26. The Houses of
Parliament were the
residence of the Kings of England
from the 11th to the 16th Century.
The Great Hall is the only surviving
medieval element and today it is
used by Parliament and other public
bodies.
27. The Westminster
complex was destroyed
by fire in 1834 and
replaced by the present
building, which was designed by Sir
Charles Barry. The most striking
parts of Barry's design are the
river front and the 97m clock tower
famous for its bell, its unique
chimes and its precise timing.
28. About 4,500 years ago
there lived in Cairo,
Cheops, a king of Egypt.
This king wanted to build a tomb
where he was to be buried and he
wanted this tomb to be the biggest
in the world and so it was. The body
of the pharaoh was brought by boat
down to the river Nile to be
29. buried in this great
tomb. The Egyptians
believed in eternal life
after death and this
could only be enjoyed if the body
was preserved. So they developed
the art of making mummies that
would lie in tombs built to last
forever. This tomb is one of about
70 in Egypt still remaining today.
30. The city of Rome has
always been famous for
its magnificent buildings. The
Romans built fine towns and
beautiful roads, palaces and large
squares. They loved sports and so
in the year 80 A.D. they built an
impressive oval arena surrounded by
31. stone seats which could
hold 50,000 people. It
was used for holding
gladiator combats wild
animal fights and other shows. We
can still see the remains of this old
beautiful building where so many
races were held and where so many
people lost their life.
32. Rising over the city of
Paris, on the left side of
the river Seine, stands an iron
construction which is the symbol of
the French capital. It is a 300m
high tower designed and built by
the French engineer Gustave Eiffel
in the year 1889. This iron frame
33. was built on four piers
and there are three
platforms at different
levels. Each platform
can be reached either by stairways
or by elevators. A TV transmission
antenna is located at the top of the
tower.
34. A line of earth and brick
fortifications that
extends 2,400km across
northern China from the Gulf of
Chihli to Kansu Province. In the
late 3rd century BC the first
continuous wall was built by linking
earlier sections. This demarcates
Chinese territory It was only
35. partially effective in
preventing invasions
from the north. Troops,
summoned by
watchtower beacons, could race
quickly along the top to fight any
invader. Nowadays, gates through
the wall near Beijing became
centres of trade and of
contact with northern nomads.
36. The first men in the
Maltese Islands used to
worship the goddess of fertility.
They made statues and built
temples in the shape of a fat lady,
where they could worship their
goddess. It is extraordinary how
these first men, as early as 3000
37. B.C., managed to build
such places with
enormous huge rocks,
weighing approximately
50 tons, without any machines to
help them. These sites are today
visited by a large number of
tourists and are considered as sites
of national and world heritage.
38. This is Sydney's most
famous building. It is
the work of the Danish architect
Jorn Utzon. It sits on a promontory
extending into the Harbour and
resembles a series of immense,
wind-filled sails. It was opened in
1973 and described as 'the biggest
39. environmental site-specific
structure south
of the Equator'. It is
the performing arts
centre of Sydney, Australia. It
contains a large concert hall for the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, a
theatre for opera and ballet, a
smaller theatre for plays, a cinema
and recording studios.
40. Perhaps the most
graceful temples of the
ancient world were those
built by the Greeks with rows of
perfectly balanced columns. In the
Greek city of Athens, on a hill about
150m high known as the Acropolis,
lies the temple of Athena the
goddess of wisdom. Made of white
41. marble the temple was
completed in the year
432 B.C. and remained in
good condition until 1687
when it was damaged by an explosion.
Today this temple is no longer for
the worship of ancient gods. Instead
its remains are crowded with tourists
who came to learn a little about life
long ago.
42. Standing at the entrance
of New York Harbour is
a colossal statue. It has
the form of a woman wearing
flowing robes and a spiked crown on
her head. It holds a torch in her
right hand and carries in her left
one a book on which is written July
4,1776. The 46m high statue was
43. designed by Gustave
Eiffel and sculpted by
Frederic Bartholdi. The
statue was given by the
French Government to the
Americans in the year 1886 to
commemorate the 100th
anniversary of America's
independence.
44. It is one of the most
famous buildings in the
world. A white marble
mausoleum in Agra, India, located on
the Jumna River. It was built
between the years 1632 and 1643 by
the emperor Shah Jahan in memory
of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
It is regarded as one of the finest
45. example of Mogul
architecture. It is a
domed building laid in
perfect symmetry with
an area of 29 square meters. The
unique qualities of this monument lie
in the magnificent contrast between
the white marble facade of the
mausoleum and the red sandstone
of the surrounding buildings.