Songyue Temple Tower Travel Guide

Songyue Temple Tower, the largest brick tower now standing in China, was built in the Northern Wei Dynasty (520 A.D.) at the south foot of the Taishi Mountain to the northwest of Dengfeng County.

Songyue Temple, once the tour palace of the Xuanwu Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, has waned since the Tang Dynasty, only leaving the tower and few other establishments. Both the externality and the bottom in shape of a dodecagon, the distance between the eaves so close, the brick tower of 15 floors which is over 40 meters in height is of a structure unique throughout the nation.

The veranda is pretty with a brisk outline of a parabola. Inside, the tower looks like a hollow bamboo, floors from the second till the top all in shape of an octagon, instead of a dodecagon. Although built with grey bricks and clay, the temple still stands imposingly among the mountains, towering into the sky, after more than 1,400 years of exposure to the weather throughout rains and winds, as a proof of the excellence of ancient Chinese architectural skills.