HŌRYŪ-JI TEMPLE
Horyu-ji Buddhist temple in Ikaruga, Nara, houses some of the oldest wooden buildings in the world. It was commissioned by Prince Sh toku to honour his late father, the 31st emperor of Japan, and was completed in AD 607. The complex was destroyed by lighting in AD 670, but was rebuilt using much of the original materials. Thee five-storey pagoda is the jewel of the site, standing 32 metres tall with what is believed to be a fragment of one of Buddha’s bones at its base.