Miyajima

The approach from the east by boat first encounters the 52-foot-tall (16-meter), vermilion-colored O-Torii, standing in the sea some 220 yards (200 meters) in front of the hall of worship and built on its axis. The eighth since the Heian period, it dates from 1874 to 1875. The great weight of its massive camphor-wood pillars, approximately 44 feet (13.4 meters) tall, together with the 76-foot-long (23.3-meter) hollow cross piece, filled with stones, allows the O-Torii to stand upon the seafloor without being embedded in it.