Yongle’s Yangshan stele was planned at about 73 metres (240 feet) and roughly 16,250 tonnes. Commissioned around 1405, it was cut in three sections but abandoned in the quarry because the stone could not be moved. A smaller 30-foot memorial followed. 🏛️
Yangshan Stone: Yongle's Unfinished 73-Metre Stele
Site mentioned
📍 Yang Shan
Key facts
- The Yongle Emperor commissioned the Yangshan stele around 1405.
- The planned monument was about 73 metres (240 feet) high and divided into three sections: roughly 15 metres for the base, 50 metres for the slab and 8 metres for the cap.
- The cited estimate is approximately 16,250 tonnes, not 31,000 or 57,000 tonnes.
- The stele was abandoned in the quarry because transporting it was impractical. A smaller memorial of about 9 metres (30 feet) was completed instead.
- The supplied results do not independently substantiate the stories about executions for missed quotas or Fentou's connection to workers' burials.
- At 73 metres, the stele would have exceeded the height of the Statue of Liberty's figure but not the roughly 93-metre statue-and-pedestal complex.
Sources
Yangshan Quarry - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
The quarry is famous for the gigantic unfinished stele that was abandoned there during the reign of the Yongle Emperor in the early 15th century. In scope and ...
The Stone Stele of Yangshan Quarry | Amusing Planetamusingplanet.com
The dimensions he ordered to his court engineers were astounding—the base was to be 16 meter tall and 30 meter long on its side, the body was 50 ...
A Relic of Imperial Aspirations - The New York Timesnytimes.com
The Emperor Yongle, who ruled in the early 15th century, wanted to have the grandest monument imaginable for the tomb of his father, the founder ...
Yangshan Stele Quarry_Baiduwikibaike.baidu.com
This project, personally decreed by the emperor, mobilizing massive manpower and resources on a grand scale, exhausting the people and draining the treasury, ...
The Yangshan Quarry is an ancient stone ... - China Focuschinafocus.quora.com
The quarry is famous for the gigantic unfinished stele that was abandoned there during the reign of the Yongle Emperor in the 15th century. … Read more.
The Yangshan Quarryheritagedaily.com
The Yangshan Quarry is the site of an ancient limestone quarry, located to the east of Nanjing, China. - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News.
Yangshan Quarry: The Stele Ming Workers Couldn't Moveculturalheritageonline.com
Commissioned by the Yongle Emperor around 1405, the planned stele stood 73 metres and weighed 16250 tonnes, and never left the mountain.
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