Total area720,000 m2
4.8 billionHuman thumbnails
8 tenthsAirport runways
72 hectares, world's largest palace complex
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Forbidden City
The imperial palace complex at the heart of Beijing/World Landmarks
The Forbidden City (now the Palace Museum) in Beijing is the world's largest palace complex, home to Chinese emperors from 1420 to 1912. It covers 720,000 square meters and contains 980 surviving buildings with 8,704 rooms. The complex is surrounded by a 7.9 m high wall and a 52 m wide moat. The name 'Forbidden' reflects that no one could enter or leave without the emperor's permission. It took 14 years and reportedly one million workers to build.
Measurements
North-south length961 m
22,506Golf ball diameters
2 billionBlue light wavelengths
Along the central axis
East-west width753 m
753,000Poppy seeds
5,020Hot dogs
16.7Unrolled toilet paper rolls
Maximum width
Wall height7.9 m
3.6 hundredthsHoover Dam heights
29.6Dinner plates
4.6 quadrillionProton diameters
Surrounding perimeter wall
Moat width52 m
372 billionthsJupiter diameters
10.6Garage doors
Water-filled defensive moat
Wall perimeter3,420 m
34.2City block lengths
4.3 thousandthsFlorida lengths
9,771Spider web diameters
Total wall circuit