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Circular Mound Altar
Tiantan Road, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100050, ChinaAbout
The RTemple of Heaven has two altars, namely, the Circular Mound Alter of Heaven and the Altar of Prayer for Harvest. The walls make two rectangles, one within the other.Numerologists will be interested in certain patterns revealed in the temple's architecture. The flagstones on the upper terrace are arranged in concentric circles in multiples of nine. Nine was considered the number of yang force, which concentrated where the altar is set. There are nine stairs. The first circle has nine stones, the second 18, and so on to a total of 81 in the ninth circle.
Seen from the Zhaoheng Gate in the south, people on the altar stand so high that they seem to be walking in heaven.
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