is the only one on the western side of the Old City and today leads into the Muslim and Armenian quarters. A road allows cars to enter the Old City through a wide gap in the wall between Jaffa Gate and the Citadel.

A low part of the city wall was torn down and the Crusader moat of the Citadel filled in  for the 1898 visit of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. The ruling Ottoman Turks opened it so the German Emperor would not have to dismount his carriage to enter the city. 

This gate was also the famous scene of the English General Allenby's entrance in 1917.

Between Jaffa and Zion Gates are a number of walls from the time of Herod the Great and before exposed on the surface. A gate base of the first century is also exposed. The area of the southwest corner is where the Romans breached the wall in 70 C.E. 

On the Eastern Wall are St Stephens Gate and The Golden Gate

St. Stephen's Gate 

St. Stephens Gate is also known as the Lion's Gate and marks the beginning of the Via Dolorosa. 

This gate is so named because of the tradition that the first Christian martyr was stoned outside this gate.  However an earlier tradition locates this execution north of the city.

St. Stephen's Gate, it is located on the east wall, north of the Temple Mount. 

Lions' Gate is another name for this eastern entrance into the Old City because of the four animals that decorate the gate's facade and reportedly placed there because of a dream of the builder Suleiman. 

Bab el Ghor or Jordan Gate was so named by the Turks because it led to Jordan. In the 6^th Century, St. Stephen’s Gate was on the north wall, now the Damascus Gate. The name moved with a change in Pilgrim traditions to the eastern Gate.
(Nehemiah 3:1,32, 12:39, John 5: 1-3)

Golden Gate

The Golden Gate was located on the east wall adjacent to the Temple Mount. Originally constructed approximately 640 AD by either the last of the Byzantines rulers or the first of the Arab conquerers, it was later sealed by Muslims to "block the future path of the Messiah into Jerusalem." This is because according to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will enter Jerusalem through this gate.

This gate is also known as the Gate of Mercy and the Gate of Eternal Life.

On the south wall are the Dung Gate and Zion Gate

Dung Gate

The Dung Gate was one of the 12 or so gates that existed at the time of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 3:13-14). Found in the south wall, this gate is closest in proximity to the Temple Mount.

Different theories account for the naming of this gate, including one which puts it back to Omar's conquest of Jerusalem in 638 A.D. when trash was cleared out of the city through this gate.  It is also known as the Gate of the Moors because of the North African immigrants who lived in a neighborhood next to the gate in the 16th century.

The Jordanians widened it when Jaffa Gate was sealed because of the 1949-67 frontier. It now leads to the Western Wall plaza and the southwest excavations near the ancient Temple mount.  

Zion Gate 

This gate is also known as the Gate of the Prophet David because of the traditional location of David's tomb on Mt. Zion.  During the medieval period it was called the Gate of the Jewish Quarter. This entrance leads to the Jewish and Armenian quarters. 

Zion Gate is located on the south wall and provides access to Mt. Zion. The stones surrounding this gate are still pockmarked by weapons fire from the Arab and Israeli battles in the 1948 War of Independence. This gate was also used by the Israel Defense Forces in 1967 to enter and capture the Old City.

Other Gates of interest:

The Huldah Gates are the two sets of now-blocked gates in the south wall of the Temple Mount, which is also one of Jerusalem's Old City walls. The western set is a double arched gate (the double gate), and the eastern is a triple arched gate (the triple gate). Each arch of the double gate lead into an aisle of a passageway leading from the gate into the Mount, and to steps leading to the Mount's surface; when the al-Aqsa Mosque was built, the old steps were blocked, and the eastern aisle lengthened so that new steps from its end would exit north of the Mosque. The triple gate is similar, though the longer aisle is to the west, and its third aisle, on the east, forms the western boundary of the vaulted area known as Solomon's Stables.

The Old Gate, or Jeshanah Gate, was located at the northwest corner of the city during the time of Nehemiah, near the location of the present-day Holy Sepulcher (Nehemiah 3:6)

The Valley Gate, overlooked the Kidron Valley (Nehemiah 3:13)