Potala Palace was originally built more than 1,300 years ago in the 7th century. Because of the damage made by a war, the structure was rebuilt in the 17th century by the Fifth Dalai Lama. Repeated repairs and expansions until 1645 finally brought the palace to its present scale.
The marvelousPotala Palace is made of wood and stones. The walls are all made of granite, and the roofs are all made of wood. The overhanging eaves, the upturned roof corners, the gilded brass tiles and pillars all inscribed with Buddhist scriptures, bottles, and makara fish as well as the gold-winged bird decoration the roof ridges contribute much to the beauty of the hip-an-gable roofs.
The building measures 400 metres east-west and 350 metres north-south, with sloping stone walls averaging 3 m. thick, and 5 m. (more than 16 ft) thick at the base, and with copper poured into the foundations to help proof it against earthquakes. Thirteen stories of buildings – containing over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and about 200,000 statues – soar 117 metres (384 ft) on top of Marpo Ri, the “Red Hill”, rising more than 300 m (about 1,000 ft) in total above the valley floor.
Potala Palace has the implementation of pre-integrated ticketing system restricted, limiting the number of visitors is 2,300 people a day (about 700 individual tickets), after 17:00 every day, it sells the next day and later tickets, the pre-sale ticket limited 4 per person, you must line up for tickets one day in advance, certificate and identity card number must be provided, according to the sequence of queuing, ticket marked on the card the next day’s tour time, buy enter ticket with your ID card in the gate of Potala Palace.
China travel & tour 