DARIEN (Panama)
"Central America" is a region, not a continent. Darien, in Panama, is a natural bridge spanning North and South America. It lies up against the border of Colombia (which is in South America); the rest of Panama and all countries of Central America are actually in North America. Balboa crossed the Isthmus here to become the first European to view the eastern edge of the Pacific.
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THE STRUVE GEODETIC ARC (Norway to the Ukraine - 10 countries)
From 1816 to 1855 German-born Russian scientist Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve triangulated the locations of 265 main station points along a single meridian of the earth from Norway to the Ukraine. Stretching through 10 countries for over 1,750 miles, this act of international scientific cooperation helped establish the exact size and shape of the earth.
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THE PANAMA CANAL (Panama, Central America)
This "wonder of the modern world" joins the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, dividing North and South America. Considered one of history's most difficult engineering projects, its system of locks eliminated the need for shipping "around the Horn" of South America. France began the work in 1881; the U.S. finished it in 1914. It is now controlled by the Panamanian government.
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THE PARIS SEWERS (Paris, France)
A waste tunnel system was begun under the streets of the French capital in 1370, and has been expanded since. An unlikely place of romance and mystery, it was featured in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, where it's called "the intestine of the Leviathan" and the "conscience of the city," a place where class distinctions become unimportant.
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THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA (Pisa, Tuscany, Italy)
Nearly 186 feet high (on the high side), the freestanding bell tower of Pisa Cathedral is famous for its nearly 4° lean. The foundation was improperly laid over soft ground; the lean began during construction. At its worst it was 5.5°; it was straightened 1993-2001. Galileo famously (if apocryphally) used the tilt to drop cannon balls in demonstrating the law of free fall.
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THE GREAT SPHINX OF GIZA (Giza, Egypt)
This limestone statue of a reclining lion's body with a man's head--a symbol of mystery--has been gazing away from the Great Pyramids at Giza on an east-west line for four and a half millennia. Carved from the bedrock of the plateau, it is 240 feet long and 66 feet high. It may once have worn a long pharaonic beard and been painted bright colors.
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THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE (San Francisco, California, USA)
This 1.7-mile suspension bridge (longest and tallest in the world when opened in 1937) spans the mile-wide strait connecting San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. One of the "Wonders of the Modern World," it symbolizes both the city and California State, and carries vehicles (on US Highway 101), cyclists, and pedestrians.
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EL CAMINO DE SANTIAGO (Compostela, Spain)
One of the "Big Three" Catholic pilgrimages (alongside Jerusalem and Rome), this 500-mile network of paths from the French border in the Pyrenees to the supposed burial place of St. James the Apostle at Compostela has been traveled for over 1,000 years. Today the 200,000+ trekkers annually include not only the religious, but also hikers and cyclists.
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THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS (600 miles west of Ecuador in the Pacific)
Few would have heard of this archipelago 563 miles west of Ecuador were it not for Charles Darwin's 1835 visit aboard the HMS Beagle, when he was able to observe differences between isolated populations of animals (notably finches), contributing to the ideas expounded in his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species.
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THE OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM (Jerusalem, Israel)
A third of a mile square, core of the modern city and a hotbed of religious activity for millennia, at least since the days when it was called "The City of David" (yes, THAT David). Home to Temple Mount and Western Wall (Jews), Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Christians), and Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque (Muslims).
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THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD (Missouri River to San Francisco Bay)
The first railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans was built between 1863 and 1869. From the existing East Coast rail network at the Missouri River, it stretched 1,912 miles (3,077 kilometers) to San Francisco Bay. Construction began at both ends--east and west--and met in Utah at Promontory Summit, where a ceremonial "Golden Spike" was driven.
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THE ALHAMBRA (Granada, Andalusia, Spain)
This Spanish palace/fortress's name is Arabic for "The Red One." Begun in 1238 by a Muslim emir, it sits on the site of earlier fortresses on an outcrop of the Sierra Nevada in Granada, Andalusia. It has been continuously modified; after the Christians retook Spain in 1492, it became the Royal Court of Ferdinand and Isabella, where they received Christopher Columbus.
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THE POTALA PALACE (Lhasa, Tibet)
Home to Dalai Lamas 1649-1959 (now a museum), this 13-story symbol of Tibetan Buddhism in the Lhasa Valley stands on a site used for this purpose since 637. Its namesake, Mount Potalaka, is the mythical abode of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, of whom the Dalai Lama is believed to be a reincarnation. It has over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines, and about 200,000 statues.
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THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE (Sydney, Australia)
This 1973 "urban sculpture" at the tip of a peninsula projecting into Sydney Harbour is made of groups of interlocking sail-shaped shells housing two main performance halls and several smaller ones, plus a recording studio and a restaurant. Taking 15 years to build, many of them swamped in controversy, at last it stands as tall as a 22-story building.
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ANGKOR WAT (Siem Reap, Cambodia)
This originally Hindu temple complex, now an important Buddhist pilgrimage site, centers on four towers circling a fifth that is 213 feet (65 meters) tall. Surrounded by three tiered galleries bearing extensive bas-reliefs, and two moats, the whole represents Mount Meru of Indian cosmology. Built in the early 12th century, it now appears on Cambodia's national flag.
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MOUNT EVEREST (Nepal/Tibet border)
The Tibetan name of this highest mountain in the world--Qomolangma--means "Holy Mother." Standing on the Nepal-Tibet (China) border 29,031.7 feet (8,848.86 meters) above sea level, its English name--"Everest," after a British surveyor who objected to this naming--has become a metaphor for the highest goal we can set for ourselves "because it's there."
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THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING (New York, New York, USA)
Bearing New York state's nickname, this 1931 Art Deco skyscraper in downtown Manhattan, at 1,454 feet tall was the world's tallest building for nearly four decades. At this writing it is #49. On a clear day, you can see six states from the observatory: NY, NJ, PA, CT, MA, and DE.
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THE TAJ MAHAL (Agra, India)
This ethereal edifice on the banks of the River Yamuna in Agra, India, is actually a mausoleum. A "monument to undying love," it was built from 1632-53 by the Muslim emperor Shah Jahan for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to the couple's 14th child. Shah Jahan himself is also buried there. Estimated cost in today's money: $1 billion US.
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TIMBUKTU (Mali, Africa)
This proverbially hard-to-reach ancient African city, once a flourishing trade center and regional capital, has stood for over eight centuries. It is now impoverished, and suffers from desertification, but it was once a Muslim scholarly center and home to a university, where books became symbols of wealth and power.
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STONEHENGE (The Salisbury Plain, England)
Composed of a circle of standing stones, some joined by horizontal lintels, this prehistoric monument stands on England's Salisbury Plain, oriented toward the rising sun on the winter and summer solstices. Built between 3000-2000 BCE, it is surrounded by several hundred burial mounds. Its true purpose remains unknown.
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