Objective Mount Hua, an integral part of the Qinling Mountains known as the “Father Mountain of China,” is also called “Taihua Mountain.” Lauded as the “Western Mountain” among China’s traditional the “Sacred Five Mountains of China”, it was among the first batch of scenic areas designated as “National Key Scenic Spots” and boasts extraordinarily high historical and cultural value. Through the successive efforts of rulers, scholar-officials, and ordinary people across dynasties, it has earned the reputation of being “the Most Precipitous Mountain Under Heaven” . Mount Hua occupies a pivotal position in the development history of famous mountain scenic areas. The continuous refinement of its scenic pattern is directly linked to the landscape-related activities carried out by ancient people within its domain, which in turn gave shape to a scenic pattern with unique characteristics of its own. By systematically analyzing the historical trajectory of Mount Hua’s scenic pattern evolution under the influence of ancient people’s landscape activities, this study aims to reveal the inherent logic of such evolution and its social value, thereby providing theoretical support and practical insights for the protection and sustainable utilization of modern mountain landscapes. Methods This study takes ancient Chinese mountain records, stone inscriptions, and maps as core documents, integrates the perspectives of landscape archaeology and the multi-evidence method, and analyzes the shaping of Mount Hua’s landscape pattern by ancient people’s activities from four dimensions. Textual semantic analysis explores records of sacrifices and tours in mountain records to reveal the selection of landscape nodes by ritual activities. Geospatial evidence, combined with map-based restoration of ancient roads and temple distributions, confirms the planning of spatial structures through ancient people’s transportation and religious activities. Cultural and archaeological evidence connects stone inscriptions and poetic inscriptions with site remains. The restoration of historical landscape patterns integrates the aforementioned evidence to demonstrate how ancient activities such as mountain climbing, construction, and sacrifices transformed the natural mountain into a spiritual space with unique landscape characteristics, providing key support for understanding the historical accumulation of Mount Hua’s landscape heritage. Results 1) The evolution of Mount Hua’s scenic pattern is inherently rooted in the landscape-related activities conducted by ancient people in this region, eventually taking shape as the integrated “mountain-temple-river” scenic framework. This pattern is not a static product but a cumulative result of long-term interactions between human activities and the natural environment, embodying the profound integration of natural geography and humanistic connotations. 2) Under the influence of these ancient landscape-related practices, the scenic pattern of ancient Mount Hua underwent a gradual transformation from a natural space to a combination of architectural and spiritual spaces. Each shift in the form or content of these activities—whether the evolution of imperial sacrifice rituals, the spread of Taoist practices, or the flourishing of literati’s scenic excursions—continuously propelled the extension and expansion of Mount Hua’s scenic scope. It not only augmented diverse landscape elements such as mountain trails, religious edifices, educational institutions, and folk activity sites but also enriched the cultural connotations and functional dimensions of the landscape, gradually evolving from a purely natural terrain into a comprehensive scenic system bearing historical, religious, educational, and spiritual values. Conclusion The core formation mechanism of the scenic pattern of ancient Mount Hua resides in the two-way interaction characterized by “activities generating space and space feeding back into activities”. This interaction is not a simplistic linear correlation but a dynamic and iterative process. On the one hand, ancient landscape-related practices—encompassing imperial heaven-worshipping rituals, Taoist religious activities, literati’s scenic excursions, and folk festival gatherings—continuously propelled the extension of mountain trails, the construction of religious and cultural edifices, and the enrichment of landscape elements, gradually shaping the spatial structure of Mount Hua. On the other hand, the established spatial framework, such as the ritual sequence from the Weihe River through the “Western Mountain” Temple to the mountain top and the resting hubs along the “only path to Mount Hua since ancient times”, further formalized and institutionalized these activities, reinforcing their sacredness and continuity.In response to the existing predicaments in the protection and development of Mount Hua’s scenic pattern—including the fragmentation of the overall layout, the compression of scenic clusters by urban construction, the superficiality of conservation efforts, and the erosion of living landscape spaces—this study proposes targeted strategies. These strategies aim to tackle the fundamental causes of the prevailing issues while upholding the historical evolutionary logic of Mount Hua’s scenic pattern, thereby offering a meaningful benchmark for the protection, inheritance, and sustainable development of other famous mountain landscapes in China that share analogous historical and cultural contexts.
YUE et al. (Fri,) studied this question.