A strong brick wall of great strength bound the city Lahore. There were 13 gates of entering the city. These gates were closed in the evening. Today out of 13 only 6 gates survives, they were:
Akbari Gate
Bhati Gate
Delhi Gate
Kashmiri Gate
Lohari Gate
Masti Gate
Mochi Gate
Mori Gate
Roshnai Gate
Shahalmi Gate
Shairanwala Gate
Taxali Gate
And Yakki Gate
But later on all these gates lost their original shape and structure while some of them had destroyed and only six gates survive but they need immediate mending.
Bhatti gate:
The area of bhatti gate is popular for the food stuff its entrance is from west walled city of Lahore. Data Darbar or Data mausoleum is located outside the gate.
Delhi gate:
Delhi had great importance because it was the only way that connected Lahore to Delhi in the past times.
Kashmiri gate:
Kashmiri gate is named as Kashmiri because it is directed towards the Kashmir. This gate contains Kashmiri bazaar and a girl’s college.
Lohari gate:
Lohari gate is located adjacent to the Bhatti gate, lots of stalls and shops are surrounding the Lohari gate. Lohari gate (English: Blacksmith’s gate) has lots of Blacksmith’s shops outside it.
Roshnai gate:
Roshni gate (The gate of light) was the main city gate it was lit by so many lights and that is why it is named as Roshnai gate. This gate is still in its original shape and structure.
Shairanwala gate:
Shairanwala gate or Lion’s gate as in Urdu Shair means Lion. This gate was built by the Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Two lions were kept in the cage to warn any offender.
Following gates no longer exists:
Akbari gate:
This gate is named on the name Akbar who was the Mughal emperor. Akbar established a market near to akbari gate known as “Akbari Mandi”.
Masti gate:
Mast gate is located behind the Lahore fort. This gate contains lots of shoe shops these shops has a great variety of traditional and western shoes. This gate is also important because it has the oldest Masjid, Masjid of Mariyam Zamani Begum.
Mochi gate:
Mochi gate is the entrance of Mochi bagh. There are two stories regarding Mochi gate one is that, due to the cobbler shops this gate was named as Mochi because in Urdu mochi means Cobbler while the other story is that there was a guard of the gate named Moti and later on this name was distorted by the people and became Mochi from Moti.
Mochi gate contains shops of dry fruits, firworks and kites.
Mori gate:
This gate is located in between the Bhatti gate and Lohari gate. This gate is the smallest gate among rest of 12 gates. This gate was served to remove liter and waste from the old city Lahore.
Shahalmi gate:
Shahlami gate was named on the mane of the son of Aurangzeb who was the Mughal emperor. After the death of Aurangzeb son Shah Alam this gate was called as Bherwala gate. Currently this gate does not exist only the name is remained because during the independence period this gate was destroyed. Currently there is a market close to the site of this gate, name as Shah Alam market.
Tixali gate:
Tixali gate or Tixal was constructed during Mughal era. A popular market Sheikhopuriyan Bazar is located at this gate. This contains great importance regarding its food spots such as Phajjay k paye, Taj mehal and Shahab ud din Halwai and others.
Yakki gate:
Yakki gate was named on the name of the great martyr “Zakki”. Yakki is the damaged and distorted form of the name Zakki.
