I am not 'hatin' on stonehenge because it was just huge rocks, it is because it is ugly, not terribly interesting in design and purpose and relatively easy to make.
Pyramids have about 20x the amount of stones, and they were near perfectly created geometrically. They would be much more impressive if Muhammad Ali hadn't taken the goddamn smooth corner stones off to make his goddamn mosque.
Yes.
The pyramids/temples of Ancient Greece were created with such precision that one corner of one may only differ in height from an opposite corner by 0.5 cm.
The Parthenon is insane with that stuff. The way that the columns enlarge at the center to overcome some of the defects of our eyes, the lip in the steps surrounding it so that it would appear straight from far away, everything.
The Parthenon is insane with that stuff. The way that the columns enlarge at the center to overcome some of the defects of our eyes, the lip in the steps surrounding it so that it would appear straight from far away, everything.
I always thought that the lake in the gardens of Versailles was neat in how they made it wider in the back than the front so it wouldn't appear so narrow at a distance. I never would have thought of something like that.
The Parthenon is insane with that stuff. The way that the columns enlarge at the center to overcome some of the defects of our eyes, the lip in the steps surrounding it so that it would appear straight from far away, everything.
I always thought that the lake in the gardens of Versailles was neat in how they made it wider in the back than the front so it wouldn't appear so narrow at a distance.
They did the same thing with the topiary to ensure a consistent line from the palace. At least, along the main drag anyhow. Not sure about all the little offshoots that weren't picturesque.
The Parthenon is insane with that stuff. The way that the columns enlarge at the center to overcome some of the defects of our eyes, the lip in the steps surrounding it so that it would appear straight from far away, everything.
I always thought that the lake in the gardens of Versailles was neat in how they made it wider in the back than the front so it wouldn't appear so narrow at a distance.
They did the same thing with the topiary to ensure a consistent line from the palace. At least, along the main drag anyhow. Not sure about all the little offshoots that weren't picturesque.
I've always wondered - back in the 1700's did they have the same types of trees pruned into big rectangular prisms? Because that seems hard enough to do with a crane and hedger.
Is it sad that when I visited Versailles I found the most impressive part to be the surrounding grounds?
The Parthenon is insane with that stuff. The way that the columns enlarge at the center to overcome some of the defects of our eyes, the lip in the steps surrounding it so that it would appear straight from far away, everything.
I always thought that the lake in the gardens of Versailles was neat in how they made it wider in the back than the front so it wouldn't appear so narrow at a distance.
They did the same thing with the topiary to ensure a consistent line from the palace. At least, along the main drag anyhow. Not sure about all the little offshoots that weren't picturesque.
I've always wondered - back in the 1700's did they have the same types of trees pruned into big rectangular prisms? Because that seems hard enough to do with a crane and hedger.
Is it sad that when I visited Versailles I found the most impressive part to be the surrounding grounds?
Nope. We skipped going inside for just that reason, actually, and used the Pitti Palace in Florence to get the experience of 'this is an opulent palace' since our prof was rather underwhelmed the first time he had gone through. Speaking of Florence, where the hell is Bruneleschi's Dome in this list? We wouldn't even be capable of making that again if we had to use bricks like they did.
The Dangerous Book for Boys had a section on the Seven Modern Wonders of the World. Their criteria: 1. Man-made. 2. It must take your breath away.
For anyone who has not seen it yet, every person (especially males) should own a copy of the book. It is super neat.
The book's list, FWIW:
1. The Channel Tunnel
2. The Great Wall of China
3. The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada
4. The Itaipu Dam
5. The Panama Canal
6. The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan (aka The Pearl Bridge)
7. The Space Shuttle
I voted for the acropolis, chichen itza, colosseum, easter island, machu picchu, stonehenge and timbuktu. Now that I realise Petra was from Last Crusde, I kind of wish I'd voted for it.
Stonehenge is rubbish. It's just a pile of rocks which have fallen over at various times; one's in cement now. The only interesting part is that the stones come from Wales, but if you have enough time and slaves then it's not rocket science. I still don't understand why no-one conceived of the calendar earlier. You don't need huge rocks to tell you when midsummer is..
You can pretty much do anything with enough time and slaves.
I voted for Petra. Petra is damned amazing. I went there back in April as an excursion on a cruise. On the same Cruise I saw the Pyramids and Valley of the Kings, and I hold Petra on even footing with the Pyramids.
***No offense to Australia! The opera house is fantastic, I'm just pointing out that it's already famous.
Its pretty, but its not actually a very good opera house, in the functional sense. Small and cramped, apparently. I think if something is going to be a wonder, it has to actually work well.
It isn't like any of the other choices are really that functional nowadays either.
jothki on
0
Options
HarrierThe Star Spangled ManRegistered Userregular
edited June 2007
So I think I'm voting for Chichen Itza, Hagia Sophia, Moscow Square (the Kremlin/St. Basil's), Machu Picchu, Petra, the Statue of Liberty, and the Taj Mahal.
Tempted to swap one of them for the Great Wall, but I think it's honestly too old.
Harrier on
I don't wanna kill anybody. I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from.
I don't really understand why The Statue of Liberty is on there. It's just a big statue, and it's not even that big.
Tell that to the people of Rhodes so we can have 6 wonders of the ancient world. Plus, you know, she was moved across an ocean.
Yeah I never really got the Colossus of Rhodes or Statue of Zeus, either.
How about the London Bridge at Lake Havasu--they moved that thing in like a billion pieces and put it back together again. Also the Colossus of Rhodes@GOW2 is pretty wonderous.
Also, landing on the moon cooler than all previous alleged wonders.
themightypuck on
“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
― Marcus Aurelius
What about the huge canals we've made? You know, Panama, the Suez?
Those don't count as wonders?
Making a passage way through a continent (rather thin part of it) doesn't count as a wonder?
I count em. Canals also serve a useful purpose as opposed to pyramids and especially the easter island statues which seem to me to be monuments to human stupidity.
themightypuck on
“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
― Marcus Aurelius
Does it bother anyone else that less these new "wonders" of the world were only chosen by ~.01 percent of the population? I know you can argue that a large amount of the population won't ever be able to see ANY of these, but... random internet votes do not a culture make.
When it is completed it will be over 800m tall and by a long way the tallest man made structure of any kind in the world.
Breathtaking.
What is it?
Who and where is it being built?
The Burj Dubai. The soon to be completed tallest building in the world located in the Arab Emirate. It as designed by the Chicago firm of SOM and its structure is meant to reflect the geometry of a native flower in the region. Plus it lowers the lateral load of wind which gets to be rather incredible at that height. The Chicago Spire tapers as well because of its incredible proposed height, although I forget who Calatrava is working with on that. Could be SOM as well. They're the firm that's doing the structural detailing and such for Liebeskind's abortion of a World Trade Center building too, sadly.
Hitup wikipedia, though, because I'm just going off of memory here. Oh, and look up the Burj al Arab while you're at it. Beautiful hotel, that.
Does it bother anyone else that less these new "wonders" of the world were only chosen by ~.01 percent of the population? I know you can argue that a large amount of the population won't ever be able to see ANY of these, but... random internet votes do not a culture make.
Not really, it bothers me that they're democratizing it at all never mind the impossibility of making it truly democratic. This is something that engineers, historians, and some other specialists should hammer out, not the public at large. Plus they completely ignore some of the most awe inspiring designs and actions mankind has made recently yet feel just fine putting stuff that just barely missed making the ancient list up on the ballot. Where's the damn Panama Canal? Suez Canal? Transcontinental or siberian railways? Apollo Project? The ISS or whatever the first sustained orbit human habitat would be? The fucking Internet? Some list.
It currently looks like an enormous heap of shit, you can take my word on that. I suppose it'll look better once the cladding is on, although the air is so dusty you'll never be able to see it. And the Burj Al Arab is the biggest monument to rich elitism on the continent. I hate that city.
Because those are natural accidents and happenstances, as compared to deliberate exertions of human will and determination. The former is pretty, but I find the latter more impressive. I mean, Angel Falls is the world's longest waterfall. Yeah, and? One of them had to be, right?
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
I agree with most of their choices for the new wonders of the world... but how can they have Christ the redeemer in and not Stonehenge???
The statue of Christ isn't that tall, isn't that pretty, Is comparitivley very recent, was easy to construct due to modern construction methods and isn't archeologically significant.
Whereas Stonehenge is incredibly old (possibly older than the Pyramids), was very difficult to build at the time (carving the granite blocks with little iron tools, dragging them 400 miles and standing them upright in exactly the right place) and it marks the position of the sun perfectly at the height of the summer solstice, something that required precise placement of the blocks and understanding of how the sun moved.
I agree with most of their choices for the new wonders of the world... but how can they have Christ the redeemer in and not Stonehenge???
The statue of Christ isn't that tall, isn't that pretty, Is comparitivley very recent, was easy to construct due to modern construction methods and isn't archeologically significant.
Whereas Stonehenge is incredibly old (possibly older than the Pyramids), was very difficult to build at the time (carving the granite blocks with little iron tools, dragging them 400 miles and standing them upright in exactly the right place) and it marks the position of the sun perfectly at the height of the summer solstice, something that required precise placement of the blocks and understanding of how the sun moved.
We've been already over this, someone even showed a video of one guy making his own stonehenge in the backyard in his free time.
Posts
The Parthenon is insane with that stuff. The way that the columns enlarge at the center to overcome some of the defects of our eyes, the lip in the steps surrounding it so that it would appear straight from far away, everything.
I always thought that the lake in the gardens of Versailles was neat in how they made it wider in the back than the front so it wouldn't appear so narrow at a distance. I never would have thought of something like that.
They did the same thing with the topiary to ensure a consistent line from the palace. At least, along the main drag anyhow. Not sure about all the little offshoots that weren't picturesque.
I've always wondered - back in the 1700's did they have the same types of trees pruned into big rectangular prisms? Because that seems hard enough to do with a crane and hedger.
Is it sad that when I visited Versailles I found the most impressive part to be the surrounding grounds?
Nope. We skipped going inside for just that reason, actually, and used the Pitti Palace in Florence to get the experience of 'this is an opulent palace' since our prof was rather underwhelmed the first time he had gone through. Speaking of Florence, where the hell is Bruneleschi's Dome in this list? We wouldn't even be capable of making that again if we had to use bricks like they did.
For anyone who has not seen it yet, every person (especially males) should own a copy of the book. It is super neat.
The book's list, FWIW:
1. The Channel Tunnel
2. The Great Wall of China
3. The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada
4. The Itaipu Dam
5. The Panama Canal
6. The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan (aka The Pearl Bridge)
7. The Space Shuttle
Seriously? I'd go with Chartres if we're talking gothic cathedrals and Hagia Sophia if we're talking religious buildings.
Just looked up Chartres. Looks like I have a future trip.
*edit: Oh, you know, anything of Gothic architecture would do. =/
Tell that to the people of Rhodes so we can have 6 wonders of the ancient world. Plus, you know, she was moved across an ocean.
Yeah I never really got the Colossus of Rhodes or Statue of Zeus, either.
It's that damned awesome.
It isn't like any of the other choices are really that functional nowadays either.
Tempted to swap one of them for the Great Wall, but I think it's honestly too old.
How about the London Bridge at Lake Havasu--they moved that thing in like a billion pieces and put it back together again. Also the Colossus of Rhodes@GOW2 is pretty wonderous.
Also, landing on the moon cooler than all previous alleged wonders.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Those don't count as wonders?
Making a passage way through a continent (rather thin part of it) doesn't count as a wonder?
I count em. Canals also serve a useful purpose as opposed to pyramids and especially the easter island statues which seem to me to be monuments to human stupidity.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Hagia Sophia
St. Basil
Angkor Wat
Petra
Al Hambra (Red Fortress)
Great Wall
Taj Mahal
Hagia Sophia is king, however.
Final list is in and it is total bullshit because the statue of Jesus is on it.
Seriously how was that even under consideration? I hate people.
When it is completed it will be over 800m tall and by a long way the tallest man made structure of any kind in the world.
Breathtaking.
What is it?
Who and where is it being built?
My Wikipedia finger is itching. What's it called?
lol
The Burj Dubai. The soon to be completed tallest building in the world located in the Arab Emirate. It as designed by the Chicago firm of SOM and its structure is meant to reflect the geometry of a native flower in the region. Plus it lowers the lateral load of wind which gets to be rather incredible at that height. The Chicago Spire tapers as well because of its incredible proposed height, although I forget who Calatrava is working with on that. Could be SOM as well. They're the firm that's doing the structural detailing and such for Liebeskind's abortion of a World Trade Center building too, sadly.
Hitup wikipedia, though, because I'm just going off of memory here. Oh, and look up the Burj al Arab while you're at it. Beautiful hotel, that.
Not really, it bothers me that they're democratizing it at all never mind the impossibility of making it truly democratic. This is something that engineers, historians, and some other specialists should hammer out, not the public at large. Plus they completely ignore some of the most awe inspiring designs and actions mankind has made recently yet feel just fine putting stuff that just barely missed making the ancient list up on the ballot. Where's the damn Panama Canal? Suez Canal? Transcontinental or siberian railways? Apollo Project? The ISS or whatever the first sustained orbit human habitat would be? The fucking Internet? Some list.
It currently looks like an enormous heap of shit, you can take my word on that. I suppose it'll look better once the cladding is on, although the air is so dusty you'll never be able to see it. And the Burj Al Arab is the biggest monument to rich elitism on the continent. I hate that city.
I mean, remarkable feats of engineering they may be, nothing that is currently in use now will still be in use 50 years from now.
I could stand behind the Panama canal as a wonder, the whole world finds that too useful to ever let it be neglected.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Neuschwanstein Castle
The Great Wall of China
Petra
Macchu Picchu
The Statue of Christ the Redeemer
And i reckon Notre` Dam
I think they should be the biggest, the most difficult and the most beautiful.
I say Notre dam because it took hundreds of years to make.
And petra because.
Well, a temple inside a mountain side.
What about the Taj Mahal? It should be a shoe-in on recognisability alone.
Edit: I just noticed: Christ the Redeemer? What the hell made you pick that?
The statue of Christ isn't that tall, isn't that pretty, Is comparitivley very recent, was easy to construct due to modern construction methods and isn't archeologically significant.
Whereas Stonehenge is incredibly old (possibly older than the Pyramids), was very difficult to build at the time (carving the granite blocks with little iron tools, dragging them 400 miles and standing them upright in exactly the right place) and it marks the position of the sun perfectly at the height of the summer solstice, something that required precise placement of the blocks and understanding of how the sun moved.