Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing
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Every element of the Temple of Heaven encodes cosmology: round forms for heaven, square for earth, laid out early in the 15th century so that China's emperors could mediate between the human and the divine. Set in gardens amid old pine woods, the Beijing complex distils the relationship at the heart of Chinese cosmogony — and the throne's singular role within it. UNESCO inscribed the imperial sacrificial altar in 1998.
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