Hyonmu Gate is the north gate of the northern castle of the Walled City of Pyongyang of Koguryo on Moran Hill.
The gate was named after the mythological turtle symbolizing the God of the North, one of the four gods in charge of the four directions.
It was first built in the sixth century when the Walled City of Pyongyang was being built during the Koguryo dynasty and underwent repair and rebuilding several times during the Koryo dynasty. The present gate was rebuilt in 1714. After that, it underwent thorough repairs in 1855 and 1954.
The gate is made up of an embankment, the extension of the castle wall, and a tower on it.
Like the castle wall, the embankment is built with stones faced in the form of quadrangular pyramid that are placed one upon another to avoid longitudinally straight joint lines. There is an arched gate in the middle of it.
There are battlements on the embankment that is about 2.5 meters tall. The gatehouse is a single-eaves gabled house which is three kans (7.05m) in length and one kan in width.
Hyonmu Gate is a precious cultural legacy demonstrating the ardent patriotism and advanced castle gate architecture of the Korean ancestors.