Take the three halls as an example the roofs are different.
Forbidden city turret roofs.
The library at the pavilion of literary profundity 文 渊 阁 had black tiles because black was associated with water and thus fire prevention.
There are four beautiful turrets of the same structure on the four corners of forbidden city.
Amazingly the total of these numbers add up to 99.
The watch tower of the forbidden city lights up at night.
Double eave hip roofs were the classiest roofs in the empire reserved for the top imperial buildings.
Here again each terrace is perfectly hierarchical.
The roof shape of the forbidden city s most important buildings also had significance.
Each of these towers has 3 floors that consists of 9 roof beams 18 pillars and 72 ridgepoles.
Each turret tower has nine girders eighteen columns and 72 ridges.
The cultural richness of china is truly reflected at this 72 hectare historical palace.
The roof form of chinese architecture is rich and colorful.
Yellow tiles and stately roof shapes only the imperial buildings of the forbidden city were permitted to have yellow tiles.
Watch how this structure built in the forbidden city style of architecture holds up to a simulated earthquake.
The two turrets on the northeast and northwest corners offer the best photo opportunities.
Photo gallery of forbidden city pictures.
Thus almost all roofs in the forbidden city bear yellow glazed tiles.
All of which are divisible by 9.
Forbidden city chinese pinyin zijincheng or wade giles romanization tzu chin ch eng imperial palace complex at the heart of beijing peking china commissioned in 1406 by the yongle emperor of the ming dynasty it was first officially occupied by the court in 1420 it was so named because access to the area was barred to most of the subjects of the realm.
Once forbidden and now permitted.
Yellow was the emperor s color.
The terraces of the forbidden city serve as support for the floor of each pavilion.
First their heights are one of the characteristics of the power of the person living in the pavilion as is the case for roofs.
The roof of the forbidden city is full of glazed tiles.
Yellow is the color of the emperor.
There are only two exceptions.
Interestingly enough the turrets were constructed like the cages made for crickets.
Watch the full documentary on all 4.
The turrets are inaccessible to visitors.
It is a complex construction in itself.
In the forbidden city building there are more than 10 different types of roofs.
Forbidden city 紫禁城 officially called gugong 故宫 was the imperial palace for 24 emperors of ming a d.
One of the most beautiful parts of the forbidden city s architecture is its roofs and their eaves.