Submitted by Sean Williams on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 13:19
Heritage Key is evolving - not only do we keep adding to our huge bank of in-depth articles, on-the-ball interviews and amazing Virtual Experiences (look out for Stonehenge Virtual, coming soon), but the encyclopedia of world heritage sites you'll find listed in our directory just keeps growing and growing.
You can browse ancient sites in our map-based directory, and keep checking our blogs and articles to find out about their latest archaeological developments and discoveries.
We have details of hundreds of ancient sites from around the world, as well as information about the best museums housing antiquities collections.
To help you pick of the most recent entries, here are our top five recently-added pages:
The Palace Museum is housed within the Forbidden City, an imperial palace originally completed in 1420 that served a succession of twenty-four Chinese emperors and their dynasties during the Ming and Qing periods of Chinese history. It is located in the center of Beijing, the capital city of China. The museum itself was established in October 10, 1925, and is China's largest museum.
Built from 1406 to 1420, the The Forbidden City complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 covering 720,000 square meters. It is recognized by UNESCO as the site with the largest number of preserved wooden structures in the world. The Mongol Yuan dynasty first constructed a palace on the site but it was ordered burned down by the Ming emperor Hongwu and the imperial captial was moved to Nanjing. But the capital was moved back to Beijing by his son Zhu Di and a new palace was built on the same site as the previous palace. Over a million workers labored on the new palace for 15 years, using Phoebe zhennan wood from the jungles of southwest China and marble from quarries near Beijing.
The Manchu people of Manchuria, in northeast China, conquered the Ming dynasty in the mid -16th century and founded the Qing dynasty. The Manchus ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911.
The Manchu military used the banner system, an organizational structure first developed by Nurhaci, a Manchu chieftain who conquered the northeastern province of Liaoning and laid the groundwork for the conquest of China by his descendants.
These first three Banners, named the "Higher Banners" constituted the Imperial Guard. The Guard included 1,250 "Life Guards" whose primary job was to protect the imperial family and palace officials, 15,000 sentries who were posted along the walls and 10,000 elite soldiers to man the gates and provide escorts for the emperor and imperial officials who needed to journey outside the palace complex.
The men who served in the Imperial Guard were almost exclusively Manchu although there were some Mongols as well. Each banner was further divided into companies of 150 to 300 men.
Submitted by Mary Harrsch on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 19:01
Over six hundred years after the original Forbidden City was constructed in China, visitors were invited to pass through the vermillion Meridian Gate of a virtual Forbidden City, a joint project of the Palace Museum and IBM. The new virtual world not only provides visitors with the opportunity to marvel at the beautifully rendered architecture but examine cultural relics, observe and even engage in activities enjoyed by emperors and their families and learn more about the history of the Ming and Qing imperial dynasties.
I have not yet made my first visit to the real Forbidden City (it's definitely on my list of planned heritage site visits, though). But I was excited to get a virtual preview, especially from the comfort of my computer without enduring hours in the cramped seat of a 757.
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I tried every staircase but each time the avatar was prevented from mounting the dais. I smiled when I discovered this as the developers must have included this behavior to maintain the sanctity of the throne even in this virtual palace. After all, only an emperor with the mandate of heaven was supposed to sit upon it.
Over six hundred years after the original 
