Built in A.D. 794 on the mod­el of the cap­i­tals of ancient Chi­na, Kyoto was the impe­r­i­al cap­i­tal of Japan from its foun­da­tion until the mid­dle of the 19th cen­tu­ry. As the cen­tre of Japan­ese cul­ture for more than 1,000 years, Kyoto illus­trates the devel­op­ment of Japan­ese wood­en archi­tec­ture, par­tic­u­lar­ly reli­gious archi­tec­ture, and the art of Japan­ese gar­dens, which has influ­enced land­scape gar­den­ing the world over.