The huge Temple of Heaven in Beijing has been described as the grandest cult architecture complex in the world and a masterpiece of ancient Chinese culture.

Constructed in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and was enlarged during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) the temple now covers 2,700,000 square meters (667 acres) - an area the size of more than 724 football pitches.

The Temple was built for emperors to pray to the gods and was so named to reflect the fact the emperors were the sons of Heaven.

Divided into two parts the inner temple and the outer temple and is surrounded by two high walls constructed in such a way to reflect the ancient Chinese concept of the cosmogony: the sky is round and the earth is square.

One of the interesting features of the walls is that if one person stands at the east and the west roots of the wall respectively and one whispers a word, then the other will hear clearly.

Restored in 2006, the Temple of Heaven was registered on the Unesco World Heritage List in 1998.

The site is open daily to visitors.

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16/07/2008