See the Media Library for related film clips and images.
The Monument of the People's Heroes is the central feature of the Square. Built in the late 1950s to commemorate those who had died for change and revolution in China from 1840, its northern face has a calligraphic inscription by Mao Zedong which reads: "The People's Heroes Live On Forever". Around it, in bas relief, is an iconographic representation of highlights of the Chinese Revolution.
For more about the Monument, see an article by Wu Hung, "Tiananmen Square: A Political History of Monuments," in Representations 35, Summer 1991, and an excerpt from Simon Leys' Chinese Shadows.