Potala Palace built
637 CE.
Shown on the map at 29.658°, 91.117°.
Potala Palace (Tibetan: ཕོ་བྲང་པོ་ཏ་ལ་, Wylie: pho brang po ta la; simplified Chinese: 布达拉宫; traditional Chinese: 布達拉宮; pinyin: Bùdálā Gōng) is a museum complex in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It was formerly the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, and from 1649 until 1959 served as the Dalai Lamas' residence. The palace complex became a museum following the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China. The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, regarded in Buddhist tradition as the mythical abode of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Construction of the present structure was begun in 1645 at the order of the 5th Dalai Lama, advised by Konchog Chophel, the Thirty-fifth Ganden Tripa of the Gelug school. It was built on the site of an earlier palace attributed to Songtsen Gampo (traditionally dated to 637). Built in the dzong style, at an altitude of about 3,700 metres (12,100 ft) on Marpo Ri in the center of the Lhasa Valley, the palace measures 400 metres (1,300 ft) east–west and 350 metres (1,150 ft) north–south.
Text from the Wikipedia article Potala Palace, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.