KÁ


The cuneiform sign KÁ, for gate is the Sumerogram- used in the Amarna letters and the Epic of Gilgamesh; as just KÁ it means "gate" or "doorway", Akkadian language, "bābu"; as "Gate-Great", KÁ.GAL for City-Gate, it is from Akkadian "abullu",. Both uses are in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Epic, it is only used as the sumerogram, a total of 19 times,. In the Epic, all spellings for city gate use KÁ.GAL; for gate only one spelling uses the alphabetic letters for b-a-b-u; the rest use KÁ along with other added cuneiform signs.

Amarna letters

In the Amarna letters, the topic of Amarna letter EA 296, Under the Yoke, is the guarding of two cities, at the city gate; also the man authoring the letter, Yabitiri-- of City? is called a "gatekeeper", lines 24 and 31: LÚ.PA.KÁ.ŠU, Man-Gate-"hand". Šu,, has the secondary meaning besides šu, for Akkadian language qat, for "qātu", 'hand', and used for 9 of about 15 spellings of 'qātu' in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
In letter EA 296, the text is as follows:
The city gate is also discussed in the Amarna letter from Tjaru.