The seventy architectural wonders of our world : amazing structures and how they were built / edited by Neil Parkyn.

Churches, mosques, temples & shrines.--Palaces & Castles.--Public and state buildings.--Towers & skycrapers.--Bridges, railways & tunnels.--Canals & dums.--Colossal statues.

Many of these structures presented in this book are the tallest, longest or largest of their kind, but sheer size alone does not necessarily make a building impressive. Aesthetic power is combined with structural virtuosity in the small chapel at Ronchamp in France or the temple of Byodo-in, Japan, with its beautifully elegant wooden roof. And the ability to harness or overcome the forces of nature, as seen in the Three Gorges Dam in China, or the Jungfrau Rail System in Switzerland, is equally spectacular. Some buildings, including Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and the Potala Palace in Lhasa, were constructed using traditional methods and materials, others represent the latest in computer-aided design and space-age technologies, such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and Kansai Airport in Japan. Built mostly for functional, mundane purposes, all these structures manage to transcend mere utility - they have changed landscapes and can encapsulate the identity of a city or a nation, becoming iconic forms that are instantly recognizable and infinitely memorable. Packed with factfiles, diagrams, reconstructions and spectacular photographs, The Seventy Architectural Wonders of Our World explains and celebrates these masterpieces of architecture, design and engineering.