Unfinished stele base, Yangshan Quarry

What it is

This photograph, taken on 29 January 2011 and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by a user named Vmenkov, shows the unfinished base of a giant stele at the Yangshan Quarry. A hiker stands at lower left for scale. Gaps under the block show where it was partly cut free from the mountain by digging beneath it.

Why it matters

The stele was part of a monument project connected to the court of the Yongle Emperor, who ruled Ming dynasty China from 1402 to 1424. The stone was never finished, so the site shows an abandoned project rather than a completed monument. The ruins help students see how ambitious the court's building plans could be, and that some of them were left unfinished.

Look closer

• What does the hiker tell you about the size of the stone block?
• Why would workers have dug under the block, and what does that suggest about how they planned to move it?
• What can a photograph taken in 2011 not tell us about the people who worked this quarry in the early 1400s?