We have many wonderful places and installations in this world. There are some wonderful places or
installations created naturally and there are some places and installations that are man-made. In
today's episode, we will look at the top 10 wonder places and installations which are man-made.
An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel,
and a hill with precipitous sides. In the past, every Greek city had an acropolis of its own.
Acropolises were used as religious centers and places of worship,
forts, and high-status residential places. There were often dances, music,
and plays held at this acropolis, and it served as a community center. Acropolises today have become
the epicenters of tourism and attraction sites in many modern-day Greek cities.
Moai are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people
on Easter Island in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500.
Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from
there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have
overly large heads three-eighths the size of the whole statue. The production and transportation
of the more than 900 statues, is considered a remarkable creative and physical feat.
Lalibela is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. It is a tourist site for its
famous rock-cut monolithic churches. The whole of Lalibela is a large and
important site for the antiquity, medieval, and post-medieval civilization of Ethiopia.
To Christians, Lalibela is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities and a center of pilgrimage. The
churches themselves date from the 7th to 13th centuries. Lalibela is roughly 2,500 meters
above sea level, and the names of the major buildings in Lalibela are widely accepted.
Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th-century historicist palace on a rugged hill near Füssen,
Germany. The palace was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat in honor of
Richard Wagner. Ludwig chose to pay for the palace out of his personal fortune
and by means of extensive borrowing, rather than Bavarian public funds.
Construction began in 1869 but was never fully completed. More than 1.3 million
tourists visit this place annually, with as many as 6,000 per day in the summer.
Himeji Castle is a hilltop Japanese castle complex situated in the city of Himeji
which is located in the Hyōgo Prefecture of Japan. The castle is regarded as the finest
surviving example of prototypical Japanese castle architecture, comprising a network of 83 rooms.
Himeji Castle dates to 1333 when Akamatsu Norimura built a fort on top of Himeyama hill.
Himeji Castle is the largest and most visited castle in Japan,
and it was registered in 1993 as one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the country.
St.Basil's Cathedral is an Orthodox church in Red Square of Moscow and is one of the
most popular cultural symbols of Russia. The building is now a museum, and it was built from
1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan.
The cathedral has nine domes and is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky.
The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century.
Borobudur is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Central Java,
Indonesia. It is the world's largest Buddhist temple.
The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circulars,
topped by a central dome. It is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.
The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa.
Built-in the 9th century during the reign of the Sailendra Dynasty,
the temple design follows Japanese Buddhist architecture.
Chichen Itza was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal Classic period.
The archeological site is located in Tinúm Municipality, Mexico.
Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the Northern Maya Lowlands from the Late Classic.
The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, reminiscent of styles seen in central
Mexico and Chenes styles of the Northern Maya lowlands. Chichen Itza was one of the largest Maya
cities and one of the mythical great cities. Meenakshi
Amman Temple is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai
River in Tamil Nadu, India. It is dedicated to the goddess Meenakshi, a form of Parvati,
and her consort, Sundareshwarar, a form of Shiva. This temple is one of the Paadal Petra Sthalam.
The Paadal Petra sthalam are 275 temples of Lord Shiva
that are revered in the verses of Tamil Saiva Nayanars of the 6th-9th century.
The west tower of the temple is the model based on which the Tamil Nadu State Emblem is designed.
The Banaue Rice Terraces are terraces that were carved into the mountains of Banaue,
Ifugao, in the Philippines, by the ancestors of the Igorot people.
It is commonly thought that the terraces were built with minimal equipment, largely by hand. The
terraces are located approximately 1,500 meters above sea level. These are fed by an ancient
irrigation system from the rainforests above the terraces. The Ifugao people have been its
caretakers and the terraces are occasionally called the "Eighth Wonder of the World".