142. Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet, 1645 and later (China)

Rising 300 metres above the valley floor, this immense hilltop palace served as the winter residence of the Dalai Lama until 1959, when the fourteenth reincarnation of the Tibetan spiritual leader was forced to flee to India. Begun under Lozang Gyatso, the fifth Dalai Lama, the Palace also served as a seat of government. Copper was poured into its foundations to assist with earthquake stability. Impressively fortress-like in appearance, the Palace’s thirteen stories are set on a tall base of canted stone walls with an average thickness of 3 metres. The central portion, with its puce colouration and golden roofs, is known as the Red Palace, and is devoted solely to prayer and study. In plan the Palace forms a giant rectangle of 350 by 400 metres. It contains over a thousand richly ornamented rooms that house countless shrines and statues. The Potala Palace is named after a hill on a cape at the southern tip of India, which was seen as the abode of a revered Bodhisattva. It is now a museum, but the flow of visitors is strictly regulated. It was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994.