Weiyang Palace

Weiyang Palace

Western Han dynasty
Location	Xi'an, Shaanxi, China
Part of	Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor
Criteria	Cultural: ii, iii, iv, vi
Reference	1442-001
Inscription	2014 (38th Session)
Area	611.09 ha (2.3594 sq mi)
Buffer zone	5,422.02 ha (20.9345 sq mi)
Coordinates	34°18′16″N 108°51′26″E / 34.30444°N 108.85722°E / 34.30444; 108.85722
Location of Weiyang Palace in China

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The Weiyang Palace (

The palace survived until the Tang dynasty when it was burned down by marauding invaders en route to the Tang capital Chang'an. This was the largest palace ever built on Earth,^[1] covering 4.8 km² (1,200 acres), which is 6.7 times the size of the current Forbidden City, or 11 times the size of the Vatican City.^[2] Today, little remains of the former palace. The site of the palace, along with many other sites along the eastern section of the Silk Road, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.

Name

"Weiyang" (未央) literally means "(something) hasn't reached its midpoint", "has more than a half to go", but colloquially it can be translated as "endless", which is probably what the name is actually alluding to. Together with the name of Changle Palace (長樂宮, perpetual happiness), which was built 2 years before, it can be interpreted to mean, "The perpetual happiness hasn't reached its midpoint yet."

Description

Weiyang palace was sited to the southwest of Han dynasty Chang'an and is therefore also called the Western Palace (西宫). Surrounded by walls, the palace complex was rectangular, with a length of 2,150 metres east–west and 2,250 metres north–south. Each side of the walls had a single main gate, with the eastern and northern gates (facing Chang'an city) built with gate towers.

Major architectures within the palace include:

• Front Hall (前殿)
• Xuanshi Hall (宣室殿)
• Wenshi Hall (温室殿)
• Qingliang Hall (清凉殿)
• Jinhua Hall (金华殿)
• Chengming Hall (承明殿)
• Gaomen Hall (高门殿)
• Baihu Hall (白虎殿)
• Yutang Hall (玉堂殿)
• Xuande Hall (宣德殿)
• Jiaofang Hall (椒房殿)
• Zhaoyang Hall (昭阳殿)
• Bailiang Platform (柏梁台)
• Qilin Pavilion (麒麟阁)
• Tianlu Pavilion (天禄阁)
• Shiqu Pavilion (石渠阁)

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Historic Site of Weiyang Palace.