The Tem­ple of Heav­en, found­ed in the first half of the 15th cen­tu­ry, is a dig­ni­fied com­plex of fine cult build­ings set in gar­dens and sur­round­ed by his­toric pine woods. In its over­all lay­out and that of its indi­vid­ual build­ings, it sym­bol­izes the rela­tion­ship between earth and heav­en &ndash, the human world and God‘s world &ndash which stands at the heart of Chi­nese cos­mogony, and also the spe­cial role played by the emper­ors with­in that rela­tion­ship.