Empire State Building

          Empire State Building, New York, United States, located at 350 Fifth Avenue, between 33rd and 34th Streets, in midtown Manhattan.
The Empire State Building is both a New York City and a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
The Art Deco skyscraper was designed by Gregory Johnson and the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates and built in just 16 months on the previous site of the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The Empire State Building opened 1st May 1931, and remained the tallest building in the world until 1972 when the World Trade Center opened.

Height from base to Antenna/Spire 443.2 m (1,454 ft)
Height from base to top 381 m (1,252 ft)
102 floors
Built in 1930 and 1931. 

Sydney Opera House

       Sydney Opera House in Sydney Australia, located in Sydney Harbour.
The Opera House was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973, ten years after the original completion date. and is recognised universally as the finest building of the 20th Century even so until this day it remains incomplete. The Opera House is a world-class performing arts center and became a cultural icon of both Sydney and the Australian nation. Sydney Opera House was created by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, he was responsible for the iconic white silhouette, while the interiors were finished off by a team of local architects, after Utzon's resignation in 1966. In June 2007 the Sydney Opera House was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its innovation in both architectural form and structural design.
 

Brandenburg Gate

         Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany's capital city.The gate is one of the best known symbols of Berlin and of Germany as well. 
It is one of the former city gates, built 1788–91 (the Quadriga, was installed in 1793), and it is the only one that survives. 
The design of the gate is based upon the Propylaea, the gateway to the sanctuaries of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. 
The Brandenburg Gate consists of twelve Doric columns, six to each side, forming five passageways. Atop the gate is the Quadriga, the chariot of gods, drawn by four horses and driven by Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory. Today the Quadriga faces east, as it did originally.

The gate has played different political roles in German history, for example: after the 1806 Prussian defeat, Napoleon took the Quadriga to Paris. Some years later the Quadriga was restored to Berlin.
After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the gate stood in East Berlin, a conspicuous symbol of a divided city. After the fall of the wall it was reopened in December 1989.

Brandenburg Gate is located west of the city center at the intersection of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz

Big Ben

       Big Ben, the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster also known as the Houses of Parliament, the seat of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, the two houses of the Parliament of the  United Kingdom. The Palace of Westminster is located in London. 
Actually Big Ben is the nickname of the main bell housed within the tower. The English architect Augustus Pugin designed the clock tower in Gothic Revival style at the end of the 19th century. The tower is housing the world's largest four-faced chiming clock, the clock faces have a diameter of 7 meters (23 ft).
Height of the Clock Tower: 96.3m 316 ft.

Eiffel Tower

      Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel), the tallest building in Paris, the capital city of  France. In October 2009 the Eiffel Tower has celebrated its 120th anniversary.

The iron construction is located on Champ de Mars (mars field) close to the Seine River. 
The tower was desigend by Gustave Eiffel and was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World Fair). 
On 15 May 1889, the Eiffel Tower opened its door to the public.

The Eiffel Tower is the most visited paid monument in the world.

Overall Height: 324 metres (1,063 ft)

Weight: 
of the metal structure 7,300 tonnes 
including non-metal components approximately 10,000 tonnes.

Piazza dei Miracoli

  Leaning Tower of Pisa is located at Pisa's Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square), also known as Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles) in the city of Pisa in Italy. The Piazza del Duomo with the cathedral (Duomo de Pisa), the baptistery of St. John (Battistero di San Giovanni) the bell tower (Torre di Pisa) and the Camposanto Monumentale with its frescoes, is recognized as one of the main centers for medieval art in Italy. 
The Tower of Pisa is the freestanding bell tower (campanile) of Pisa's Cathedral made of white marble. Its construction began in the end of 1173 and continued (with two long interruptions) for about two hundred years, The reason why the bell tower is leaning is a result of a poorly laid foundation and loose substrate that has allowed the foundation to shift direction, by now about 17 feet (5.2 m) out of the perpendicular. 
Height of the tower is about 56 m (184 ft)
Its weight is estimated at 14,500 tonnes.

Statue of Liberty

      Statue of Liberty, New York,United States, located on a 12 acre island at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift of international friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, in recognition of the friendship established during the American Revolution. The French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was commissioned to design a sculpture with the year 1876 in mind for completion, to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence.

Height from base to torch 151 ft 1 in, 46 m
Foundation of pedestal to torch 305 ft 1 in; 93 m
Thickness of copper sheeting 3/32 of an inch 2.4 mm
Total weight used in Statue 450,000 pounds 204.1 tons

Potala Palace

        Potala Palace, the Jokhang monastery and Ramoche monastery in Tibet's capital Lhasa at an elevation of 3750 m above sea level.
The Potala Palace was the center of the Tibetan theocracy and the winter palace and the chief residence of the Dalai Lama since the end of the 17th century until 1959. Lozang Gyatso, the Fifth Dalai Lama, started the construction of the Potala Palace in 1645.
For most Tibetans the 7th-century Jokhang monastery is the most sacred and the most revered site in Tibet.

Colosseum

        Colosseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheater, a historic monument located in the former center of ancient Rome, the Roamn Forum. The Amphitheatre was completed in 80 AD. It was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles, it could be flooded to re-create naval battles. 

Acropolis

       Acropolis (literally: summit city) located in the center of the city of Athens, capital of  Greece. 
The Acropolis of Athens is a flat-topped rock with a complex of remains of monuments of the Greek cult, the great sanctuary of ancient Athens dedicated primarily to its patron, the goddess Athena. The temple of Athena Parthenos, the Parthenon was built on the Acropolis in 447–432 bc by Pericles to honor Athens' patron goddess and to commemorate the recent Greek victory over the Persians. It was designed by Ictinus and Callicrates with sculptures by Phidias.

Most of the now existing remains of temples were rebuilt, after the Persian Wars under the leadership of Pericles during the Golden Age of Athens (460–430 BC).

The Acropolis and its monuments are universal symbols of the classical spirit and civilization. They have influenced art and culture for many centuries, it is the greatest architectural and artistic complex bequeathed by Greek Antiquity to the world. 

Angkor

      Angkor complex, with the world famous Khmer temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. 
The ruins of Angkor are located to the north of Tonle Sap lake and south of the Kulen Hills, near the city of Siem Reap, Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. 

The Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, (9th to the 15th century), including the temples of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and the Bayon Temple. Todayit is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Great Wall of China

       Great Wall of China (simplified Chinese: 长城; traditional Chinese: 長城; pinyin: cháng chéng; literally "Long (city) wall ") 
" The long wall of 10,000 Li (里)" is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 6th century BC and the 16th century.
The wall(s) were built during the rule of successive Chinese dynasties to protect the northern borders of the Empire, to prevent the incursions and recurrent attacks of the Xiongnu (匈奴), a confederation of nomadic tribes who lived on the steppes north of China. To the Xiongnu, who lived mainly in the Ordos Desert a region poorly suited for agriculture, the settlements of imperial China must have appeared to them like self-service outlets. 
Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang who unified China in 221 BC ordered the destruction of the wall sections that divided his new empire along the former state borders and the building of new walls to connect the remaining fortifications along the empire's new northern frontier, this was the precursor version of the current Great Wall. 
After Quin, the Han, Sui, Northern and Jin dynasties all repaired, rebuilt, or expanded sections of the Great Wall at great cost.
Today, while some portions north of Beijing and near tourist centers have been preserved and even reconstructed, in many locations the Wall is in disrepair.

Stonehenge

  
    Stonehenge, a Neolithic monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury. It is one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world and one of the oldest built around 2500 BC. 
The sanctuary consist of circles of menhirs arranged in a pattern whose astronomical significance is still being explored. New archaeological evidence indicates that Stonehenge might has served as a center of healing, other theories propose that it was a burial ground or a place to worship ancestors. 

Anyhow, the people who built Stonehenge must have been of the opinion that the stones and the place harbour great powers, otherwise they wouldn't have carried the stones, the largest weighs as much as 50 tons, over 240 km (150 miles) to the place where they were erected.

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal in Agra, a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, The immense mausoleum covered with white marble was built in Agra between 1631 and 1648 by decree of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, in memory of his beloved wife Arjumand Banu Begum, her nickname: Mumtaz Mahal. The "crown of buildings" is the symbol of the Indian nation.

Giza Pyramid

The Ancient Egyptian complex is located on a plateau on the outskirts of Cairo.
The archaeological site consists of a number of edifices: the Pyramid of Khufu (known also as the Cheops Pyramid or the Great Pyramid), the somewhat smaller Pyramid of Khafre (or Chephren) and the relatively modest-size Pyramid of Menkaure (or Mykerinos) and a number of smaller satellite edifices, known as "queens" pyramids. The Great Sphinx lies to the east side of the complex.

The Pyramids of Giza and others are thought to have been constructed to house the remains of the deceased Pharaohs who ruled over Ancient Egypt.
Until today it is not known how the Pyramids actually were made. There are various theories about the construction techniques, but the ancient builders keep their secrets. 



The Cheops pyramid is the only remaining monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.