Potala Palace

The Potala Palace in Lhasa is a 13-storey fortress-palace complex rising 117 metres above a rocky hill on the Lhasa plain, originally built in the 7th century and substantially reconstructed in the 17th century under the Fifth Dalai Lama. The complex contains over a thousand rooms, ten thousand shrines, and approximately 200,000 statues, serving as the traditional winter residence of the Dalai Lama and now a museum and UNESCO World Heritage Site. The white and red outer walls and golden roofs are visible from across the Lhasa valley and are the defining image of Tibetan architecture.