00:00There are things that go together, like popcorn and movies,
00:04mornings and coffee, New York and the Statue of Liberty.
00:08I bet you can't imagine Paris without its Eiffel Tower,
00:12or India without its Taj Mahal of a stained white.
00:16But you may have to adapt to a new image of the world,
00:20because these emblematic monuments, and many others,
00:23will probably disappear in the next decades.
00:27Before jumping in a taxi to the airport, here is a list.
00:33The symbol of Paris has existed since 1899.
00:37The tower was not supposed to last centuries.
00:40It was planned to be dismantled 20 years later.
00:43For a lady of her age, this celebrity is doing pretty well.
00:48But as it is made of iron, its most dangerous enemy is corrosion.
00:53If we put the tower in a protective case, it would no longer be so beautiful.
00:58It is there, in the open air, exposed to water and air,
01:02and it slowly oxidizes.
01:05The authorities know this, but they are happy to repaint it every seven years.
01:11It was renovated for 65 million dollars before the Paris Olympics in 2024,
01:17but critics say it is not enough to solve the problem of rust.
01:21Another thing that bothers the tower is the wind, which makes it slightly vibrate.
01:26And then there is the sun, which heats the east, south and west faces of the tower one by one,
01:32and makes them inflate.
01:34At nightfall, they resume their initial state.
01:38Thus, the top of the tower follows an almost circular curve every 24 hours.
01:43Because of these movements, the metal of the structure weakens,
01:47and this could become a long-term problem.
01:50It's like folding an iron wire several times.
01:53At one point, it breaks.
01:57It took about 20 years and about 20,000 workers to complete one of the most beautiful constructions in the world.
02:04The Taj Mahal.
02:06It was supposed to have a twin brother in black, but the idea was quickly abandoned.
02:10Unfortunately, this is not the worst news about this marble beauty.
02:15Its demolition is the subject of debate.
02:18Indeed, one of the seven new wonders of the world could disappear because of the excess of vehicles,
02:24coal combustion, dust storms and forest fires that make the ambient air at least harmful.
02:30The white marble, formerly sparkling, has gradually lost its brightness
02:35and has changed color to take on various shades of yellow, brown and green.
02:40There is another problem.
02:42Thousands of small insects who appreciate the beauty of the Taj Mahal so much
02:46that they have chosen to make it their home.
02:49They come directly from the Yamuna River, which is not the cleanest in the world.
02:54And what they produce on a daily basis, namely their excrement, corrodes and stains the marble.
03:00The second problem is that the Supreme Court of India has threatened to close the site
03:05unless the authorities take measures to preserve this monument.
03:10I hope they will find a solution.
03:12Otherwise, what will 8 million tourists who come here every year to spend their holidays do?
03:19If you have ever been to Egypt, you must have at least one picture of you pretending to hold the legendary sphinx.
03:27No? Just me?
03:29Anyway, Gizeh's sphinx had already lost its nose.
03:33And we still don't know how or why it happened.
03:37And after centuries of erosion of its limestone,
03:40the famous giant could well disappear from our living.
03:45Because of its environment, the western part of the sphinx is subjected to a large natural flood of rainwater.
03:52Rainfalls are rare in Egypt, but it still rains from time to time.
03:57Water is not the only problem with the sphinx.
04:00As it is in the desert, the violent winds are also devastating.
04:05They cause the sandblasting of the monument.
04:07It is as if an invisible hand was gradually damaging its delicate and grainy surface.
04:13There is also groundwater.
04:15It infiltrates the porous rocks with the salt present in the soil.
04:19Humidity is not good for these massive constructions.
04:22The sphinx and the pyramids have survived for centuries.
04:26But if the elements clash with each other, these colossi will have no chance of winning.
04:33The Statue of Liberty has already undergone a major transformation since its first unveiling in 1886.
04:40Before, it was a bright brown color, like a penny.
04:4420 years later, it has become green.
04:47Lady Liberty is covered with hundreds of thin leaves of copper.
04:51When the copper is exposed to the air, it naturally forms a protective layer called gray glass.
04:58This is why statues and other objects made of copper, brass and bronze can last so long.
05:05When the statue became green for the first time, the authorities decided to repaint it.
05:11But the public did not like the idea.
05:14Experts confirmed that it should not be done, because removing the protective layer would destroy the statue.
05:20Lady Liberty always receives a good amount of rain, so that the chemical reactions continue.
05:26The polluted air around it only accelerates its reactions.
05:30The city of New York does what it can to protect its symbol.
05:34We will see if it will be enough to save it.
05:37When Machu Picchu in Peru was discovered for the first time in 1911, its explorer thought he had found the lost city of the Incas.
05:45Several decades later, it turned out that it was not the same city, but that does not take away its charm, does it?
05:52The stones that make up these buildings are carved with such precision and are packed so tightly that it is impossible to insert a credit card.
06:01This has allowed the city to avoid serious earthquakes, which are frequent in the region.
06:06The buildings dance under the effect of earthquakes and are put back in place.
06:10But there is another problem.
06:12The people.
06:13About 4,000 tourists come here every day and destroy the ruins on their way.
06:18Local authorities are trying to put an end to this by suspending visits to certain temples and structures.
06:24When the site was completely closed for a month, many inhabitants who depend on tourism got angry and rose up against this decision.
06:33They must therefore find a solution to save Machu Picchu without closing it.
06:38Hundreds of thousands of tourists are trying to get it back on track to take nice pictures.
06:44But can we really save the tower leaning from Pisa from a fatal fall?
06:48It began to tilt south shortly after the beginning of its construction, in the 12th century, due to the fragility of the ground under its foundations.
06:56This ground could not withstand the weight of the heavy white marble and began to crumble.
07:01These builders decided to show creativity and build each of the successive floors at a different angle to correct the inclination.
07:10But that was not enough.
07:11When three of the eight floors were finished, the inclination worsened so much that they had to interrupt the work to solve the problem.
07:19When the tower was finally ready, it tilted by 1.6 degrees.
07:24Almost three centuries later, an architect who worked on the tower wanted to show the world the magnificent sculptures at the base of the building.
07:33He shouldn't have done it, because it made the construction lean like never before.
07:38In the middle of the 20th century, while the tower was already leaning by 5.5 degrees,
07:43the Italian authorities decided that it was no longer funny and invited experts to save it from a definitive fall.
07:51They had the idea of extracting the earth from the foundations north of the tower to straighten it.
07:57This method worked and allowed to pull the tower in the opposite direction of the inclination.
08:03The team had to repeat the process for several years, in 41 different places.
08:10I will probably have given up after the third place.
08:13I have no patience.
08:15In May 2008, the tower finally straightened up and was finally immobilized.
08:21Experts think it will hold for a while, but if a powerful earthquake occurs, its future may be bleak.
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