Thursday Challenge – Hard – Marble Stairs – Forbidden City – Beijing
The Temples are built on tiered marble terraces and have dual marble stairs with a large stone carving in the center panel. These stairs reserved exclusively for the Emperor. The largest of the stone carvings measures 16.75 meters long and weighs more than 200 tons. It has nine carvings of dragons amid clouds, curling waves and lotus flowers. The dragon is a symbol of the celestial power of the Emperor. Amazing carvings; amazing stairs! Marble is a very hard stone, one of the hardest stones to work with.
The stone, quarried from Fang Shan mountains west of Beijing. Large logs used to drag the stones to the Forbidden City city in summer. In winter water poured along the roadway turning snow to ice,the huge marble blocks would then slide along the ice, and in this way transported to the Forbidden City, Beijing.
This picture post shared in the Thursday Photo Challenge – for fun and learning.
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