For almost 500 years the Forbidden City was home to 24 emperors.

1420 · 1912 · apart: 492 years

Completed in 1420, it housed 14 Ming and 10 Qing rulers until the last emperor abdicated in 1912.

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The event

• Forbidden City1420 · Beijing. The Yongle Emperor moved the capital to Beijing and finished his palace of 980 buildings in 1420. Legend says it has 9,999 rooms, one fewer than the palace of the Lord of Heaven; in fact it has fewer.

15th century · 20th century

More amazing facts

• 1414 · 1415 The Ming court mistook a giraffe for the mythical qilin.
• 1414 In Japanese and Korean the giraffe is still called “kirin”, the name of the mythical qilin.
• 1415 Knights were not winched onto their horses.
• 1424 · 1437 Tamerlane's grandson got the length of the year wrong by just 58 seconds.
• 1428 · 1545 Among the Aztecs money grew on trees: people paid in cacao beans.
• 1428 · 1436 Brunelleschi's dome in Florence and the Aztec Empire are contemporaries.

All amazing facts (1058) →