China
The Forbidden City is the world's largest palace - 980 buildings and 8000 rooms and chambers - the square structure on the map. Next door to it
(highlighted in red) is the
new Forbidden city surrounding the lakes - Zhongnanhai, once a separate palace and compound lived in by Cixi
and her puppet emperor. That's the idea of the scale of the complex.
Today it forms the CCP HQ - highly secretive and from the road it appears as just a nondescript blank red wall. Even viewing platforms high enough to see it
from a distance have the view blocked by another carefully placed highrise.
some Zhongnanhai buildings in the distance
the deceptively small but lavish gates:
some rare pics of inside the walls:
and an even rarer aerial over the complex: