10 Surprising Facts About World's Greatest Landmarks

  • 11 years ago
Learn 10 surprising facts about the world's most recognized landmarks.

Our world has many great landmarks. Here are some surprising facts about them.

Number 10 - The statue of Liberty functioned as a lighthouse for 16 years on orders from president Grover Cleveland.

Number 9 - Eiffel Tower, the honeymooners delight needs constant attention. To prevent rust, it requires approximately 50 tons of paint every 7 years.

Number 8 - The Great Wall of China was referred to as “the longest cemetery on earth” due to the vast number of people who died building it. It reportedly took the lives of nearly 1 million people.

Number 7 - One man's slightly immodest tribute to his wife, Taj Mahal took 22 years to build. During the construction, over 1,000 elephants were used to transport materials.

Number 6 - Big Ben, without which London would not be London, leans towards the northwest by a little over 8.5 inches.

Number 5 - San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge is known across the world. But few people may be aware that there's about 80,000 miles of wire in the two main cables.

Number 4 - The Acropolis of Athens, which rises nearly 500 feet above the sea level, was initially built for defense purposes.

Number 3 - The Grand Canyon, formed millions of years ago, has 800 million gallons of water flowing through it - not per month or per day but shockingly per hour.

Number 2 - Rome's Colosseum, the site of deadly gladiator games, witnessed the slaughtering of 9,000 animals during its inaugural games in 80 AD.

Number 1 - The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is currently the world’s tallest building. It also happens to be the building with the world’s fastest elevators.

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