Buildings

Fun Facts About Buildings

• The Parthenon in Greece is not perfectly straight. The columns curve slightly to correct optical illusions and make the building look perfectly symmetrical.
• Completed in 80 AD, Rome's Colosseum could hold around 50,000–80,000 spectators and even hosted mock naval battles by flooding the arena floor.
  
• The dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City was designed in part by Michelangelo, who was nearly 72 when he took on the project.
• After the White House was burned during the War of 1812, it was rebuilt and painted with a lime-based whitewash, then later with white lead paint, which helped cement its name.
• The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles contains 357 mirrors that face 17 glass doors overlooking the gardens. Completed in 1684, this was a huge luxury at a time when mirrors were extremely expensive.
• The Eiffel Tower in Paris was originally built as a temporary exhibit for the 1889 World's Fair. It was intended to stand for only 20 years and was almost dismantled in 1909. But it was saved because it proved useful as a radio antenna.
  
• The famous gargoyles on the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral in France are not just decorative. They function as rain spouts to direct water away from the stone walls.
• Completed around 126 AD, the Pantheon in Rome features a 142 foot diameter concrete dome. It remains the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world nearly 2,000 years after it was built.