Wonders of World Architecture

St. Peter’s Basilica, the Taj Mahal, the Topkapi Palace, the Sydney Opera House, the Hoover Dam—the world’s greatest structures capture the imagination, whether they are places of worship, palaces of pleasure, skyscrapers, bridges, dams, or colossal statues. Many of these structures are the tallest, longest, or largest of their kind, but sheer size alone does not make a building impressive: one finds aesthetic power combined with structural virtuosity in the small chapel at Ronchamp in France or the temple of Byodo-in near Kyoto, with its elegant wooden roof.