Overview
The complex was completed in 1420 under the Yongle Emperor, in the same building campaign as the Forbidden City. For nearly five centuries the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties came here to pray to Heaven for good harvests — the most solemn ceremony of the imperial year.
Description
At its centre stands the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, a circular wooden hall with triple eaves, about 38 metres tall, raised on a three-tiered marble terrace. The grounds also contain the Circular Mound Altar and the Echo Wall, and the whole layout encodes the old cosmology of a round heaven above a square earth.
History and legacy
The complex was expanded and renovated under the Qianlong Emperor in the 18th century. The great hall burned down after a lightning strike in 1889 and was rebuilt to the original design, and in 1998 the Temple of Heaven was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.