'abandon all hope, ye who enter'. the shinto tori, an open gateway symbolizing transition from mundane to holy. the entrance to the contemplation garden, the passage from mundane to sacred. the Egyptian stela, false door, symbolically allows the soul to fly through. the half-open roman doors depicting death. the portal dolmens, megalithic tombs, upright boulders capped by one flat stone, the lintel stone or capstone, the earliest post and lintel formation. the practice of these tombs developed independently in different parts of the world. dolmens more than four thousand years old, made with stones weighing up to 50 tons and carved without metal, transported without wheels. the shinto tori is traditionally made in three pieces, similar to two posts and one lintel, three being a sacred number. the tea garden also has a gateway entrance, often two, the first to gain admittance to the waiting area and the second to enter the garden proper and begin down the 'dewy path'. the two posts and one lintel streaked with blood are a reminder of the first passover when God spared the faithful during his judgement on the Egyptians. in Christian art, closed gates can represent exclusion, as when adam and eve are expelled, so within the gate is the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. free-standing gates, such as the tori, represent a non-literal passage, a passage of mind rather than physical