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| Dismounting-Horse Archway |
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As the starting point of the Ming Tomb, it is located at Weigang outside Zhongshan city-gate. The stone-based archway has two columns with cloud-patterns carved on the column-top. The horizontal board above is engraved with “All officials are requested to dismount horses”. Before national liberation, this archway fell down, with columns broken and the horizontal board fragmented. It was renovated in 1984.
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| Grand Gold Gate |
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The gate of the Ming Tomb is 26.66 meters long and 8.09 meters wide. In fact, it is composed of three smaller arched gates facing south and that the lower part of each gate is based on stone-carved Sumeru. Its upper part is laid with bricks. In the past, it was inlaid with vermilion wooden gates with glazed yellow tiles on the top and imperial walls alongside. Now, they are all in non-existence.
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| Tablet Pavilion |
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Commonly called the Square City, it is a square building with the length of each side extending 26.86 meters. In the Ming dynasty, there was a top which is now in non-existence. Inside the pavilion, there is “The tablet of deified exploits and holy virtues of the Ming Tomb” carved in 2746 regular characters at the back of the tablet, a tablet erected by emperor Zhu Di for his father Zhu Yuanzhang. It is the biggest tablet among all inscribed tablets of the Ming dynasty in the vicinity of Nanjing.
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| The Tomb-Path |
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The tomb-path of the Ming Tomb zigzags with a unique style. It is flanked by six sacred stone animals, i.e. two pairs of a kind, one stands while the other sits down. These stones animals are respectively lions, Xiezhi, camels, elephants, unicorns and horses. Beyond stone-animals, the path turns northward, meeting a pair of white stone-viewing columns, two pairs of stone-warriors and stone-officials respectively. At the end of the tomb-path, there is a stone gate, with only six stone-column bases and eight drum-like stones left behind.
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| Sacrificial Palace |
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Originally as one of the main buildings of the Ming Tomb, it only has three-layer stone Sumeru steps left behind. The base is 63.09 meters wide and 48.3 meters deep. There are 56 huge stone-column bases on the hall-foundation, which reveals how spectacular the hall was at that time. The existing sacrificial hall, with a smaller scale, was built in 1873.
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| Tablet Hall |
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Originally as the middle gate in front of the sacrificial hall, the tablet hall of a large scale was later destroyed, with only Sumeru steps left behind. The existing tablet hall was built in the late Qing dynasty. The tablet inscribed with “Governance modeled after prosperous Tang and Song Dynasties” erected in 1699 was personally written by emperor Kangxi during his inspection tour in southern China.
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