Catacombs of Kom el-Shuqafa, Alexandria, Egypt

Catacombs of Kom el-Shuqafa 



Tomb dating back to the 2nd century AD, the impressive architectural achievements of the three levels, three levels of tombs reached a depth of 100 feet. Ancient Egyptian imagery with the Greek - Roman-themed décor is a unusual combination: a relief wall sculpture, the jackal-headed Egyptian god Anubis Roman soldiers in uniform.

Alexander modeled in the Roman catacombs, and for the first time to create a single wealthy family.

The dead included a picnic traditional (and it is still common family lunch, visit dead relatives). "To carry out" does not apply to it is considered bad luck, plates and cups bring to life the life. A room on the second level of the tomb was found broken pottery shards morbid diet.

Coober Pedy, Australia

Coober Pedy



Well, almost all of Coober Pedy in South Australia's opal mining town of population 3,500. The town's name comes from a mispronunciation of Aboriginal phrase meaning "the whites a hole." The outdoor temperature climbing above 120 degrees, most of the residents living in the underground rock carved into the home. Shops, churches, hotels, even the swimming pool, so that air unnecessary.

The first opal is found in rose-colored sandstone town soon became the opal capital of the world in 1915. Discharged World War I soldiers came looking for their big break, and will sleep in shelters. The birth of the underground life.

Underground City, Montreal, Canada

Underground City



At first glance, Montreal did not appear overcrowded, but maybe this is because everyone in the ground. More than four and a half square miles made ​​the second city is the world's largest underground complex, with 4,350 hotel rooms, 2,727 apartments, 930 retailers, 68 subway stations, 9 Fitness Centre, 3 skating ice rink, two libraries , and a small church.

Know the cruel winter in Montreal, so broke ground in 1962, while the city's first subway, underground shopping malls, the idea was born.

"If you live in one of the apartments on the ground floor, you can take the subway to work, come back, do your shopping ",said by the manager of the Montreal Tourism Bureau.
"You can spend a week down there to put your nose out of."

Mammoth Cave, Cave City, Kentucky

Mammoth Cave



The longest cave in the world. Over the years, the "mummy" has been found in prehistoric cave explorers. The discovery of the first recorded in 1935, with the body fixed next six tons of heavy boulders. In the mid-19th century, the doctor who (incorrectly) that the wet conditions may be a remedy for tuberculosis, to open the cave sanatorium.

From tributaries Part 365 miles of underground caves formed over 10 million years ago, the cave continue to form even today. Under the tunnel constant atmospheric conditions, combined with the saline soil and sun, who met their death corpse stored beneath the surface.

Aaron, the most famous cave explorer, was brought to the cave in 1838 as a slave. He is the first decline in the five levels of the cave, the surface 360 ​​feet below, and scientific discoveries eyeless Kentucky cave fish still swimming in the waters.

Wieliczka Salt Mine, Wieliczka, Poland

Wieliczka Salt Mine Wieliczka



Salt continuing this 13-century salt mine turned into museums, concert halls, and spa. Grandiose salt the 300 burning candle chandeliers cast a shadow of Pope John Paul II, a life-size rock salt sculptures and carvings on the wall, Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper".

From the Middle Ages, the residents of Wieliczka, Poland, the local natural resources, salt may be a profitable commodity. In its working life, the lives of many people, with 1072 feet in the mine's 186-mile-long tunnel below the surface.

Tourism began in the 14th century mine. A guest book, still in use today, including Copernicus, Goethe, and of George · H · W · President Bush's signature.

Cu Chi Tunnels Near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Cu Chi Tunnels



75-mile tunnel of the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong used to live. In 1988, the Government of Vietnam to the section of the tunnel into a tourist attraction, more than one million people, local and foreign information, please visit annually.

During the war, the the Vietcong dug an elaborate 250-mile-long network of tunnels hidden guerrilla fighters. Located in Ho Chi Minh City, the tunnels as a hidden base, dormitories, hospitals, kitchens, conference rooms Tet offensive plan. The tunnel severely bait trapped, and a special team of American soldiers called "tunnel rat" exploration and removal difficult thankless work.

Once you appear from the tunnel, you can taste the taro cooked the Vietcong diet staple, and then went to a nearby shooting range, shooting a dollar a bullet AK-47 or M16.

Basilica Cistern Istanbul, Turkey

Basilica Cistern Istanbul



Istanbul to eighty-two feet is a 450 feet long, 213 feet wide, the former royal reservoir. The The engineering feat Byzantine architectural ruins of the 336 does not match the column reservoir built by Constantine the Great in the 4th century AD, who conquered

Constantinople fell in 1453, the Ottoman Empire, the water tank is forgotten, in addition to the residents sitting at the top of their house. Then looking for Byzantine antiques by the French in 1545, it briefly re-introduced into their daily lives, but it fell into disrepair and not used again until 1987, when it was as a tourist attraction re-opened.

Stone Medusa head from the site of an ancient pagan stolen, used in construction, is placed in a disrespectful fashion upside and mark in their right builders in one of the Christian faith.

The Greenbrier Bunker White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

The Greenbrier Bunker White Sulphur Springs



A top-secret government maintained underground bunker built during the Cold War, more than 30 years of high-end Greenbrier Hotel following hidden fallout shelters of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Two football field-sized level held 1,100 bunk beds, a fully stocked canteen and medical clinics, and television studios.

In 1956, "secret" letter is sent to the owner of the Greenbrier government members on their personal architect, and notify him of their plans to establish. In 1992, the Government Relocation Facility "Washington Post Magazine cover exposure, three years after the expiry of the lease, it is open to the public.

Government-funded construction began shortly after the bunker Greenbrier Valley Airport and Interstate 64. Today, they benefit locals and tourists.

Dambulla Cave Temple, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

Dambulla Cave Temple



Hundreds of gilded Buddha statue, about 50 feet long, sit, stand, and lie beneath 21,000 ft2 brocade-like cave paintings depicting the Buddha and his life. Ganesh God Vishnu statue camouflage pilgrims come to worship every day with fresh garlands.

The hands of the five chamber side of the rock cave temple carved out of the 22 centuries ago by Buddhist monks, this monastery has been in continuous use. Because of his savior, for 14 years, between the Tibetan monks in the power of the 1st century BC, and then return an exiled king, Hutchison entered into the temple, which is today the cave.

Later the king to do the same, add the statue and pay for the protection of the temple, the royalties stopped to help an unknown donor strengthen refurbished in 1915 and the worsening of the paintings and sculptures.

The Ice Caves, Grants, New Mexico

The Ice Caves



Badlands in New Mexico, carved by lava path led to from the Bandra volcano in a cave, where the temperature never reached above 31 degrees Fahrenheit tourists. For the 20-foot-thick ice floor, and a strange green algae and exudes.

No one knows how to form the start, but the ice began about 3400 years ago, accumulated in the spot. The early settlers flocked lorry filled with sawdust "Desert Ice Box", so that they can take home ice.

Local car, literally at the same time as a cold beer, now the Ice Caves trading company, to use the display with 1,200-year-old stone tools Anasazi Indians.

Caltrans 7 District Headquarters Replacement Building, Los Angeles

A cumbersome name and less than charming functionality bureaucrats plan freeway repairs in the 13-floor office, Mayne silver hulk ventilation and fantastic feeling.

Eco-friendly introduction to some of the state-of-the-art attraction: southern wall covered with photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity. And the West has double the thickness of the glass, the interior temperature than single-pane, thus avoiding the need for more air conditioning.

The public can not go upstairs, but there is a ground-floor restaurant a cafe start, which provides reusable cutlery instead of disposable plates sandwich.

Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain

Guggenheim Bilbao



The first time I saw the the Bilbao Guggenheim rippling titanium walls in 1997, is a game-changing. Never painting monotonous corridors. In fact, from the Denver Museum, Davenport, Iowa, trying to set off the "Bilbao effect", so they modified buildings may become instant landmarks.

Bilbao has also spawned a "star chitect," Gehry has become an overnight hero worship of objects. Since then, the developers of apartments, office buildings and power plants have been rushed to hire star chitects approval, sales of their high-wattage products.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday; Tickets are $ 10.

BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany

BMW Central Building



Modernism is a trend, there is no sign at low tide, what else are those ubiquitous glass curtain wall of the apartment, but need to Philip Johnson's 1949 Glass House?
The current design still seems keen factory BMW Central Building, its mass production of goods reflects the basic aesthetic of modernism. But Hadid dessert, which weave the three islands workshop seems less mechanical than organic.
Lands smooth contour along the edge of the skin. Tear-shaped concrete piers below the similar bones. Quickly van frame overhead conveyor may be blood vessels.

You can visit it by appointment, Monday through Friday, and occasionally on Saturdays. $ 154, a 30-person team.

China Central Television Headquarters, Beijing

China Central Television Headquarters



The two 55-layer layout is the same. Only the Pentagon is a large office building.

Even in the country to promote the building boundary, which seems to make it the dazzled unique square donuts. In the fall of next year, visitors can stand on the glass plate in the the cantilever floor and disposable stare 500 feet of street (although open has been postponed at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, next door to push the fire back in February). "Amidst all the skyscrapers, which is relatively low, said:" Koolhaas in 2006. Will feel that access."

11 Fuxing Road, is under construction, but to look at from the street. Tourism may kick off, it will open.

de Young Museum, San Francisco

de Young Museum



Some architects try deposited the metal two nails. 4-year-old youth, they skipped the traditional glass and steel, 950,000 pounds of perforated copper, fog also does not turn green.
Chunky basil, which rises from the palm of your hand in brown tones of the Golden Gate Park (Golden Gate Park), proposed a Mayan temple. Rooms, also buck convention, a large number of non-linear surface of the Hudson River School landscape.
Brush and ferns, the windows of the courtyard, which emphasizes the lush setting.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday; Tickets are $ 10.

Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany

Jewish Museum



Although the focus of the grim Holocaust can be understood, the Jewish Museum in Berlin in 2001, another carnival logic of the fun house.
There distorted hall, the tilt of the floor, the windows of the room diagonal seam. "Exile Garden outside" 49 olive trees breakthrough, columns tilted 12 degrees sideways bluntly pointed out that by adding the wall, from the Star of David above the recommended pieces.
Confuse the desired effect, according to the Libeskind design, echoes of World War II, the Jews, and then transported to the death camps feel.

Open daily from ten o'clock, the entrance fee for adults is 6$.

Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar

Museum of Islamic Art



Packed with 1200 the sextant, silk carpet, elaborate details of the pitcher, the Islamic Art Museum is committed to only 10% of its space gallery.
What is open, like a tiny circular skylight of a soaring evoke a Cairo mosque stone building is modeled after the break through 164 feet atrium. In addition to the crazy part of the construction of high-rise buildings in Doha regional development, the museum clean, elements of the masses, to evoke the earlier Middle East seems quaint.

Open daily from 10:30. Tickets are free.

Turning Torso, Malmo, Sweden

Turning Torso



Frank Lloyd Wright used some speculation, in order to ensure that the water does not drop the computer to do the heavy lifting. They also allow farfetched used to work in the form of, may be just on paper, such as the 2005 building, which makes the genre defying 90 degrees clockwise rotation as it rises.
Like many recent vision to change the structure, the Turning Torso combination of a mixed-use, it is a sure way to get funded development; fact, in the 656 - foot-high rise, Scandinavian peninsula, work harder, office floors 1 through 10, and the apartment above them, the internal commuting.

Tourism, 30 talks will be the 7th floor (free, reserved). Have an interactive exhibit, there are restaurants in the mall next door tower.

The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City

The New Museum of Contemporary Art


Bust in the current building boom in New York, perhaps unparalleled in Western cities.
Breaking the traditional use of local talent, the city also signed overseas architects, fresh look, like the Japanese team, 174 feet of its metal box of six off-center heap no obvious companion.

The new museum, gallery to avoid window walls to maximize space, so that more art. Brick and terracotta near visible from the 7th floor of the terrace, emphasizing the building of fish and water status.

Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan

Taipei 101



Over the years, like many eastern Asia, Taiwan, shunned skyscrapers over worries earthquakes or typhoons may overthrow them. However, the new, high-grade mineral spots of concrete, allowing buildings to grow tall, fully utilized without sacrificing strength, dart in 2004. Taipei 101 at 1667 feet, is the tallest building on earth, and will be maintained, until Burj Dubai debut in late 2009.

The STORE fill the lower level, but lots of reasons. 89 of the world's fastest elevator floor to see the pendulum of a Volkswagen Beetle size to maintain the buildings shaking.

Auditório Ibirapuera, Sao Paolo, Brazil

Auditório Ibirapuera


Auditorium Ibirapuera is the idea of the United Nations co-designer in the 1951 St. Paul's 400th anniversary, but it did not complete until 2005, $ 12.8 million of funds materialized.
(Fortunately, Niemeyer saw all this, he is now 101 years old.)
Modernity, however, is not tempered the construction of alternative, utopian spirit.

With the the housekeeping shape and swing tongue red metal marquee, the venue also features a 60-foot-wide back panel can be opened in order to free outdoor concerts.

St. Mary Axe, London

St. Mary Axe



In recent years, London has to maintain a low building, but building such gleaming office buildings, nicknamed "cucumber" cucumber size exudes gorgeous. Two different shades of blue diagonal stripes band running almost 41 St. Mary's a point in the story, it is the length of the taper. Triangular pane, approximately 260,000 square feet of glass to form a fascinating mosaic of a class. And workers can crank the open breeze has won this edifice is green, too.

The spiers of white-tablecloth restaurant is open only to field work. However, anyone can toast the bar on the first floor of the building in the drink.

The Empire State Building, New York City,Usa

The Empire State Building



The 80-year-old, 102 landmark (the highest in the world, until the World Trade Center in the 1972 theft of its title) a new, higher tower is an unrivaled position in the middle of Manhattan. 86th floor observation deck with an outdoor promenade, so that visitors feel immersed in the sights of New York City, sounds and smells.
Yes, you can pay $ 15 extra, and continue to 102, section 86 is really better.

CN Tower, Toronto

CN Tower



Toronto's famous TV tower, 1815 feet high, is the tallest structure in the world (higher than the tallest skyscraper) come until the Burj Dubai. This is the original glass floor of the observation deck, and 2.56 million square feet, installed in the home in 1994. But unlike reef in Chicago, where you can clearly see the things of the support structure.
In 2008, North America's first glass floor elevator. Line to deck level 1136 feet, it is also the world's highest glass-bottomed elevator.

SkyTower, Auckland, New Zealand

SkyTower



Sky Tower, 1076 feet "New Zealand's tallest man-made structure," does not hold any world record, but it is two high adrenaline attractions: Skyjump sentinel skydiving opportunity to safely connect to the wire, and the skyof the city, visiting the shopping tower pergola, comfortable to use and tethered to an overhead railway.
Similar pedestrian bridge is a bungee jumping tower in Sydney, Australia, Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre in China.

International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong

International Commerce Centre,



The skyline above 100, this newly built 108-storey tower (currently the world's fourth highest), will give visitors the opportunity to look back at the Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon side. The deck opened after 2010, you can skip the multimedia exhibition and tourists resource center. The thing here is that the forward-looking city, one simple, the world's most spectacular panoramic views.
Try to access the sky on Christmas Day, the Hong Kong office are decorated with multi-storey holiday lights 100.

Grand Canyon Skywalk, Arizona

Grand Canyon Skywalk



Whose idea was it?
Cantilever, the western margin of the Grand Canyon of the method, about 4,000 feet below the Colorado River, it can be said that the U-shaped glass bridge is the highest observation deck in the world. This, of course, is the most exciting one.
The deck visitors must wear their shoes paper slippers, glass to prevent scratches.

Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai

Shanghai World Financial Center


1555 feet up on the 100th floor of Shanghai World Financial Center, the top layer of the three-tier Observatory, is still the highest in the world.
Architecture lovers will like the fact that it spans the building's most notable features rectangular gap, the entire building like a giant bottle opener.

The Willis (formerly Sears) Tower, Chicago

The Willis Tower



Think, how do you let a 37-year-old skyscraper, has not been since 1998, the highest observation deck in the world?
You attach a series of the brilliant glass terrible box, collectively referred to as the window sill, the ancient Skydeck observation deck. You stand to support the illusion of the 103 stories above the ground, is a real crowd pleasing.
Inbox hung from a mobile steel frame, so that they can be retracted into the building, the window washbasin.

Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Burj Khalifa



To note that in the latest (about 2717 feet), the tallest building in the world is called the viewing platform at the top, it's not. This is 163 to 124.
It provides a lot of double height window, an open-air balconies, as well as unparalleled perspective, which tend to make a real architectural models on display over the town of Dubai looks very much like you see.
Buy tickets online, well in advance, if you would like to visit at sunset. A special $ 108 ticket, you can cut line.

Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower, Guangzhou, China

Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower


Expected to open to the public in November, this amazing thin, surprisingly high (2,001 feet), the tower has two main functions: support TV antenna and tourists a good time.

Attractions include guided by the structural steel, layered sunbathing in the jungle along the winding stairs to climb up to 600 feet of open-air exhausted climbers point of view bench rest, is the world's tallest Ferris wheel.