Temple of Heaven Beijing, China 06/49 Have a very nice week, Henk Construction of the Temple of Heaven stared in 1420, during the Ming dynasty under the Emperor Yongle. After Yongle had settled on Beijing as the site of the capital, the buildings and surrounding areas were later rebuilt and enlarged during the reigns of Jiaqing and Qianlong of the Qing dynasty. The general layout of the Temple of Heaven incorporates the ancient Chinese configuration of a 'round heaven and a square earth.' This symbolic form ties in to a north-south geographic alignment, with the concept of 'north-round-south square.' Two layers of walls surround the temple precincts. The outer wall's circumference is 6,553 meters with a space inside of 270,000 square meters, which is about four times the size of Beijing's Palace Museum. The site once occupied a large percentage of what was the outskirts of ancient Beijing. The Circular Altar has three layered terraces with white marble. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368 A.D. - 1911 A.D.), the emperors would offer sacrifice to Heaven on the day of the Winter Solstice every year. This ceremony was to thank Heaven and hope everything would be good in the future. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is a big palace with round roof and three layers of eaves. Inside the Hall are 28 huge posts. The four posts along the inner circle represent four seasons-spring, summer, autumn and winter; the 12 posts along the middle circle represent the 12 months; and 12 posts along the outer circle represent 12 Shichen (Shichen is a means of counting time in ancient China. One Shichen in the past equaled two hours and a whole day was divided into 12 Shichens). The roof is covered with black, yellow and green colored glaze representing the heavens, the earth and everything on earth. The Hall has a base named Altar for Grain Prayers which is made of three layers of white marble and has a height of six meters.