the Potala Palace

the highest palace in the world	the highest palace in the world

Potala Palace, situated on the Hongshan Hill in Lhasa, means "the Sacred Palace of Buddhism" in Sanskrit. It was built in the 7th century by King Songtsan Gambo for his bride, the princess Wen Cheng of Han nationality, and was enlarged and renovated by the successive Da1ais.
Built on a mountain slope over 4000 meters above sea level, the Potala Palace covers an area of 41 hectares. The 13-story Main Building is 115.703 meters in height and 360 meters in width, surrounded by eight temples, where there are tens of thousands of Buddhist statues. The Potala Palace mainly consists of two palaces joined together, the White and the Red Palace. With over 1,000 rooms (bedrooms, scripture rooms, stupas, and rooms for monks, etc.), it is the headquarters of the Dalai Lamas, and is a treasure house of traditional Tibetan culture. Also it is the most successful structure integrating Tibetan Buddhism with palace buildings among dozens of Tibetan monumental buildings. The Potala Palace's halls include worship and pagoda halls, the North Square, the South Square and the Dragon King Pond. Furthermore, the Potala Palace used to be a center for both temporal and religious administration. It is closely connected with many important figures in the history of Tibet, such as Songtsan Gompo, Princess Wencheng and several generations of Dalai Lamas.
Now, the Potala Palace is a relic under the state protection, and has been named as a World Heritage Site. The Potala Palace is known as the Pearl on the Roof of the World, being the highest palace in the world.