ST. BASILS CATHEDRAL
1)St. Basil's was built to commemorate the capture of the Tatar stronghold of Kazan in 1552, which was on the Feast of the Intercession of the Virgin.
2)In 1588, Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich added a ninth chapel.
3)It is officially named Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin.
4)Recently, St. Basil's Cathedral has suffered significant damage from weather and neglect. (So sad) It was not until the Millennium that funds were allocated to restore its foundations and flaking surfaces.
5)Although the towers and domes appear chaotic, there is symbolism in its design. There are eight domed chapels symbolizing the eight assaults on Kazan: four large and octagonal and four small and square. In the center is a tent-roofed spire topped with a small golden dome.
BIG BEN
1)Big Ben is the bell not the tower as many people think.
2)The tower was raised as a part of Charles Barry's design for a new palace, after the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire on the night of 22 October 1834. So sad
3)The clock faces are large enough to have once allowed the Clock Tower to be the largest four-faced clock in the world, but have since been outdone by the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
MOUNT RUSHMORE
1)The entire project cost US $989,992.32.
2)Originally, it was planned that the figures would be carved from head to waist, but insufficient funding forced the carving to end. Gutzon Borglum had also planned a massive panel in the shape of the Louisiana Purchase commemorating in eight-foot-tall gilded letters the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Louisiana Purchase, and seven other territorial acquisitions from Alaska to Texas to the Panama Canal Zone.
3)In a canyon behind the carved faces is a chamber, cut only 70 feet (21 m) into the rock, containing a vault with sixteen porcelain enamel panels. The panels include the text of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, biographies of the four presidents and Gutzon Borglum, and the history of the U.S. The chamber was created as the entranceway to a planned "Hall of Records"; the vault was installed in 1998.
GREAT PYRAMID & SPHINX
1)When newly completed, the Great Pyramid rose 146.7 m (481.4 ft)—nearly 50 stories high.
2)Many archaeologists and engineers now believe that the pyramid builders were not slaves, as was previously thought, but paid laborers who took great pride in their task. Most were probably farmers, contracted to work for a limited period. Specialists, who were permanently employed by the king, filled the positions that required the most skill—architects, masons, metalworkers, and carpenters.
3)To ensure that the pyramid remained symmetrical(same on both sides), the exterior casing stones all had to be equal in height and width. Workers marked all the blocks to indicate the angle of the pyramid wall and trimmed the surfaces carefully so that the blocks fit together. During construction the outer surface of the stone was left unfinished; excess stone was removed later.
3)The sides of all three of the Giza pyramids were astronomically oriented to be north-south and east-west within a small fraction of a degree
TEMPLE OF ZEUS
1)The Temple of Zeus at Olympia is an ancient Greek pagan temple, dedicated to the chief of the gods, Zeus. Built in 470-456 BCE, it was the very model of the fully-developed classical Greek temple of the Doric order.
2)The Roman general Mummius dedicated twenty-one gilded shields after he sacked Corinth in 146 BCE; they were hung upon the columns. In 426 CE, Theodosius II ordered the destruction of the sanctuary, and earthquakes in 522 and 551 devastated the ruins and left the Temple of Zeus partially buried.
3)Plan and Sculptural Program of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia: the temple was begun around 470. The construction was funded by the spoils of a local war between Elis and Pisa, whose defeat and destruction occurred about 470 B.C. The temple was apparently completed by 457 when a golden tripod was dedicated by the Spartans on the peak of the gable after their defeat of Athens in the battle of Tanagra in that year.
4)Originally there were 104 Corinthian columns of which only 15 remain standing. One of the columns actually blew down in a storm in 1852. Hadrian had erected a giant gold and ivory status of Zeus inside the temple with an equally large one of himself next to it.
I hope you enjoyed it. Bye
