Seven Star Mountain tower

Seven Star Mountain tower

The Seven Star Mountain tower, commonly known as the black tower, was built in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (1522-1566). It is the brother tower of Dongshan white tower. It is on a peak of Qixing mountain in Taba village, Nanguang Town, southern suburb of the city, 10 kilometers away from the urban area. It is one of the three towers in Yibin.

The tower body is a hollow dense eaves octagonal conical brick structure. The base of the platform is xumizuo, 1.7 meters high, 4.4 meters long and 30.7 meters high. The body of the tower is octagonal, and the top of the tower collapsed early. There are empty rooms in the tower, with Buddhist niches, many relief stone carvings, and there are pedals circling up. The tower body is retracted layer by layer, and the top of the tower is hidden on the seventh floor eaves. There are solid columns in the tower, and there are niches on each floor. Inside the tower, bricks are stacked on the top of the footpath to make a rolling top, and the steps circle around the solid column from left to right to the top. There are 118 grades in total. The gate is 2.2 meters high and 1.15 meters high. The gate post is circular, with arc-shaped "dragon pillars" carved on both sides, and "two dragons fighting for treasure" on the bottom of the caisson. The fourth layer of caisson is engraved with "Shuangfeng Chaoyang", and the seventh layer is engraved with "Panlong". These carvings are delicate and lifelike. The whole body of the tower is made of iron blue brick and stone without coating. In addition, it has not been repaired and decorated for many years. From a distance, it looks like Dai, and hence the name of "black tower". A major repair was carried out in 1987. According to the custom, the tower is still covered with iron blue, but the top partition is made up.