About 2km southeast of the Forbidden City towers Tian Tan, or the Temple of Heaven, where dynastic rulers in China used to worship the heaven. The temple plus subsidiary buildings and a surrounding garden covers an area five times the size of the Forbidden City. The Temple of Heaven is much bigger than the Forbidden City and smaller than the Summer Palace with an area of about 2,700,000 square meters. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D. during the Ming Dynasty for the purpose of offering sacrifices to Heaven. Since Chinese emperors called themselves Tianzi, or the Son of Heaven, they dared not to build their own dwelling, the "Forbidden City", bigger than a dwelling for Heaven.
