Dome

Overall side view looking toward the National Museum; A ten-story obelisk (stele) that was erected as a national monument of the People's Republic of China to the martyrs of revolutionary struggle during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is located in the southern edge of Tiananmen Square, to the north of Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Commissioned by the government in 1949, it was completed in 1958. The architect of the monument was Liang Sicheng, with some elements designed by his wife, Lin Huiyin (an architect and the aunt of Maya Lin). The monument has also served as the center of large-scale mourning activities that later developed into protest and unrest, such as the deaths of Premier Zhou Enlai (which developed into the Tiananmen Square protests of 1976) and Hu Yaobang (which developed into the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989). The monument covers an area of 32,000 square feet. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 4/26/2013)