Mound, vault, hall
South of the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven keeps its own line. At the south end the Circular Mound Altar is open to the sky. Just north of it stands the Imperial Vault of Heaven, under a conical roof. A raised sacred way continues north to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, round, three-tiered, and also conically roofed. Ming and Qing emperors used these places to offer sacrifice to heaven and to pray for harvests, standing as go-betweens between people and the celestial realm. To the west, the Hall of Abstinence is where the emperor fasted after the sacrifice. Double walls and old pines enclose the whole. The brief count is 92 ancient buildings and 600 rooms.
One altar, then a new name
The original Altar of Heaven and Earth was completed with the Forbidden City in 1420, the eighteenth year of the Ming emperor Yongle. The listing places it on the east side of Yongnei Dajie. In 1530, the ninth year of Jiajing, the court decided to sacrifice to heaven and earth separately, and built the Circular Mound to the south of the main hall for heaven in particular. In 1534, the thirteenth year of Jiajing, the altar was renamed the Temple of Heaven. The arrangement described in the brief synthesis, covering 273 hectares, was formed by 1749 after reconstruction under the Qing emperors Qianlong and Guangxu. The inscription box on the same page gives the property as 215 hectares. Those two figures stay as the page prints them. This article uses 273 hectares only for the historical arrangement of 1749.
Inscribed in 1998
The State Council placed the Temple of Heaven in the first group of State Priority Protected Sites in 1961. UNESCO inscribed it in 1998 under criteria (i), (ii) and (iii). The page’s point for Tiantan Park is 39°52′55.8″ N, 116°24′24″ E. The municipal culture bureau’s list of 30 July 2026 puts Temple of Heaven Park in Dongcheng, the same district as the Palace Museum. The two are not one visit. The palace houses a court. The altar faces the sky.