Reels tagged #monuments
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Monuments
Machu Picchu was built without mortar
Inca masons cut stones so precisely that the walls interlock without cement and still survive frequent earthquakes.
Monuments
The Eiffel Tower grows in summer
Iron expands when heated, so on hot days the tower can stand up to 15 cm taller — and lean slightly away from the sun.
Monuments
Venice stands on millions of wooden piles
Its palaces rest on tree trunks driven into the lagoon mud. Starved of oxygen underwater, the wood petrified instead of rotting.
Monuments
Petra was carved down into the rock, not built up
Nabataean masons started at the cliff top and worked downward, cutting entire facades out of solid rose-red sandstone.
Firsts
The first skyscraper was only ten storeys
Chicago's Home Insurance Building of 1885 stood about 42 metres tall, but its steel frame — not its walls — carried the load. That idea made every tower since possible.