Heijō-kyō

Empress Genmei ordered the Imperial capital moved from Fujiwara-kyō to Heijō-kyō in 708, and the move to Heijō-kyō was complete in 710. Heijō-kyō was modeled after Chang'an, the capital of Tang-dynasty China, although Heijō-kyō lacked walls. In the city, merchants and traders from China, Korea, and India introduced various foreign cultures to Heijō-kyō through the Silk Road. As a result, Heijō-kyō flourished as Japan's first international and political capital, with a peak population of between 50,000 and 100,000. The overall form of the city was an irregular rectangle, and the area of the city was more than 25 km².

Heijō-kyō Suzaku-ōji

The Heijō-kyō Suzaku-ōji (平城京朱雀大路跡), the central street of Heijō-kyō, was located between Nijō-ōji Minami and Sanjō-ōji in modern Nara city. In 1984, the 220-meter stretch from the Heijō-kyō ruins to Ōmiya-dōri to the south was designated as a National Historic Site. The avenue, which stretched 3.7 kilometer from north to south, from the Rajōmon Gate, the main entrance to Heijō-kyō in the south, to the Suzakumon Gate, the main gate on the south side of the palace complex, was designed not only to function as a road, but also to accommodate the passage of foreign envoys, and its size and the surrounding streetscape were designed to be spectacular.

Excavations conducted since 1974 have clarified the route of the street, and it has been revealed that the width is about 74 meters between the centers of the east-and-west side gutters, and that the distance between the east and west embankments in Sanjō is about 85 meters. The remains of a previous 23 meter wide road were also discovered below the Nara period road. In 2010, a portion of the Heijō-kyō Suzaku-ōji, measuring 70 meters wide and 210 meters long, was restored from the south side of Suzakumon Gate.