The
name Macau was thought to be derived from the name of the temple. See
Hokkien ;
Cantonese . It is said that when the Portuguese sailors landed at the coast just outside the temple and asked the name of the place, the natives replied
A-maa-gok (
Cantonese ;
Hokkien ) or
Maa-gok (
Cantonese ). The Portuguese then named the peninsula with various forms over the centuries such as "Amacão", "Ama Cuão", "amaquan", "Amacao", "Amacuão", "Amaquão", "Amangão", "Amagão", "Amaquam", then the initial ⟨A⟩ was later elided in
Portuguese likely due to misconstruing with resulting into the following forms, "Macão", "Macao", "Macau", "Maquão", "Maçhoam", "Machoam". The temple was well described in ancient Chinese texts as well as represented in paintings, related to Macao. It is also one of the first scenes photographed in Macao. In 2005, the temple became one of the designated sites of the
Historic Centre of Macau, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. ==Architecture==