The Gate of Pomegranates - Puerta de las Granadas - was built by the Christians in the 16th century in honour of the visit of Emperor Charles V, then known as the Puerta de Carlos Quinto. It was placed at the bottom of the Alhambra forest, on a street known as the Cuesta de Gomerez, which the Christians preferred to the old Moorish entrance at the foot of the Alcazaba. Under the Moors, the slopes around the castle had to be kept stripped bare of vegetation for military purposes, and the shady trees which now grace the hill were not planted until after the conquest, by the Christians. The gate is popularly known for the over-sized, bursting pomegranates carved in stone and which stand on its massive lintel. The pomegranate - granada - became the symbol of the city because of the similarity of this Spanish word and one of Granada's prehistoric names, Granata.