Lift up your heads, you gates;be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

History:-

According to the Bible, before King David's conquest of Jerusalem in the 11th century BC the city was home to the Jebusites. The Bible describes the city as heavily fortified with a strong city wall. The city ruled by King David, known as Ir David, or the City of David, was southeast of the Old City walls, outside the Dung Gate. His son King Solomon extended the city walls and then, in about 440 BC, during the Persian period, Nehemiah returned from Babylon and rebuilt them. In 41-44 CE, Agrippa, king of Judea, built a new city wall known as the "Third Wall."

The current walls of the Old City were built in 1538 by the Muslim, Ottoman Empire Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent.

 The walls stretch for approximately 4.5 km (2.8 miles), and rise to a height of 5 to 15 metres (16 to 49 feet), with a thickness of 3 metres (10 feet).[9] Altogether, the Old City walls contain 43 surveillance towers and 11 gates, seven of which are presently open.

வாசல்களே, உங்கள் தலைகளை உயர்த்துங்கள்; அநாதி கதவுகளே, உயருங்கள்; மகிமையின் ராஜா உட்பிரவேசிப்பார். யார் இந்த மகிமையின் ராஜா? அவர் வல்லமையும் பராக்கிரமுமுள்ள கர்த்தர்; அவர் யுத்தத்தில் பராக்கிரமுமுள்ள கர்த்தராமே. வாசல்களே, உங்கள் தலைகளை உயர்த்துங்கள்; அநாதி கதவுகளே, உயருங்கள்; மகிமையின் ராஜா உட்பிரவேசிப்பார் யார் இந்த மகிமையின் ராஜா? அவர் சேனைகளின் கர்த்தரானவர்; அவரே மகிமையின் ராஜா.

(This Picture is from my DAD's Bible Can any one identify which gate is this)

The Golden Gate, as it is called in Christian literature, is the oldest of the current gates in Jerusalem's Old City Walls. According to Jewish tradition, the Shekhinah (שכינה) (Divine Presence) used to appear through this gate, and will appear again when the Anointed One (Messiah) comes The Eastern Gate was identified by the Prophet Ezekiel when he wrote in chapter 44, “The prince will enter through this gate and he will eat bread before the Lord.” This is the origin of the Judeo-Christian belief that the Messiah will enter through the eastern gate and a new gate replaces the present one; that is why Jews used to pray for mercy at the former gate at this location.Hence the name Sha'ar HaRachamim (שער הרחמים), the Gate of Mercy.It is also said that Jesus passed through this gate on Palm Sunday. In Arabic, it is known as the Gate of Eternal Life. Some equate it with the Beautiful Gate mentioned in Acts 3.

 The sealing of the gate
The Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sealed off the Golden Gate in 1541. While this may have been purely for defensive reasons, it is suggested that Suleiman the Magnificent sealed off the Golden Gate to prevent the Messiah's entrance

The Ottomans also built a cemetery in front of the gate, in the belief that the precursor to the Anointed One, Elijah, would not be able to pass through the Golden Gate and thus the Anointed One would not come.

When Jesus came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowds shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  It’s thought that Jesus entered the Temple courtyard through this gate and then proceeded to drive out all those who were selling and buying, upsetting the tables of the money changers.  In the time of the Second Temple, the Eastern Gate was open.

The Golden Gate from within

Dung Gate is where Old City residents, over the centuries, would throw their garbage.  in Hebrew it’s called Sha’ar Ashpot. The name Sha'ar Ha'ashpot appears in the Book of Nehemiah:3:13-14. It is probably named after the residue that was taken from the Jewish Temple into the Valley of Hinnom, where it was burned.

Zion Gate (Hebrew: שַׁעַר צִיּוֹן, Shaar Zion, Arabic: Bab Sahyun) also known in Arabic as Bab Harat al-Yahud ("Jewish Quarter Gate"),[1] or Bab an-Nabi Dawud ("Prophet David Gate"), leads from the tomb of King David and the Upper Room on Mount Zion into the Armenian and the Jewish Quarters of the Old City. 

Jaffa Gate, one of the city’s busiest, is located on the western perimeter, right above Hinnom Valley, the Valley of Hell (Gehenna in Greek).  In ancient days, if you walked east for three days, along the Jaffa Road, you would eventually reach the Jaffa Gate.  Hence its name.  In Hebrew the gate is translated Sha’ar Yafo. Yafo is the name for Jaffa in the Hebrew Bible, mentioned in the Book of Jonah. 

In Arabic the gate is called Bab el Halil which means Hebron Gate.  If you exit the gate and turn left, cross the Hinnom Valley and walk straight along what’s nicknamed the Patriarchal Highway along Hebron Road, you would eventually reach Hebron.  Halil in Arabic means “friend.”  In Islam, Abraham’s title is the “friend of God.”  Abraham is buried in Hebron.

The New Gate (Arabic: باب الجديد‎ Bāb ij-Jdïd) (Hebrew: השער החדש‎ HaSha'ar HeChadash)[2] is the newest gate in the walls that surround the Old City of Jerusalem. It was built in 1889 to provide direct access between the Christian Quarter and the new neighborhoods then going up outside the walls. The arched gate is decorated with crenelated stonework. The New Gate was built at the highest point of the present wall, at 790 metres (2,590 ft) above sea level 

Damascus Gate (Arabic: باب العامود‎, Bab Alamud , Hebrew: שַׁעַר שְׁכֶם, Sha'ar Sh'khem) is one of the main entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem.[1] It is located in the wall on the city's northwest side where the highway leads out to Nablus, and from there, in times past, to the capital of Syria, Damascus; as such, its modern English name is Damascus Gate, and its modern Hebrew name, Sha'ar Shkhem (Hebrew: שער שכם‎), meaning Shechem Gate, or Nablus Gate.

 Underneath, remains of a gate dating to the time of the Roman rule of Hadrian in the 2nd century AD have been discovered and excavated. In front of this gate stood a Roman victory column topped with the Emperor Hadrian's image, as depicted on the 6th century Madaba Map. This historical detail is preserved in the current gate's Arabic name, Bab el-Amud, meaning "gate of the column".On the lintel to the 2nd century gate, under which one can pass today, is inscribed the city's name under Roman rule, Aelia Capitolina. Hadrian had significantly expanded the gate which served as the main entrance to the city from at least as early as the 1st century BC during the rule of Agrippa.

Herod's Gate (Hebrew: שער הפרחים Translit.: Sha'ar HaPerachim Translated: Gate of the flowers, Arabic: باب الساهرة‎) is a gate in the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Its elevation is 755 meters above sea level. It adjoins the Muslim Quarter, and is a short distance to the east of the Damascus Gate

The gate is named after Herod the Great. That is because in the Crusaders' period a church was built near the gate in the belief that at the time of the Crucifixion of Jesus, Herod Antipas's house was situated at that spot. In its place today stands the church of Dir Al Ads.

The Lions' Gate (Hebrew: שער האריות‎ Sha'ar Ha'Arayot, Arabic: باب الأسباط‎, also St. Stephen's Gate or Sheep Gate) is located in the Old City Walls of Jerusalem and is one of seven open Gates in Jerusalem's Old City Walls.Tradition has it that Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned in the Kidron Valley below.  In Arabic the gate is called Bab el Asbat, the Gate of the Tribes, for they say the tribes of Israel entered the Old City through this gate. In Hebrew it’s called Sha’ar Ha-Arayot in honor of the decorations above the gate.

 Israeli paratroops from the 55th Paratroop Brigade came through this gate during the Six-Day War of 1967 and unfurled the Israeli flag above the Temple Mount.

The Huldah Gates (Hebrew: שערי חולדה‎, Shaarei Chulda) are the two sets of now-blocked gates in the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount, situated in Jerusalem's Old City. 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 led 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.