50 Fun Facts About Wonders of the World

Which of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is both the oldest and the only one still standing?

The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest human-made structure on Earth for more than 3,700 years. The other six wonders have all been destroyed.

Gustave Eiffel, the engineer of the Paris tower, designed the hidden iron skeleton of which monument?

The Statue of Liberty wears a copper skin only about 2.4 mm thick that carries no load. It hangs on Eiffel's interior framework, one of the earliest examples of curtain wall construction.

Which word comes from the name of a ruler buried at Halicarnassus in a Wonder of the Ancient World?

Mausoleum comes from Mausolus, who governed Caria for the Persian kings and was entombed around 350 BC. His tomb was the last of the six lost wonders to fall, wrecked by medieval earthquakes.

Which city in Jordan, carved into rose-coloured sandstone cliffs, was once the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom?

Petra stayed unknown to the Western world until 1812, when the Swiss traveller Johann Burckhardt rediscovered it. It is now one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

Which prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain has bluestones hauled 150 miles from the Preseli Hills of Wales?

Stonehenge holds one stone from even farther away: research published in 2024 traced its partly buried Altar Stone to north-east Scotland, some 700 km to the north.

Which Mughal emperor commissioned the Taj Mahal in Agra to hold the tomb of his wife Mumtaz Mahal?

Shah Jahan put more than 20,000 workers and artisans on the project after Mumtaz Mahal died giving birth to their 14th child. He now lies in the Taj Mahal beside her.

The moai, more than 900 giant stone figures carved by the Rapa Nui people, stand on which Chilean territory?

Easter Island's carvers are now thought to have "walked" the upright figures across the land, rocking them from side to side with ropes.

Big Ben, a name often given to the whole clock tower at Westminster, is strictly the nickname of what?

The great bell weighs about 13.5 tons and cracked within months of first chiming in 1859. The tower around it was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012.

Which Roman arena, completed under Emperor Titus in AD 80, is also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre?

The Colosseum is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and it briefly staged mock sea battles as well as gladiator fights and animal hunts.

Which Inca citadel high in the Andes was brought to international attention by Hiram Bingham in 1911?

Machu Picchu is believed to have been built around 1450 as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti. It was abandoned roughly a century later.

The Hanging Gardens, the only ancient wonder whose location is unproven, were said to stand in which city?

Babylon's king Nebuchadnezzar II left long inscriptions about his building works, yet none mentions a garden. One Oxford scholar argues the gardens really grew at Nineveh.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, made by the sculptor Phidias, was faced with ivory and which other material?

Gold panels and ivory plates were fixed to a wooden frame, and the seated god was kept coated in olive oil to protect the ivory from the marshy air of Olympia.

The Colossus of Rhodes, toppled by an earthquake after standing just 54 years, was a statue of which Greek god?

Helios, the sun god, was the patron of Rhodes. The islanders paid for his 33-metre bronze figure by selling the siege equipment a defeated enemy had left behind.

The Temple of Artemis, burned in 356 BC by an arsonist said to be seeking fame, stood in which ancient city?

Ephesus turned down Alexander the Great's offer to pay for a new temple, tactfully replying that one god should not build a temple to another. Its people rebuilt it at their own expense.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria stood on which island, whose name gave French and Italian their words for lighthouse?

Pharos became phare in French and faro in Italian and Spanish. The tower, thought to have stood at least 100 metres tall, was wrecked by earthquakes between 956 and 1303.

Christ the Redeemer has looked over Rio de Janeiro since 1931 from the summit of which granite peak?

Corcovado rises about 700 metres inside a forested national park. The figure on top is reinforced concrete with outer layers of soapstone, chosen because it lasts and is easy to work.

Which Maya city in Mexico's Yucatán draws equinox crowds to watch a serpent of shadow crawl down El Castillo?

Chichen Itza built El Castillo as a temple to the feathered serpent Kukulcán. Around each equinox the late sun throws triangular shadows that seem to slither down its north staircase.

The best-known sections of the Great Wall of China, such as Badaling, were built under which dynasty?

Ming rulers built the best-known sections between 1368 and 1644. The idea that those walls are the first emperor's work from the 3rd century BC is an old European mistake.

The Terracotta Army near Xi'an was found in 1974 when local farmers were doing which everyday job?

Digging a well about 1.5 km from the first emperor's tomb mound, the farmers struck pits now estimated to hold more than 8,000 clay soldiers.

The Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 world's fair in Paris, took the world height record from which US landmark?

The Washington Monument was passed while the tower was still under construction. Eiffel's creation then kept the title of tallest structure for 41 years, until a New York skyscraper took it.

Which temple complex, built for the Khmer king Suryavarman II, appears on the national flag of Cambodia?

Angkor Wat began as a Hindu temple to Vishnu and was gradually turned into a Buddhist one. It is the largest religious complex in the world.

Which Istanbul landmark, completed under Emperor Justinian in 537, has been both a cathedral and a mosque?

Hagia Sophia enclosed the world's largest interior space when it was finished. It was a cathedral until 1453, then a mosque, a museum from 1935 and a mosque again from 2020.

Which scientist is said to have dropped two cannonballs of different masses from the Leaning Tower of Pisa?

Galileo Galilei lived in Pisa at the time, but the tale rests on a biography his pupil Viviani wrote in 1654. The tower had begun to lean during construction because of soft ground.

Which Danish architect won the contest to design the Sydney Opera House, then quit and never saw it finished?

Jørn Utzon resigned in 1966 amid cost and schedule overruns and left Australia, never to return. His design had been chosen in 1957 from 233 entries sent in from 32 countries.

The Elgin Marbles, about half the surviving Parthenon sculptures, are held in which London institution?

The British Museum received the sculptures after Lord Elgin, whose agents took them from Athens between 1801 and 1812, sold them to the government. Greece has long argued for their return.

Which president is the most recent of the four whose 60-foot heads are carved on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota?

Theodore Roosevelt was chosen to stand for the nation's development, beside three predecessors picked for its foundation, expansion and preservation. Carving ran from 1927 to 1941.

Which architect, buried in the crypt of Barcelona's Sagrada Família, devoted the rest of his life to the church?

Antoni Gaudí took over in 1883 after the first architect resigned, and changed the design radically. The church's central tower reached its full height only in 2026, a century after his death.

Which Gulf city is home to the Burj Khalifa, the skyscraper that opened in 2010 at a height of 828 metres?

Dubai planned to name the tower after itself, but renamed it at the opening for the ruler of Abu Dhabi, whose emirate had lent the city billions to pay its debts.

Before the Golden Gate Bridge was painted International Orange, the US Navy suggested which stripes?

Black and yellow stripes would have made the bridge easier for passing ships to see, the Navy argued. Architect Irving Morrow's orange vermilion won out instead.

Which Spanish city is home to the Alhambra, the palace-fortress begun in 1238 by the first Nasrid emir?

Granada's hilltop palace takes its name from the Arabic for "the red one", after its reddish rammed-earth walls. Columbus received royal backing for his voyage there.

Which Bavarian king built Neuschwanstein Castle, the retreat that inspired Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle?

Ludwig II paid for the castle from his own fortune and heavy borrowing, partly as a tribute to the composer Richard Wagner. He died in 1886 and it opened to the public soon afterwards.

Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist temple, was brought to wider notice by Stamford Raffles on which island?

Java was being run by Britain when local people told Raffles, its administrator, where the ruin lay. The temple had lain deserted for centuries, hidden under volcanic ash and jungle growth.

Which pharaoh carved the rock temples of Abu Simbel, moved to higher ground in 1968 to escape a reservoir?

Ramesses II filled the larger temple with scenes of his own leadership at the Battle of Kadesh. The whole complex was relocated to keep it above Lake Nasser, the Aswan Dam reservoir.

The Brandenburg Gate, built for a Prussian king and crowned by a four-horse chariot, stands in which German city?

Berlin's gate carries the first quadriga sculpture made since antiquity, hammered from copper sheets. It went up between 1788 and 1791 on the orders of Frederick William II.

Which French ruler commissioned the Arc de Triomphe in 1806, after his army's victory at Austerlitz?

Napoleon never saw the arch finished: building stopped after his fall and it was completed only in 1836. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I now lies beneath its vault.

The Potala Palace, winter home of the Dalai Lamas until 1959, rises 13 storeys above which city?

Lhasa's great palace stands about 3,700 metres above sea level and holds more than 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and some 200,000 statues.

Which New York skyscraper opened in 1931 after about 13 months of work and stayed the world's tallest until 1970?

The Empire State Building opened 45 days ahead of schedule, and American civil engineers later named it one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Which waterway, opened in 1914 after a failed French attempt, lifts ships 26 metres to an artificial lake?

The Panama Canal raises ships through locks to Gatun Lake, made by damming a river so that far less excavation was needed. The US took over the abandoned project in 1904.

Which Renaissance artist redesigned the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in 1547 but died before it was finished?

Michelangelo had completed only the drum beneath the dome when he died in 1564. Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana brought the dome to completion in 1590.

Which room at the Palace of Versailles was chosen for the signing of the 1919 treaty that ended World War I?

The Hall of Mirrors was picked on purpose by the French premier Georges Clemenceau: a united Germany had been proclaimed in that very room in 1871, during the siege of Paris.

The Nazca Lines, huge desert drawings of a monkey and a hummingbird best seen from the air, are in which country?

Peru's desert artists made the lines between 500 BC and 500 AD by clearing away reddish-brown pebbles to expose the paler ground beneath.

Which waterfall on the Zambezi, more than 1,700 metres wide, is known in the Lozi language as Mosi-oa-Tunya?

Victoria Falls got its English name from the Scottish missionary David Livingstone, who was shown it in 1855 and named it after his queen. The Lozi name means thundering smoke.

Which waterway carved Arizona's Grand Canyon, a gorge 277 miles long and more than a mile deep?

The Colorado River is thought to have settled into its course there about 5 to 6 million years ago, and its cutting has exposed nearly two billion years of rock layers.

Which architect engineered the dome of Florence Cathedral, still the largest masonry dome ever constructed?

Filippo Brunelleschi laid the bricks in a herringbone pattern that passed their weight to the dome's ribs as it rose. He had studied the Pantheon in Rome for ideas.

The rock-cut churches of Lalibela, laid out as a symbolic Jerusalem, are a pilgrimage site in which country?

Ethiopia's rock churches are traditionally dated to King Lalibela, who reigned from 1181 to 1221. Local tradition says Jesus guided him around the holy city and told him to build a second one at home.

The New 7 Wonders of the World, picked in a global popularity poll, were announced at a stadium in which city?

Lisbon hosted the ceremony at the Estádio da Luz on 7 July 2007, a date that reads 07/07/07. The poll itself was run by a foundation based in Zurich.

Which Mexican volcano burst out of a farmer's cornfield in 1943 and was later named a natural wonder by CNN?

Parícutin rose from the field of a farmer named Dionisio Pulido and kept erupting until 1952, an unusually long run for a volcano of its type.

Sigiriya, a rock-top palace where King Kashyapa built a gateway shaped like a giant lion, is in which country?

Sri Lanka's Lion Rock takes its name from that gateway. After Kashyapa the capital moved away and the site became a Buddhist monastery, in use until about the 14th century.

The Itaipu Dam, named a modern Wonder of the World by US engineers, sits on Brazil's border with which country?

Paraguay and Brazil split the dam's twenty generators evenly. Ten run at 50 Hz for Paraguay and ten at 60 Hz for Brazil, because the two national grids use different frequencies.

Which country built the Delta Works, a chain of sea defences planned after the North Sea flood of 1953?

The Netherlands uses the project to shield a large area around the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta from the sea. With the older Zuiderzee Works, it was named a wonder of the modern world by American engineers.