Great golden gate and Square city Da Jin Men and Sifangcheng. One enters the site through the monumental Great Golden Gates (
Da Jin Men), and is soon faced by a giant stone tortoise (
bixi), which resides in the
Sifangcheng ("Square city") pavilion. The tortoise supports a carved stone
stele, crowned by intertwining
hornless dragons. The well-preserved stele is known as the "
Shengong Shengde Stele" (), i.e., literally, "The Stele of Godly Merit and Saintly Virtue". The inscription of the stele, extolling the merits and virtues of the
Hongwu Emperor was written by his fourth son, the
Yongle Emperor. The tortoise is long, wide and tall, the stele stands tall (including the tortoise) and is one of the best-known examples of its genre. It is thought that originally the Yongle Emperor planned to install a much bigger stele here. The work on making it was started in the
Yangshan Quarry (some east of the mausoleum) in 1405, but the unfinished stele was abandoned in the quarry, as it was realized that it would not be possible to move it. Unlike the
similar pavilion at the
Ming Tombs near Beijing, Nanjing's
Sifangcheng roof was once destroyed during the
Taiping Rebellion and left unbuilt until 2006. Recently, Chinese engineers have conducted research in regard to the possibility of restoring the roof, which was then eventually restored in between 2007-2009. ’s stele of homage to his Ming predecessor of 300 years before
The Sacred Way The Sacred Way is an -long road at the Nanjing city Government site. The winding
Sacred Way (
Shendao) starts near the Sifangcheng pavilion. It includes several sections: the Elephant Road and the
Wengzhong Road. The Elephant Road is lined by 12 pairs of 6 kinds of animals (
lions,
xiezhi, camels, elephants,
qilin, and horses), guarding the tomb. Beyond them is a column called
huabiao in Chinese. One then continues along the Wengzhong Road. Four pairs of ministers and generals (or warrior guardian figures,
Wengzhong) of stone have been standing there for centuries to guard the journey to the afterlife.
Lingxing Gate The Lingxing Gate, a
pailou at the end of the Wengzhong Road was destroyed long ago, but rebuilt in 2006.
The central area One enters the central area of the mausoleum complex through the
Wen Wu Fang Men (The Gate of the Civil and the Military). On an inscribed stone tablet outside of the gate an official notification of the local government in the
Qing dynasty (1644–1911) is ordered to protect the tomb. Inside the gate, there is the Tablet Hall (
Bei Dian) in which five steles stand. The one in the middle, also mounted on a
stone tortoise, is inscribed with four Chinese characters, "治隆唐宋", which were written by the Qing dynasty's
Kangxi Emperor on his third inspection tour of the South in 1699. The text is interpreted as alluding to the greatness of the Ming dynasty founder Zhu Yuanzhang, matching (or surpassing) that of the founders of the
Tang and
Song Dynasties of old. Behind the pavilion, there used to be other annexes; however, most of them have collapsed into relics from which the original splendor can still be traced. The emperor and his queen were buried in a clay
tumulus, in diameter, known as the Lone Dragon Hill (
Du Long Fu). A stone wall with a terrace on top, known as
Ming Lou (Ming Mansion) or the Soul Tower is half-embedded into the front face of the tumulus. On a stone wall surrounding the vault, 7 Chinese characters were inscribed, identifying the mausoleum of Emperor Ming Taizu (respected title of Emperor
Zhu Yuanzhang). The mountain to the south of the tomb, known as Meihua Shan ("Plum Flower Mountain"), is the mausoleum of
Sun Quan, King of the
Kingdom of Wu in the
Three Kingdoms period (220-265). The existence of this tomb is the reason why the Sacred Way is not straight. ==Later history==