Since ancient times, city gates have been used to regulate access to a city. This is still true in theory even today, but the rapid growth of cities has it made next to impossible to enclose cities with walls, making it easy to slip into a city without getting noticed. Staying unnoticed is another matter, however - outsiders without a local network of contacts and hideouts are likely to run into the police sooner or later, and if they can't show the appropriate paperwork that they have a right to be in the city, they will suffer steep fines, deportation, or even imprisonment. Most legitimate visitors therefore still enter a city through one of the gates, where city officials will check their identification papers and provide the appropriate stamps.
City Gate
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page revision: 3, last edited: 29 Sep 2010 04:50