The Eight Gates of Seoul are the city’s historic gates. Constructed between 1396 and 1398 during the Joseon period, they provided access through the city’s surrounding Fortress Wall. Six of the gates are still standing, but two have been destroyed. They are roughly placed in the four cardinal and intermediate directions. We saw Namdaemun, the “South Big Gate”, also called Sungnyemun, the “Exalted Ceremonies Gate”, that we could walk through and admire the guards keeping the gate. By night, from a bar, was Namsomun, the “South Small Gate”, at the southeast of the city, also called Gwanghuimun, the “Bright Light Gate”. Finally, Dongdaemun, the “East Big Gate”, also known as Heunginjimun, the “Rising Benevolence Gate”, is a gate that can only be seen without going through it, but we walked along a part of the wall surrounding it. The other doors? Next time.
“At irregular intervals stand the eight gates. In theory they stand at the cardinal points and their half-way divisions. Practically, they stand where they may. They are as imposing as they are important; and they are among the finest buildings in the city, unless it be contended that they are outside it. For each, though connected with the wall, is, in truth, a building in itself. They resemble houses raised on perforated foundations. So much so, indeed, that as you approach one of them from the top of the wall, you would imagine that you stood on a level with the ground before some house of the better class. You almost forget that underneath you is a solid arch of stone, till looking down you catch sight of the crowd perpetually swallowed up on the one side, and disgorged again on the other. Fitting into this arch, that from above seems a tunnel, are massive wooden gates, four inches thick, sheathed with iron.” (Chosön, the land of the morning calm : a sketch of Korea. Percival Lowell. 1888)