The Leaning Tower of Pisa
Italy's most famous structure is actually something of an architectural failure: it was never intentionally designed to lean left to garner popularity. Rather, it began to lean shortly after construction began on the third floor in 1173 because of its inadequately laid foundation. Few people enter the tower as it serves as a bell tower.
For many years, historians and locals have debated the true identity of the architect behind this famous, partly sunken building. For centuries, most believed that Guglielmo and Bonanno Pisano were responsible for its design. Recently, however, many have attributed its design to Diotisalvi in light of new and mounting evidence.
The tower would likely have sunk completely were it not for the continuous battles which engaged the Pisans. Because the battles halted construction for almost a century, the soil beneath the tower was able to settle and ensure that the earth would be able to support the leaning tower. Perhaps this will finally answer Edwin Starr's famous question: "War, what is it good for?"
The Coliseum
Though most tourists flock to Rome to eat, drink, and stare at the pope, many millions pass each year through the Coliseum, or, as it was known in the past, the Flavian Amphitheatre. Completed in 80 A.D. by the emperor Titus, the Coliseum was originally able to hold as many as 50,000 spectators. Since its construction, the Coliseum has been under constant threat of destruction by fire, earthquakes, and stone-robbers.
Though many consider the Coliseum a "great" monument to the imperial power of Rome, historian Thomas Cahill has a very different take on it: he refers to the Coliseum as "the single largest monument to human cruelty in the world." It is quite easy, standing as we do a millennium apart from the atrocities which unfolded there, to forget that the Coliseum was not only an arena for gladiator sports and dramatic reenactments but also for mass executions and torture — a place where prisoners were fed to lions and burned alive. It is worth noting that capital punishment is banned in Italy today.
The Taj Mahal
When you think of the Taj Mahal, you probably think of a golden-toned marble palace of the East where Indian princesses danced in the courts with servants and flocks of peacocks. Guess again. The Taj Mahal is not a palace or castle at all, but a tomb.
Yes, a tomb. The Taj Mahal is the world's largest grave, a grandiose testament to the eternal grief of a king who lost his beloved queen in childbirth. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (which is the Persian term for "king of the worlds") built the mausoleum as the final resting place for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, daughter of a Persian noble who married the King of India and became queen at the age of 19. Upon her deathbed, she asked the emperor for a symbol of their love, which would become manifest in the Taj Mahal.
Legend has it that the king went into secluded mourning for a year after the death of Mumtaz, ultimately emerging with the pronouncement that he would build the Taj Mahal, which took 20 years to complete. Though it has never been verified by historians, Indian lore tells that the emperor was so fearful of his wife's tomb being duplicated by other kings that he had all the hands cut off of all the slaves and builders who constructed the Taj Mahal. Bloody paranoia or obsessive devotion? You decide.
Shah Jahan was a passionate patron of the arts, especially architecture, and under his rule painting and architecture flourished throughout the empire, culminating in the creation of the Taj Mahal.
Buckingham Palace
Unlike the Taj Mahal, Buckingham Palace is in fact a monarchial castle which serves as the official residence of the British monarch. Originally, it was referred to as Buckingham House, as it was built (much smaller) as a townhouse for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703. Sixty years later, King George III acquired the residence and christened it "The Queen's House," initiating the 75-year process of enlarging the castle into its current form.
In 1837, Queen Victoria's accession paved the way for Buckingham Palace to become the official residence of the British royal. Though it was the home of the empire's queen, it had its fair share of problems in the early days, especially clogged-up chimneys and poor ventilation. When Queen Victoria's beloved husband Prince Albert passed away, she moved out of the palace and into Windsor Castle.
Buckingham fell into disrepair while she was away, with Windsor temporarily replacing the palace as the official court for functions and guests. Just as the bereaved Shah Jahan is eternally tied to the Taj Mahal, the widowed Victoria is always associated with the decline of Buckingham Palace.
The Sydney Opera House
Designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon and Ove Arup & Partners, the Sydney Opera House is one of the world's most recognizable structures and among the most renowned performing arts venues. Described as an "expressionist modern design," design plans for the opera house began back in the late 1940s when Eugene Goossens, director of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, began pursuing the construction of a large venue for theater and dance performances.
The building would go on to be constructed in three stages, beginning in 1959, and eventually would be completed in 1973. Queen Elizabeth II officially inaugurated the Sydney Opera House, where Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 was performed. It was not, however, the first time a performance took place in the building: about three weeks before its opening, a performance of Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace and a public concert were successfully held inside.
The Louvre
Of all the museums and art galleries in the world, none is more celebrated or visited than the Louvre in Paris. In 2006, it is estimated that more than 8.3 million visitors walked through the halls of the museum. To give you some perspective on that number, it's exactly half the number of visitors who traveled to Disney World in 2006.
The history of the Louvre goes back almost a full millennium, when it was first inaugurated by the Capetian dynasty. Originally, it was a castle and would undergo a series of transformations and additions to the structure under four principal figures: King Henry IV, Louis XIII, Napoleon I, and Napoleon III. Apart from being home to the Mona Lisa, the Louvre is also home to hundreds of thousands of art pieces originating from ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek, Roman, and Islamic civilizations.
The Great Wall of China
Since it was first built in the fifth century BCE, the Great Wall of China has towered over all other human-made structures as both the longest and the largest (in terms of mass and surface area). At one point, it was guarded by more than a million soldiers.
If you visit the Great Wall today, you will be confronted by an impossibly long brick wall — this was not always the case. Initially, it was built with wood, stones, and earth, but it was converted to brick in the Ming dynasty.
Though it stands as one of the wonders of the world, it was not constructed without significant cost: it is estimated that between 2 and 3 million Chinese died over the centuries it took to construct the Great Wall.
Machu Picchu
Of all the Inca arts, architecture was the most prized. Many of the smaller surviving art pieces, like pottery and textiles, have architectural motifs, especially those of the city of Cuzco. Machu Picchu, constructed by engineers, includes many stone temples which were pieced together so expertly that a knife or blade couldn't fit through the stonework.
This technique was first implemented by the Pucara, who resided to the south of Lake Titicaca and later in Tiwanaku in what is now Bolivia. The rocks were sculpted by continuously lowering one rock into another and then carving away pieces of the lower rock. This exact fitting helped make the rocks which make up Machu Picchu incredibly balanced and stable.
