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Iconic Buildings: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
The Great Pyramid
The Great Pyramid of Giza was built about 4,500 years ago for the pharaoh Khufu. For around 3,800 years it was the tallest human-made structure.
Key fact
It’s made of about 2.3 million stone blocks.
The Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. Many Parisians hated it at first, and it was only meant to stand for 20 years.
Key fact
It’s repainted about every 7 years, using around 60 tonnes of paint.
The Colosseum
Rome’s Colosseum opened in 80 CE. Up to about 50,000 spectators watched gladiator fights and public shows there.
Key fact
Tunnels under the arena hid animals and scenery until showtime.
The Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, is a white marble tomb built by the emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Work began in 1632.
Key fact
About 20,000 workers helped build it.
The Petronas Towers
Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers were the world’s tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004. A two-storey skybridge links the twin towers.
Key fact
Their floor plan is based on an eight-pointed Islamic star.
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House, with its sail-like shells, opened in 1973. Its Danish architect, Jørn Utzon, left the project in 1966 and never saw it finished.
Key fact
It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.
The Great Wall
The Great Wall of China is really many walls, built over some 2,000 years. All its sections together stretch over 21,000 km.
Key fact
You can’t see it from the Moon with the naked eye.
Fun facts
The Great Pyramid was once covered in smooth, polished white limestone that gleamed in the sun.
It was the tallest structure in the world until New York’s Chrysler Building passed it in 1930.
The Colosseum could be shaded by a huge canvas awning, the velarium, rigged by sailors.
The Taj Mahal’s four minarets lean slightly outwards, so in an earthquake they’d fall away from the tomb.
The Petronas skybridge isn’t rigidly fixed: it slides in and out of the towers as they sway in the wind.
The Opera House’s shells are covered in over a million white and cream tiles, made in Sweden.
Builders mixed sticky rice into the mortar of some Ming-era sections of the Great Wall.
Story: The Only Place in Paris
The Only Place in Paris
1887. As the tower starts to rise, dozens of artists and writers sign a furious protest against this “useless and monstrous” iron tower.
Writer Guy de Maupassant was one of them. Yet, so the story goes, he later ate lunch in the tower’s restaurant again and again.
His reason? It was the one place in Paris where he didn’t have to look at the tower.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
The Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for a pharaoh.
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True. For Khufu, a king of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty.
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Question 2 of 10
The Eiffel Tower was meant to be temporary.
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True. It was saved partly because it was useful as a radio antenna.
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Question 3 of 10
Gladiators fought in the Colosseum.
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True. Along with animal hunts and other public shows.
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Question 4 of 10
The Taj Mahal is a tomb.
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True. Shah Jahan built it for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
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Question 5 of 10
The Petronas Towers are in Malaysia.
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True. In Kuala Lumpur.
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Question 6 of 10
Jørn Utzon designed the Sydney Opera House.
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True. He won the design competition in 1957.
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Question 7 of 10
The Great Wall is visible from the Moon with the naked eye.
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False. A popular myth. It’s far too narrow.
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Question 8 of 10
The Great Pyramid is younger than the Eiffel Tower.
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False. It’s about 4,500 years old; the tower is from 1889.
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Question 9 of 10
The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1924 Olympics.
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False. It was built for the 1889 World’s Fair.
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Question 10 of 10
The Colosseum was built in the Middle Ages.
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False. It opened in 80 CE, in ancient Rome.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Iconic Buildings has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Giza, Rome, Agra, Sydney Opera House, the Great Wall
- Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel — official facts
- Burj Khalifa — official facts and figures
- China State Administration of Cultural Heritage — Great Wall survey (2012), via Britannica
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Imperial Palaces (Beijing), Machu Picchu, Chichen-Itza, Historic Areas of Istanbul, Petra, Piazza del Duomo Pisa
