th century. at the center of the pass is a white marble platform named the cloud terrace, which was called the crossing-street dagoba, since its narrow arch spanned the main street of the pass and on the top of the terrace there used to be three stone dagobas, built in the yuan daynasty(1206-1368). at the bottom of the terrace is a half-octagonal arch gateway, interesting for its wealth of detail: it is decorated with splendid images of buddha and four celestial guardians carved on the walls. the vividness of their expressions is matched by the exquisite workmanship. such grandiose relics works, with several stones pieced together, are rarely seen in ancient chinese carving. the gate jambs bear a multi-lingual buddhist sutra, carved some 600 years ago in sanskrit(3), tibetan, mongolian, uigur(4), han chinese and the language of western xia. undoubtedly, they are valuable to the study of buddhism and ancient languages.
as a cultural heritage, the wall belongs not only to china but to the world. the venice charter says: "historical and cultural architecture not only includes the individual architectural works, but also the urban or rural environment that witnessed certain civilizations, significant social developments or historical events." the great wall is the largest of such historical and cultural architecture, and that is why it continues to be so attractive to people all over the world. in 1987, the wall was listed by unesco as a world cultural heritage site.
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