World’s Most Famous Buildings March 14, 2008
Posted by cantueso in art, building, kids, photography.trackback
This is NOT a ranking, just a list of the buildings that most people would know where to place. They are not noted for their architecture, but for their meaning to past and present history.
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Architecture that most kids would know by the age of about 12
The Great Pyramid is a tomb almost 5,000 years old.
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The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 world fair in Paris. Its metal structure weighs 7 300 tons and you need 50 to 60 tons of paint to paint it every seven years.
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The Great Wall of China is a fortress 1,500 miles long and 6 meters wide. It took a million men to build it 2,300 years ago. (check)
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The White House with tulips.
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The Lower Manhattan skyline as photographed by Diliff displayed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lower_Manhattan
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Architecture that most people would know by the age of about 30
The Twin Towers as shown at http://www.greatbuildings.com/gbc.html
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The Kremlin. The name means “citadel”. So there are kremlins in many Russian cities, but the one in Moscow is the most famous.
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The Alhambra in Spain. Its name is Arab and means “the red house”. It was built in stages as a palace and fortress for the kings and princes of Islam who ruled large parts of Spain for nearly 8 centuries.
Its style and its history is reflected in Pepe Romero’s guitar solo on Youtube.
The great photo is from Wiki Commons at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vista_de_la_Alhambra.jpg
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The Temple Mount. Its history of about 3,000 years is rooted in Judaism and later branched out into Christianity and Islam.
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Saint Peter’s Basilica, partly designed by Michelangelo, but first built long before.
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The TajMahal is a tomb in India built of the white marble of India by an emperor for his wife in 1649.
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Mecca is very famous, but only as a name, because though it is visited by pilgrims from all over the world, as a non-Muslim you are not permitted to enter. It is also called Makkah or Makkah al-Mukarramah.
In this building Muslims keep their sacred Black Stone. Every Muslim who can afford it must visit it at least once to walk around it seven times.
………………………………………The stone fell from heaven to show Adam and Eve where to build an altar. The stone was lost in the great Flood, and Mohammed found it again when the angel Gabriel gave him the first message for the Koran.
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The Coliseum, also called the Flavian Amphitheatre : built for up to 50,000 spectators to watch gladiators, public executions, mock battles.
The thumbnail is from a photo by Matt Nardella. I can’t tell whether it is a model or a drawing, but it is very well done. The real building is 2000 years old:
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The Toledo skyline, cathedral, and fortress by Australian photographer Diliff was singled out by Wikipedia and is worth enlarging. Below are Toledo’s city bridge and its age-old city walls.
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Windsor Castle is so immense that it is best photographed by plane. It is mentioned in Shakespeare. The castle belongs to the Queen of England, as does Buckingham Palace. The photo to the left is by Diliff.
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Westminster Palace and the Big Ben. This is where Churchill used to work. The photo is by Diliff.
The British government has had its seat in this area for about 1000 years, but the present building dates back to the 19th century. And its name “minster” was originally “monastery”.
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The Tower Bridge in London, also by Diliff. This is not the bridge that a legendary American bought as a souvenir and took home to Lake Havasu City in Arizona, but it is here that you would see Her Majesty’s Ship Belfast, as a memorial to the WW2 landings in the Normandy.
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Notre Dame cathedral in Paris : it took 200 years to build and it was finished around 1345. There are 380 steps up its tower, and its big bell weighs 13 tons and has a name: Emmanuel. The photo of the front facade is from Wiki.
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As I don`t know what this discussion is about,I would not like to interfer … but in Germany many “top-blogs” are full of senseless posts about the keeper of the blog him/herself.
Catueso, having two kids who are under 12 years of age, I miss the building in Taipeh (the highest building of the world !, kids love maxima !) and I miss the Empire State Building (and I’m not sure about the White House).
And later on, I miss the London Bridge and the Dome of the Rock.
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To Krimileser
Notice that the buildings listed are not my favourites. None is, except the Toledo skyline, which however is not “a building”. I simply asked people what buildings abroad they knew of. And I checked the hits on Google and an architect’s popularity list. (He also had a list of the most popular architects.) So this is not a ranking. — I would have loved to include some of my own favourites, but those are bridges where, mostly, you can see how they were built. The Alamillo bridge, for instance, that looks like a harp! There is a good photo of it at http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/spain/seville/calatravabridge/bridge.html
April 4, 2008
The Dome of the Rock is known as a concept, but not as a building. I think it is not readily accessible to tourism, and its history past and present is very difficult to grasp, impossible to summarize.
Maybe you could include Buckingham Palace in your list of well-known buildings, Cantueso.
That Alamillo Bridge is stunning! Thanks for the picture. It was my treat for the day.
I’ve been wondering whether the House of Parliament and the Big Ben Tower would be a better choice for your list.
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To 100swallows:
Maybe, especially if the Big Ben is part of that parliament. However, I had a great photo of Buckingham palace, a photo made by the same guy as did that Manhattan skyline.
Dam why arent there some more buildings of San Diego,CA.
The Americas Finest City…!
Well i Wish they can put that one building that is in front of the Horton Plaza in Downtown.
That building is KOOL!
So yeah more San Diego buildings..PLZ!!!
Swain Star out.
peace to the world.
INFAMOUS KREW!!!!! SON!!!
The Fresh Coast!!!
To Swain: The buildings listed are noted for all kinds of reasons, but not for their architecture. San Diego, CA, must be a very beautiful city, but I have never heard of that famous kool building there that you don’t seem to know the name of!
So how can I even google it up?
Hi, Thanks for visiting my blog,
appreciate it.
Suggest 1 more world’s famous building :
Borobudur -
u can google it @
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Photography/Images/POD/b/borobudur-temple-292612-lw.jpg
it’s from Indonesia, and it is awesome..
=)
Could you give me an access to your blog?
I can’t take up your suggestion, because, look at the photos, this post is not about architecture, but buildings that have been politically relevant. They have become popular because of that. They are in the history books. They represent a story.
Your
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Photography/Images/POD/b/borobudur-temple-292612-lw.jpg
was probably also “politically relevant” but the stories of that part of the world are not (yet) known here. That is of course wrong, but it is so anyway.
Hi can you put what year they were made. That would help more.
To Malory:
For the very old buildings, there isn’t a date, but rather a history of construction.
The best I found was here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_architecture
Scroll down and you get a building that is typical of each time period.
Other sites were either too technical or were mindless enumerations of everything there is.
i think you forget the Empire State and the leaning tower of Pisa……….
i think no need to build too much anymore…if war coming …it just take few second to destroyd a building…so don waste too much time for BUILDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lol how stupid are you V aka lycans
THE MOST FAMOUS MAN-MADE PLACES (IN MY OPINION) *NOT RANKED*:
CN Tower
Taj Mahal
Giza Pyramid Complex
Petra
Great Wall of China
Stonehenge
Angkor Wat
Chichen Itza
Eiffel Tower
Moscow Kremlin
Coliseum
Big Ben
Empire State Building
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Louvre Museum
Burj Dubai
Taipei 101
Petronas Twin Towers
Kennedy Space Center
Hagia Sophia
Forbidden City
MAYBE THINK ABOUT SOME OF THE FOLLOWING:
CN Tower
Taj Mahal
Giza Pyramid Complex
Petra
Great Wall of China
Stonehenge
Angkor Wat
Chichen Itza
Eiffel Tower
Moscow Kremlin
Coliseum
Big Ben
Empire State Building
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Louvre Museum
Burj Dubai
Taipei 101
Petronas Twin Towers
Kennedy Space Center
Hagia Sophia
Forbidden City
Your selection is more international. Do you work for a travel agency?
I started simply by laughing at my own supposition that the world’s most popular building, really really popular, is probably the Eiffel tower followed by Egypt’s pyramid.
Maybe I ought to admit that I can’t visualize about 12 or 13 or more of the buildings you listed ….. but I’m now going to google them up.
I like your criteria:
You have chosen gorgeous buildings.
Examples of each style : Islamic (La Alhambra, Spain. The Mecca, etc…) , the glorious Piramids ,Egypt.
Roman, Romanic, Gothic (Toledo Cathedral, Spain, a wonder),
the chinese Great wall,
the chic Eiffel Tower (this one: too much marketing….indeed…)
and modern famous buildings….
a good summary!
what about acropolis athens?????
Come on!!!!
pentagon I think is very well known, too
Yes, you are right, I forgot. There are imitations all over.
As a concept, but not as a building. I have just now seen it for the first time on Google. (I don’t watch any TV).
I LIKE THIS CRITIRIA,
I THINK TAJ MAHAL IS MOST FAMOUS.
collect some more pics of famous building from all over the world.
the dome of the rock it is very accessible to tourism, ihave been there twice
I got that idea from Wikipedia, but I may have misunderstood something or other. I thought there were restrictions based on Jewish laws and some based on the Koran. — The name “Dome of the Rock” also made me doubt whether I knew what was meant, the complete platform with its buildings or only one building. What looks like a dome on the photo seems to be a mosque, but I thought that “Rock” was a Jewish metaphorical reference to God. — “Temple Mount” is a better name, but I found that later.
yes u forget the burj al arab