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1. Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is located in southwestern South Dakota, in the Black Hills. It features the heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt carved into a granite bluff.
The massive sculpture was carved into the rim of Mount Rushmore 152 m (500 ft) above the valley floor and each head is about 20 m (about 60 ft) tall.
The memorial cost nearly $1 million to create.
The idea for creating the sculpture in the Black Hills came from South Dakota historian Doane Robinson in the early 1920s.
The memorial was designed by Gutzon Borglum, an American sculptor who also supervised the construction of the works. Borglum envisioned a monument to the growth of the United States and its most important leaders. Following Robinson's idea, he chose Mount Rushmore as the site.
Borglum’s original design was a sculpture of the four presidents down to their waists. In 1925, the memorial was authorized and the construction began in 1927. It took 15 years before the four heads were finally carved. Washington was completed first, followed by Jefferson and Lincoln. Roosevelt’s head was unfinished when Borglum died in 1941 and his son Lincoln completed the work later that year.
Plaster models and the tools used in creating the statues can still be seen in Borglum ’s studio, located near the memorial.
Petronas Towers
The world's tallest building are currently the two Petronas Towers located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They were both erected in 1998 and are 452m high (1,483 ft).They can boast 88 stories.
But the Petronas Tower may not retain its status of the highest building ever erected for long if the construction of the proposed Center of India Tower comes into effect in 2008 as it is sheduled. With a height of 677 m (2,222 ft) and its 224 stories, the Indian skyscraper should rank first in the top 5 of the world's tallest buildings.
Another skyscraper is currently under construction in China. Called The Shangai World Financial Center (95 stories), this new bulding is expected to reach 460m (1,509 ft) and its completion is expected to take place in 2004.
In the USA, the tallest building is currently the Sears Tower in Chicago. Built in 1974, it has 110 stories and is 442 m high (1,450 ft).
The World Trade Center twin towers (ercted in 1973) which were destroyed by terorists were 417 m high (1,368 ft) and had 110 stories.
The Empire State Building was built in 1931. With its 102 stories and a height of 381m high (1,250 ft) it can no longer boast the status of world's tallest buiding ever erected.
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The Pise tower is also called the leaning tower because it has been leaning from the very beginning of its erection.
Imhotep was the crafty man who built Egypt's
first pyramid, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Around 2630 B.C., Djoser, the
second king of Egypt's third dynasty, asked his trusty chief minister,
Imhotep, to ensure his immortality. So Imhotep designed and constructed
Egypt's first large-scale stone structure, a 200-foot (61-meter) step
pyramid that stands even today. One look, and Egypt's rulers were hooked.
(C) 2003 Meridian Communications, Inc., publisher of KnowledgeNews. For more knowledge behind the news, go to http://knowledgenews.net
Before Imhotep,
Egypt's royals stashed their earthly remains in low, mud-brick structures
called mastabas and hoped that their spirits would speed away to the
underworld. Yet with his pyramid, Imhotep--who was a sun god high priest
as well as general contractor--solidified a more exalted end for Egypt's
top dogs: the notion that they'd rise up into the heavens and live among
the gods. In fact, the word for "pyramid" in ancient Egyptian
comes from a verb meaning "to go up."
(C)
2003 Meridian Communications, Inc., publisher of KnowledgeNews. For more
knowledge behind the news, go to http://knowledgenews.net
