This contains twenty-five wonders of the world which includes ancient, modern, and natural.
English architect, Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) achieved a feat which no architect had done before. He designed and completed St. Paul’s Cathedral (in London) in just 35 years. Built between 1675 and 1710, the Cathedral was built in place of another which was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The finest feature of St. …
Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, lies in northern Tanzania, on the Kenyan border. At a height of 19,340 feet, Kili manjaro includes three main extinct vol canoes, Kibo (the tallest), Mawenzi and Shira. Though Kibo appears as a smooth, snowcapped dome, when seen from the air, the dark and gaping crater is awe some. On the …
The city of Babylon with its glory, was fortified by King Nebopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar II; only their splen did royal palace rose high above the city. According to legend, around mid-500 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar’s queen, Semi ramis, missed the hills of her Persian homeland. To please her, the king built a man-made hill in …
In the harbour of Alexandria, Egypt, stood one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a remarkable lighthouse, on the island of Pharos, called the Phar os of Alexandria. Built in white marble around 270 B.C. by King Ptolemy II of Egypt, the Pharos was designed by the famous Greek architect, Sostratos. Standing at …
Rising from the dense jungles in the Gran Sabana region of eastern Vene zuela is the world’s highest waterfall, the Angel Falls. It spurts from the side of the great tableland or mesa known as Au yan-Tepui or Devil Mountain and is fif teen times higher than the famous Niagara Falls. The Angel Falls were …
Flowing for 4,145 miles through north-east Africa, the Nile is the longest river in Africa. The river rises near the equator and flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The largest source of the Nile is Lake Victoria. The White Nile (Bahr-el-Abiad) and the Blue Nile (Bahr-el-Azrak) unite at Khartoum to form the mighty Nile River which …
During his reign between 246 and 209 B.C., Shih Huang Ti unified China. To protect his empire from the Huns, he ordered the Great Wall of China to be erected. About 300,000 men labored for 10 years to build the Wall. Initially, no dynasties kept the Wall in the state of repairs. It was only …
The world’s highest mountain peak, Mount Everest, lies in the Himalayan Range on the frontier of Nepal and Tibet, at an altitude of 29,028 feet (8,848 meters). Known as Chomolungma to the Tibetans and Sagarmatha to the Nepalese, its native names mean ‘Goddess Mother of the World’. Earlier known as Peak XV, Mount Everest is …
On Liberty Island at the entrance to New York Harbor in Upper New York Bay towers the majestic copper sculpture of the Statue of Liberty. Its complete name is “Liberty Enlightening the world”. The statue was dedicated to the people of the United States by the people of France in 1884 as an expression of …
The world-famous symbol of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, stands by River Seine in France. This tower is named after a French engineer, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who designed and built it in just two years for the 1889 Paris Exhibition, which coincided with the centenary (100 years) of the French Revolution. The Tower rises to a …
It is the Taj Mahal in India that arouses feelings of romance and love in its purest sense. The superb marble monument was built in the 17th century by the Mogul emperor of India, Shah Jahan for his beloved queen, Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan was heartbroken when his wife died in childbirth. To fulfill her …