Forbidden City Yellow Roofs

Yellow and red are the main colors of forbidden city architectures.

Forbidden city yellow roofs.

The roofs of the buildings in the city were made with yellow tiles. There is much more in the forbidden city waiting for you to discover. Decorations in the palace are painted yellow. The forbidden city was designed using ancient chinese symbolism and philosophy.

Another principle is often respected even if it is more questionable. Any study done the forbidden city has approximately 8500 rooms so the legend is false. Here are a few examples. The roof of the forbidden city is full of glazed tiles.

Even the forbidden city s smallest design details are rich in symbolism from its golden yellow tiles a color linking the emperor to the sun to the ceramic animals that line the corners of. It is that of the number 9. Books were liable to catch fire black was supposed to be the colour of water and a black coloured roof would mean ever ready water to put out fires. Therefore yellow became the dominant color in the forbidden city.

In the forbidden city building there are more than 10 different types of roofs. The buildings all faced south which stood for holiness. The main forbidden city colors. Take the three halls as an example the roofs are different.

Green is used. The main hall is mainly yellow. Red is associated with fertility and good fortune so all of the buildings and defensive walls are red. Red walls yellow roofs and green blue decorations.

Even the bricks on the ground are made yellow by a special process. Roofs are built with yellow glazed tiles. This color can only be used by imperial families in ancient china. They also faced away from the north which symbolized the enemies of the chinese cold winds and evil.

It is found in many places such as the number of animals visible on a roof or the number of nails on the doors. Though the majority of the forbidden city s walls are made of grey brick and many of the stairs and terraces are made from bright white marble there are also many bold and colorful elements and there are very deliberate choices behind the colors used. Yellow meaning respect in chinese culture was widely used on roofs of most palaces. But this colour also symbolises fire and that is the reason why the library roof is the only roof in the city that is black instead of yellow.