Do old cities with gates have walls?

Question

i basically want to know if a really old city with city gates would have a wall all the way around it and would this mean there was only one entrance and exit from the city?

Answer 1

Yes, there would be a wall.  No, there were usally more than one gate.  My husband and I just went to Italy a few months ago.  Rome was surrounded by a brick wall with several gates around the city.  Check out the link.

Answer 2

Yes, check out your bible. All biblical cities had walls around them, and in Revelation the city of Heaven  has 12 gates, 3 on each side and each gate is named after a tribe of Israel. (Rev. 21:12)

Answer 3

Yes, though some cities had more that one gate. Chichester is an old Roman walled city but has 4 gates, at the compass points.



Those that weren't fortified, probably didn't last long!

Answer 4

Most walled cities had 3 or 4 gates but the walls were regularly expanded and repaired adding or blocking up gates as the city grew and as attacks became more or less likely.

I live in Coventry which had about 6 gates at one time but the walls were demolished by Charles II because we picked the wrong side in the Civil War.

Answer 5

Well, if it had gates, they are connected to something, like walls. This was usually how it was done.

Answer 6

The city of Nordlingen, Germany is an excellent example of a medievel, walled city. Look it up on Google Earth and you can see the old part of the city right in the middle. It looks like there are 5 main roads with gates, and it looks like it's in excellent condition.

Trivia 1: Nordlingen was used for the "Wonkavator" scenes at the end of the original "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".

Trivia 2: Nordlingen is built in an ancient meteor crater, and the cathedral in the center of town is built from stone that has the telltale crystalline structure of impact rock.

Answer 7

  There aren't many of these left around in the state you're imagining, but up to about the Medieval period there'd be a huge main gate to make trade easier, & a bunch of smaller ones for convenience & to avoid exactly that trapped feeling you get in a siege situation.