TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, Imperial Vault Of Heaven

Just a few hundred meters from the Circular Mound Altar, you’ll see a group of buildings dating to 1530, built on the orders of Emperor Jiajing, which housed the Tablets of the Gods, sacred objects used for the Heaven Worship Ceremony.

The main building is the Imperial Vault of Heaven, a circular, red wooden pavilion with a blue double-pitched roof topped with a gilded sphere. All the buildings in the temple are covered with blue tiles, a reference to the color of the sky.

This building is 19 meters tall and has a diameter of 16 meters. As you can see, it rests on a two-meter-high, round marble base resembling an altar.

In the delightful interior, pink columns support the marvelous coffered roof, decorated with a bluish-green design featuring a golden dragon playing with a pearl, in the center, surrounded by another 360 smaller dragons, representing a round angle. On the altar in the center of the room, in the shape of a stone throne, is the Heavenly Great Tablet. ...