 Nearby is the site where the emperor’s cremation occurred.The column’s shaft is high, on a high base, which in turn originally stood on a high platform – the column in total is  About 3 metres of the base have been below ground level since the 1589 restoration.The column consists of 27 or 28 blocks of Carrara marble, each of diameter, hollowed out whilst still at the quarry for a stairway of 190–200 steps within the column up to a platform at the top.