Heritage with Related Tags
Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonika
The provincial capital and seaport of Thessaloniki, founded in 315 BC, was one of the first bases for the spread of Christianity. Among its Christian monuments are fine churches, some in the form of a Greek cross, others in the form of a three-nave basilica. Built over a long period from the 4th to the 15th century, these churches constitute a diachronic typological series that had a considerable influence on the Byzantine world. The Rotunda and the mosaics of St. Demetrius and St. David are among the great masterpieces of early Christian art.
Great Hall of the People
The Great Hall of the People is the meeting place of the National People's Congress of China and the office place of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. It was completed in 1959 and is an important place for the Party, the State and various people's organizations of the People's Republic of China to hold political activities. The Great Hall of the People is located on the west side of Tiananmen Square and has a symmetrical shape. The facade adopts a classical vertical three-section design, and the base, colonnade and eaves are decorated with traditional Chinese architectural patterns. On the base are 12 red marble column bases and light gray marble column columns. According to the traditional Chinese architectural design method, the distance between the columns in the middle is slightly wider, and the distance between the columns on both sides decreases successively. The entrances around are composed of 134 colonnades with a diameter of 2 meters. There are 5 meters high and 83 meters wide granite steps in front of the main entrance. The Great Hall of the People is a rectangle that is long from north to south, which sets off the broad and far-reaching effect of the central axis of Beijing.
The Palace Museum
The Forbidden City is 961 meters long from north to south and 753 meters wide from east to west. It is surrounded by 10-meter-high walls on all sides and a 52-meter-wide moat outside the city. It is truly as solid as a fortress. The Forbidden City has four gates: Wumen in the south, Shenwumen in the north, Donghuamen in the east, and Xihuamen in the west. There is a graceful corner tower at each of the four corners of the city wall. There is a saying among the people that it has nine beams, eighteen columns, and seventy-two ridges, which describes its complex structure. The buildings in the Forbidden City are divided into two parts: the outer court and the inner court. The center of the outer court is the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony, and the Hall of Preserving Harmony, collectively known as the three major halls, which are where the country holds grand ceremonies. The left and right wings of the three major halls are supplemented by two groups of buildings, the Hall of Wenhua and the Hall of Wuying. The center of the inner court is the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Jiaotai, and the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, collectively known as the three palaces behind, which are the main palaces where the emperor and the empress live. Behind them is the Imperial Garden. On both sides of the three palaces at the back are the East and West Six Palaces, which are where the concubines live and rest. On the east side of the East Six Palaces are Buddhist buildings such as the Tianqiong Palace, and on the west side of the West Six Palaces are Buddhist buildings such as the Zhongzheng Hall. In addition to the Outer Court and the Inner Court, there are two parts of buildings, the Outer East Road and the Outer West Road. In the southern part of the Outer East Road is the Xiefang Hall where the princes live, commonly known as the South Three Houses, and in the northern part is the Ningshou Palace, the palace of the retired emperor built by Emperor Qianlong. In the southern part of the Outer West Road are the Cining Palace and Shoukang Palace where the empress dowager lives. In the northern part, in addition to the Shou'an Palace where the empress dowager lives, there are also Buddhist buildings such as the Yinghua Hall.