Read the text on the right and then review the Documents below:

•	The following are links provide numerous images to some of the most famous royal architecture ever constructed in the world during the age of splendor and power. It is well worth your time to peruse as many images as possible and take the virtual excursions using the appropriate software.  As you study the images, keep in mind the following questions. What sources of wealth and power gave rise to these monuments in their respective worlds? How do they symbolize their age? How do they reflect older traditions? What purpose did they serve? Did they succeed in these goals?
•	For the Forbidden City in China go to Image 1, Image 2, Image 3, Image 4.
•	For Isfahan, Image 5, Image 6, Image 7, Image 8.
•	For the Taj Mahal, view Image 9, Image 10 .
•	For the Topkapi Palace go to Image 11, Image 12.
•	For the Palace of Versailles see Image 13.
•	For another Hapsburg Palace of Schoenbrunn (modeled after Versailles) view Image 14.

Royal Architecture in the Age of Splendor and Power

By the seventeenth century, all of the great imperial monarchies of the Eurasian land mass had elaborate architectural structures that projected the power and the values of their individual states. All were ornate and splendid. All were expensive to construct and involved the best craftsmen and artists available to the monarchs. While they seem not to have consciously borrowed from one another, they all arose or were elaborated on in an age when imperial and monarchical power was at a high point. In the case of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal royal structures, the emperors brought in skilled artisans and craftsmen from outside their empires, and, through the work of these skilled people, they indirectly borrowed from the achievements of other cultures. Yet, each reflected unique elements of its own culture as well as the vision of the ruler or rulers who paid for the projects.

We start with the Forbidden City of Beijing, which was the earliest of these sites of royal power and, because of its worldwide reputation, an inspiration to other powerful monarchs and emperors. Beijing became the capital of a unified Chinese empire for the first time under the Mongols in the thirteenth century, although it had enjoyed some prominence in earlier times. Chinggis Khan had razed the old city to the ground, but his Sinocentric successor, Kubilai Khan, restored the city and made it the capital of his empire. He did more than that, however. He rebuilt the city, calling it Khanbaliq, along the lines of early imperial Chinese capitals. Following the classical ideal of a capital city, Khanbaliq was laid out on strict north-south and east-west axes. It was surrounded by high walls, and the inner part of the city housed the emperor and his court. The Ming successors, who overthrew the Mongols, at first made Nanjing their capital, but the Yongle Emperor reinstated Beijing as the imperial capital. The inner areas of the city, known as the Imperial City and the Forbidden City, were aligned on a firm north-south axis and were thought to be the very center of the Chinese state and indeed of the whole universe. Here, government took place, and it was to here that those who sought the favor of the emperor journeyed. Indeed, only those who had business with the state were permitted to enter the imperial domain. They did so, bowing and scraping ("kowtowing"), as indications of the great respect they felt for the awesome power of the emperor. As befit a powerful figure, the ruler was expected to stay within the confines of the imperial quarters (although Qing emperors-who succeeded the Ming in the seventeenth century-did travel with more regularity) and had to rely on envoys and chief ministers for information about the rest of his kingdom and the outside world. So effective were these arrangements that the Qing rulers retained Beijing as their capital and, despite changes and renovations, the Qing kept the Ming structures mostly in place.

The center of Safavid power in the seventeenth century was the great plaza at Isfahan, the inspiration of Shah Abbas, who ruled from 1587 to 1629. It reflected Shah Abbas’s notion that trade, government, and religion should be brought together under the authority of the supreme political leader. A great public mosque, called the Shah Abbas Mosque, dominated one end of the plaza, which measured 1,667 feet by 517 feet. At the other end were the trading stalls and markets, which made Iran wealthy. On one side of the rectangular mosque were the offices of the government, and on the other side was an exquisite mosque, called the Mosque of Shaykh Lutfollah, set aside for the personal use of the shah. Many of Shah Abbas’s most proficient craftsmen came from India and were familiar with the architecture of the Mughal empire.

The Palace of Versailles, which Louis XIV built in the 1660s, has many similarities with the Isfahan plaza, although the French builders had no knowledge of Isfahan. Here, too, the great royal palace opens outward onto a large courtyard. The buildings adjoining the central palace housed the great notables and clergy, whom the French monarchs wanted to keep an eye on.

The Topkapi Palace was in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman empire. Topkapi began to take shape in 1458 under Mehmed II and was steadily added to over the years. As described in detail in Chapter 2, it projected royal authority in much the same way as the Forbidden City emphasized the power of the Chinese emperors. Here, too, the governing officials worked enclosed within massive walls, and the monarchs rarely went outside their inner domain. By isolating the rulers from the rest of society the Ottomans and the Chinese made even more awesome the power of their monarchs.

Yet another advocate of royal architecture was the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, who ruled from 1628 until 1658. He is best known for his peacock throne; for the Taj Mahal, which he built as a magnificent tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal; and for his building program for the state’s capital at Delhi.